John Menadue. From Pearls & Irritations, John Menadue’s blog. For many years senior journalists have been telling us, or at least accepting the spin, that conservatives are better economic managers. I don’t think there is evidence to back that claim as several writers have pointed out in this blog. The other area where many […]
Travers Mcleod, Peter Hughes, Sriprapha Petcharamesree, Steven Wong, Tri Nuke Pudjiastuti. From Pearls & Irritations, John Menadue’s blog. Part 1. The Andaman Sea refugee crisis a year on: what happened, & how did the region respond The Andaman Sea crisis a year ago catalysed important policy developments on forced migration in Southeast Asia. Part […]
Peter Hughes. The Papua New Guinea (PNG) Supreme Court decision and the announcement by the PNG Prime Minister that Manus will be closed only bring forward the inevitable – the Australian government has to find a way to get the current caseload of refugees and asylum seekers out of PNG and Nauru. Realistically, the only […]
Arja Keski-Nummi. The PNG Supreme Court decision has again thrown into stark relief the bankrupt nature of Australia’s asylum policy, and the disingenuous way in which both sides justify their cynical and inhumane policies with trite slogans such as ‘saving lives’ and ‘not starting up the people smuggling business’. People working with asylum seekers, who have processed […]
Jason Davies-Kildae. The news that almost 200 of the asylum seekers who inspired the #LetThemStay movement had been granted community detention was initially welcomed as a hopeful sign by advocates, but was then quickly tempered by the revelation that 90 children were still being returned to offshore detention. A lively public debate began in February […]
John Menadue. Posted 18 February 2016 I attended a Track II Dialogue in Bangkok recently to try to help develop a framework of shared responsibility to manage in a humane and efficient manner displaced people movements in the region. There is concern that the Track I Regional Dialogue at government level has not been particularly […]
John Menadue. Republished from his blog, Pearls and Irritations. After telling us for months that Australia would not take additional Syrian refugees, Tony Abbott announced on 9 September last year that the government had “agreed to settle 12,000 Syrian refugees … one of the world’s largest (intakes) to date”. We were told that the first […]
Bruce Duncan. How has it come to this, that the Australian government is poised to send back 37 babies, 54 children, and their families – 267 in all – into the traumatic conditions of Nauru? Only a few years ago, many Australians would have considered it inconceivable that our governments should impose such shocking treatment […]
Arja Keski-Nummi & Libby Lloyd. Reprinted from John Menadue’s blog, Pearls and Irritations. Australia has one of the best refugee resettlement systems in the world. So said United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres some years back. We have achieved this reputation not by good luck, but because successive Australian governments have understood that early […]
Peter Whiting. Millions of people have been mesmerised by Pope Francis speaking to the joint sitting of US Congress and the United Nations General Assembly. What is it about him that attracts such attention, even from many people who are not believers in any religion? I would suggest he speaks with great respect for his […]
