Opening statement to the Senate Inquiry by AJA

Ms Gauthier-A Just Australia represents over 13,000 Australians who believe our country can do more to achieve just and compassionate treatment of refugees consistent with the human rights standards that Australia has developed and endorsed. Today I seek leave to present you with a petition signed by more than 30,000 Australians who ask you not to support this proposed legislation.

In our submission we looked at the values of our community and applied those to this proposed law. In particular, we looked at the values for Australian schooling developed by this Howard government. Values were listed such as care and compassion, integrity, respect, a fair go and responsibility. We believe that this proposed law provides a test of these values and, in particular, a test of the integrity of every federal parliamentarian. After all, integrity is about being prepared to stand by your values, particularly when it may be difficult to do so.

It is our view that, as individual parliamentarians and as a Senate committee, you cannot believe in these values listed and still support this law. That is why we challenge each of you, our elected representatives: if you support this proposed legislation, explain to Australians how this law supports the values by which this government wants us all to live. The simple fact is that you will not be able to. For example, how does having different levels of rights depending on your method of arrival in Australia meet the test of a fair go? How does punishing innocent and vulnerable men, women and children for the sake of appeasing another country meet the test of integrity? This law offends fundamental Australian values and will leave those who support it with no claim to integrity. It will render Australian values empty and will leave our nation diminished.

The evidence presented to this inquiry by a number of organisations shows that international law will be breached, that children will be detained, that conditions on Nauru are inadequate to the point of appalling, that there will be no oversight of government actions and no appeals processes protecting rights, and that resettlement options will not be found, leading to the indefinite detention of proven refugees. And the latest in a long line of bureaucratic spin-doctoring from DIMA has been that the Nauru facility is not a detention centre at all.

In our submission we looked at three main issues: the diplomatic outcomes sought by this policy and whether they will be achieved, a comparison of offshore asylum versus onshore detention policies, and whether this law meets the values that the Australian community holds. This law will not achieve the desired results as a political solution. Indonesia was offended that Australian government officials granted protection to West Papuans. Until Indonesia stops human rights abuses in West Papua, Australian immigration officials will still have to make diplomatically embarrassing decisions, be they made on the Australian mainland or on Nauru.

We looked at the key principles of onshore detention policies and analysed how those principles could be applied in an offshore setting. Although we believe that this policy should not go ahead, for a multitude of reasons, we came up with a key list of issues that need to be addressed before offshore programs can hope to come close to acceptable Australian standards.

Looking at the recent detention reforms, these show important principles that the government has accepted: that children should not be detained; that detention should be humane; that indefinite detention can be rectified with community release; and that, most importantly, Australian people have a basic right to know what our government is doing in our names. To guarantee this right for Australian citizens, the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the Human Rights Commissioner have powers to oversee conditions of detention and the duration of detention. Our submission shows that these basic principles will be difficult to meet on Christmas Island and will be impossible to meet on Nauru.

This law goes so far that it will make us look back with nostalgia on the good old days when we detained children on the Australian mainland. This is not just the opinion of A Just Australia. We would like to seek leave to put into evidence this petition from GetUp! that has been signed by over 30,000 Australians who oppose this bill. Each and every one of them has been prepared to stand up for basic Australian values. On their behalf, we invite our parliament to do the same.

-- Kate Gauthier National Coordinator http://www.ajustaustralia.comJune 2006