The ABC is reporting that the United Nation High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has warned the Australian Government that the Malaysian refugee swap deal may result to “arbitrary and unlawful detention under international law.”
Australia is saying they will go ahead with the deal anyway, and are currently looking for a third country to take refugees. I’m very disappointed with this news, as we are very clearly saying “we don’t care about international law.” Considering that its international law that governs human rights, and how we treat asylum seekers I’m worried that we may set a precedent for us to do worse things to asylum seekers. Continue reading “Malaysia deal amounts to “arbitary and unlawful detention””→
A government is responsible for infrastructure. Not only the building of new infrastructure, but the maintenance and regular upgrading of old infrastructure to suit the needs of the population. A national broadband network, such as the one the government is currently building, is essential to cater for the needs of the population now and into the future. A fiber network has already been proven to be significantly upgradeable with minimal change to the existing infrastructure once the fiber is in place. This is why if I was prime minister, I would continue this process.
Refugees
Refugees is a hot topic at the moment. It is one that requires clear thought, and compassion on both sides of the debate. Personally, I believe that off-shore detention centres are a violation of human rights, as we are detaining these people when they have not committed any breeches of the law.
However, I can also see the need for there to be some kind of fact checking process to ensure that those we let into society are indeed refugees. This process needs to be completed as quickly as possible.
If we are to detain asylum seekers, we need to have a deadline by which time a decision must be made. The main thing that has caused so much mental health issues within detained asylum seekers is often not the detention itself, but the uncertainty in how long they will be detained for a crime that doesn’t exist. We need to ensure that all claims are processed quickly – say, within six months – and if that is not possible, then we recruit more staff to ensure that it is possible.
Also, I would promote as Prime Minister a scheme where once an initial assessment is made, every asylum seeker is sent into community detention. Community detention is not only far better for the asylum seeker, as it also helps them settle into the community, but it is also far cheaper for the Australian government than off-shore detention.
Investing in renewable energy
Renewable energy sources such as wind, water, solar and others are not at the stage where they could replace coal completely. However, we would be foolish to assume that coal and gas will remain a viable source of power into the future. Eventually, we will mine all of the coal, oil and gas, and need to find another source.
It is therefore a smart idea to develop existing and potential renewable energy technologies to not only prolong the amount of time we have until coal runs out, but also to eventually replace coal when it does run out.
Is there a lot of work to do to get it to this stage? Absolutely. However it would be foolish not to act on this now.
So that’s three things I would focus on if I was Prime Minister. What would your three things be?
There’s lots of talk at the moment about Asylum Seekers, as both political parties released policies to “stop the boats” of asylum seekers, and how they are treated. Both of the policies include mandatory detention, locking up asylum seekers while their claims are processed.
While I can understand why this is necessary to ensure security, the method in which this is done has drawn criticism. Currently, refugees are sent to Christmas Island, to be held in a detention centre which is, in all senses of the word, a high security prison. The asylum seekers are kept here until their claim is approved, in which they get moved to the main land, or declined, in which case they are deported back to their homeland.
Where this plan is currently failing is that asylum seekers can be held in detention for months on end, in a high security prison, on an island where there is no fresh food available, with no guarantee upon when they will know whether they will get out of the centre – either into Australia or back home. Without that guarantee, they run into mental breakdowns, mental scarring that will affect the rest of their lives.
The craziest aspect of all of this is that the politicians believe this policy change will deter asylum seekers from coming to Australia via boat. However, our policy changes make absolutely no difference on what asylum seekers think, mainly because the news doesn’t get through to them, and conditions in their home country are so bad that anything – even detention in a high security prison are much more preferable.
The solution to this situation is to remove the politics from this issue, for the two major parties to sit down and develop a humane policy for asylum seekers that will treat them like human beings, while still being secure about who enters Australia.
The way I think this will look like is establishing a deadline by which a decision must be made on the status of an asylum seeker. While I would prefer that to be along the lines of 3 months, more likely it will be 6 months. If there are too many claims to be processed, then more workers should be employed to process these claims in the time required. Setting this time period will give asylum seekers the knowledge of when their claim will be processed by, and also ensure that detention centers do not get overcrowded.
Ben Clapton 