Ross Garnaut The University of Melbourne. 5 March 2021 Talk about returning the economy to normal after the crisis is misguided. Before the crisis, normal was nowhere near good enough. Australia did indeed manage to go 28 years without a commonly-defined recession. But the expansion had three distinct stages. The first, from the end of […]
Claire Higgins UNSW. As a presidential candidate, Joe Biden promised the US would demonstrate “global leadership on refugees”. Once elected, he pledged vastly to increase refugee resettlement in the US. If history is any guide, the new president’s forward-thinking approach could help drive Australia’s commitments to refugee protection, as well. Over the past four decades, […]
The Government’s move to cut support to 576 refugees and asylum seekers is a further blow to an already vulnerable group in their struggle to survive. Posted 1 December 2020 Across Australia, the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic has hit many people hard, with sharp increases in unemployment and homelessness, even among those who […]
Bruce Duncan. How will the Morrison government respond to the desperate plight of some 65 women and children detained in a camp in Syria? Relatives are pleading with our government to bring their family members safely home, but it appears immobilised by fear of a political reaction. How good is that? Some 65 Australian women […]
Bruce Duncan. The appalling massacre in March of so many Muslim people in New Zealand’s Christchurch has shocked our countries deeply, and illustrated how urgent is the need to deepen understanding and increase solidarity among our faith communities. The Christchurch event was one in a too-long list of religiously motivated terror acts against Muslims, Christians, […]
John Menadue. The Australia of today is vastly different from the Australia of my childhood. With its widespread racism and sectarianism, it was socially suffocating. For those changes, I am very grateful. There is a lot of which we can be proud. No country has integrated newcomers as well as we have. But there have […]
Daniel Ghezelbash Macquarie University. Australia’s harsh asylum policies have been touted as a possible solution to Europe’s so-called refugee crisis. Politicians in the UK, France, Holland, Denmark, Austria and Belgium have advocated for an Australian-style approach aimed at blocking asylum seekers from accessing Europe. But there are a few reasons Europe should be wary of following […]
Spencer Zifcak. Nils Melzer is the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment. Recently, he presented a damning report to the UN Human Rights Council on the subjection of refugees across the world to torture. Melzer’s fundamental contention was that the primary cause of the massive abuse suffered by refugees globally […]
Public forum. Can Australia’s leaders be prosecuted for treatment of refugees & asylum seekers? Thursday 7 December 6-8pm RMIT University City Campus 445 Swanston Street Melbourne Building 80 Level 2 Lecture Theatre Moderator Corinne Grant Lawyer and media personality Panel members will talk about their submissions to the ICC on how this […]
Peter Whiting. This must surely seem an odd way to frame a commentary on conscience, but I am having great difficulty reconciling the Australian Government’s position on the refugees on Manus and Nauru and any notion of conscience. On 31 October, the Australian Government closed the Manus Island processing centre, requiring the 600 men detained […]
Australia faces a T-intersection: time to resolve our refugee crisis. Bruce Duncan Liberal member for McMillan in Gippsland, Russell Broadbent, challenged his own political party sharply, as well as Australia’s detention policies for refugees on Manus Island and Nauru, saying that Australians were finding it quite ‘unacceptable’ that we treat refugees so badly, keeping them […]
