Backgrounding Refugee Issues, August 2022 (Vin Hindmarsh)
In talking about refugees and asylum seekers, it’s useful to recall a sobering fact: Australian government policy towards refugees has been stagnant since Tony Abbot became Prime Minister 2013. That had continued down to its harshest proponent, Scott Morrison. There’s two incidents to be highlighted under Morrison and his Minister Alex Hawke. Two years ago, Scott Morrison did a deal with Jacqui Lambie to ensure the repeal of the Medivac legislation would pass in the Senate.. For Lambie’s support, Morrison agreed that before the next Election, he would release all refugees in hotel detention, some of whom had been detained since 2011. Both Lambie and Morrison did not reveal the details of the agreement until the beginning of this year, when the issue became public at the time of the Australian Tennis Open. You’ll recall Djokavic being detained for 4 days in the same Melbourne hotel as the detainees. The revelation transfixed the nation. Morrison was reminded of his horse-trading with Lambie and began releasing detainees in batches of ten or so each time. There were 130 of them. It was a grubby, opportunistic exercise and one that taught Jacqui Lambie a profound lesson. “I supped with the devil,” she said, “and the devil was Scott Morrison.”
CCT then had our AGM on May 9, two weeks before the May Election, and we were given a rare moment to hear Frank Brennan’s first hand point of view regarding refugees. With the prospect of a Labor government, we asked Frank about the vexed question of Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs) and Labor’s promise to abolish that system. Frank quoted Albanese’s promise of refugee reform within a hundred days….
We are now at that point. A hundred days today, Aug. 29. As of this time, Refugee advocates are united around the following issues and agitating Labor to clarify its timetable for urgent and overdue reform.
1,The abolition of the Temporary Protection Visa system TPV. This leaves refugees incredibly vulnerable, and unable to apply for family reunion.
2.The Safe Haven Employment Visa system SHEV. Eligibility was minimized/narrowed down under the Morrison government so this system needs rebooting with a renewed mission fit for purpose.
3.The Administrative Appeals Tribunal is a broken system. A former Deputy at the AAT appeared on The Drum recently and said when he was involved if there were 10,000 Appeals, it would constitute a logjam. “Now there is a backlog of 234,000. This is staggering,” he said. Mr Albanese has recognised the problem and will conduct an investigation. The puzzling thing is that the Prime Minister has appointed the same CEO to investigate who oversaw the problem in the first place.
4. There are 200 refugees imprisoned in Nauru and PNG. They have languished there since 2011 and are not eligible to be resettled under the agreement with New Zealand.
5.It is estimated one hundred thousand people in Afghanistan wish to apply for Humanitarian Visas to Australia. They worked as interpreters or in other capacities with Australia and the Coalition forces over a 20 year period. Andrew Wilkie and Jacqui Lambie have entered this space and are advocating publicly on their behalf.