Lot's Wife Edition 6 2015

POLITICS 15
The Past, Present and Future Problems:
The story of ‘boat politics’ in Australia
BY HAREESH MAKAM
Since the turn of the century, the asylum seeker issue in
Australia has become a controversial and gripping problem,
which has for the most part created media frenzy. The
international community has shown themselves to be
incapable of addressing this issue and therefore it has
fallen at the feet of many national governments which all
adopt differing policies. Granted, it is a complicated topic
for states mainly because of the difficulty countries face
in balancing the humanitarian responsibility they have to
legitimate refugees as well as the economic interests of
controlling population growth and public welfare spending.
However, in this country the politics of dealing with this issue
has been both successful and disastrous. Therefore, it is
only appropriate to discuss this by venturing into the past,
analyzing the present and identifying future obstacles.
To tackle the growing asylum seeker concern, the Howard
government implemented the Pacific Solution, which
involved defence forces intercepting refugee boats off the
coast of Australia and placing them within detention centres
in Nauru and Papua New Guinea, where they would await
processing to determine their refugee status. According
to government documents this policy led to a substantial
decrease in boat arrivals. In the seven years, before the
Pacific Solution there were 14,565 boat arrivals to Australia.
In the seven years after, there were only 288 arrivals. This
shows an 80% reduction in boats and possible deaths at
sea. Furthermore, this policy allowed the number of people
in detention to reduce because boat arrivals were drastically
slowing down and processing was becoming quicker and
more efficient. By the time Howard left office there were
only 400 people in immigration detention compared to the
more than 3000 who were there when the Pacific solution
was implemented. Once Labor returned to government
they scrapped these policies saying that they were ‘costly
and ineffective.’ The ‘compassionate immigration policy’
introduced by Labor was seen as being too weak and enticed
people smugglers to send hundreds of asylum seekers on
leaky, crudely constructed boats to Australia. By January
2012, there were over 13,000 people in immigration detention
in this country. It is estimated that 1,200 people died while
attempting to reach Australia by boat. You could say that
by repealing effective immigration policies the Labor
government under Rudd and Gillard ‘encouraged’ the deaths
of these people. If it wasn’t for parliamentary privilege, in
normal circumstances, these governments would have been
charged with more than a thousand counts of manslaughter.
But alas, those who died will never receive justice.
Enter, the Abbott era. The Liberal Party won the 2013 Federal
election on the promise to ‘stop the boats’. Regardless of
whether you agree with the policy or not, it is one of the few
promises that Abbott has come through on in an otherwise
torrid term that has seen his popularity plummet. The
introduction of Operation sovereign borders has stopped
boat arrivals into this country by dissuading people
smugglers to send asylum seekers to this country. That has
in turn stopped drowning and death at sea and has made it
easier for offshore detention centers to process the existing
asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus Island. As a result, the
number of people in immigration detention in Australia and
offshore has reduced by more than 50% to less than 6000
and the number of children in detention has reduced by 90%.
On paper, the government has seemingly solved this issue
and it is almost a certainty that the number of people in
detention will come to zero if these policies are retained by
future governments. Should the Prime Minister be praised for
this?
The short answer is a resounding ‘no’. The media has
continued to attack Abbott for his successes in regards
to this issue because of the fact that he is desperately
unpopular and has more or less become ‘the public punching
bag.’ It even got to the point where the Human Rights
Commission, in November 2014 introduced the National
Inquiry into Immigration detention, which criticized the
government for their handling of this issue.
The past and present have been difficult times for Australia
in regards to boat politics. However, by now we should have
learnt that it is tough border laws, which stop drowning at
sea and ensures that immigration into this country grows
not through illegitimate but legal channels. That can only
be beneficial for this country. However, media attacks stand
in our way from achieving effective immigration laws. I’m
fearful, that a government lacking in political will will repeal
the Abbott government’s effective policies. If this happens
then it will show that we have not learnt on this issue. It is
time for us to start teaching the international community
how to run effective immigration policies, instead of being
lectured to by those with a political agenda.
Hareesh Makam is a member of the Liberal Party