When Sergio Leone made The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, he showed how flawed characters chasing the same prize could blunder their way into folly and missed opportunities. (more…)
Category: Immigration
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People dumping in the Pacific
Australian governments of all stripes have long maintained a commitment to secure borders and an orderly migration program. (more…)
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Neo-Nazis and racist rallies: why it’s important the Australian media call them for what they are
If there was any doubt about neo-Nazi leader Thomas Sewell’s racist and anti-democratic attitudes, they were dispelled on the morning of 2 September when he gatecrashed a press conference by Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan and Treasurer Jaclyn Symes. (more…)
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Australia should halt plan to deport refugees, migrants to Nauru
Last week, the Australian Government struck a A$400 million (US$260 million) deal with Nauru to deport 280 people to the small Pacific island nation. It is also proposing new legislation to strip those facing deportation of their basic procedural rights. (more…)
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Cancelling the ethnic cleansers: Australia revokes Simcha Rothman’s visa
It is a curious feeling to see a government, let alone any politician, suddenly find their banished backbones and retired principles. (more…)
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The new Commonwealth office of Multicultural Affairs unveiled
A new Commonwealth Office of Multicultural Affairs has been established within the Department of Home Affairs. (more…)
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The penalty for being late is to be doomed forever
Infected by wars and climate change is the other intractable issue: how to help 43 million refugees? More than 3,451 pledges to change the mountain-size misery have been made worldwide by governments, NGOs, and individuals, including Australians. The issue is less about gathering signatures, more about turning words into action. (more…)
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12 years on, are we not yet tired of cruel policies towards asylum-seekers?
In Australia, 2025, Progressive Patriotism is now, apparently, our political modus operandi and, as Anthony Albanese ambitiously explained, it can be “a symbol for the globe in how humanity can move forward”. (more…)
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Lawsuit aims to end ‘systematic’ snatching of brown-skinned people by Trump agents
“These guys are popping up, rampant all over the city, just taking people randomly, and we want that particular practice to end,” one attorney in the case said of Department of Homeland Security agents. (more…)
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Australia must turn promising refugee pilots into bold policy to meet the moment
Today, on World Refugee Day 2025, close to one in ten Australians is a refugee or descendant of someone displaced. (more…)
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Humanitarian visa processing – Is it who you know, rather than what you know? Part 2
Is this how we want our visa processing system to run? (more…)
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Home Affairs and the bleak hole of humanitarian visa processing – Part 1
There is no shortage of evidence – vulnerable women in Afghanistan are in a dire situation as the Taliban continues to advance its stance on gender apartheid. (more…)
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Freer movement: Pacific priorities for Labor in its second term
Is the Labor Government going to take aid more seriously, and think more globally, in its second term? (more…)
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Incoming immigration minister faces immense challenges
Whoever is appointed immigration minister in the second Albanese Government will face immense challenges from both a policy and political perspective. (more…)
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Why extremists see gold in the migration debate
An immigration debate in an era of rising extremism is fertile ground for a noisy minority keen to distort the facts to sell their “white Australia”. (more…)
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Why has there been no discussion of asylum-seekers in this campaign?
Despite it being a perennial topic during Elections this century, neither major party wants to talk about asylum seekers this time around. (more…)
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Managing overseas student policy is key to keeping migration numbers in check. If I was immigration minister, Part 2
Ever since Scott Morrison told overseas students to go home at the start of the pandemic and then stomped on the student visa accelerator once the pandemic ended, overseas student numbers have increased and policy has been fraught with constant changes to reduce the inflow of students. (more…)
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Good migration policy pays — this is what it looks like
Migration can continue to be a transformative benefit for Australia if it can look past the myths to develop policy that will pay off. (more…)
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If I was immigration minister, I would develop a population plan
If there is one thing politicians should have learnt in the last three years, it is that Australians expect them to manage long-term net migration and thus our rate of population growth. (more…)
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Immigration policy and the federal election
Peter Dutton is desperate to talk about immigration during the current election campaign. That will largely be about pointing fingers at Labor, sometimes misleading fingers as he did during his budget reply and not providing details of his own policies. (more…)
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Four key myths that manufacture an immigration ‘crisis’
A so-called Australian immigration crisis is a central election issue, but it’s based on misconceptions easily debunked by any examination of the evidence. (more…)
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Devaluing Australian citizenship
Public commentary on Peter Dutton’s possible referendum on a ministerial discretion to deprive dual nationals of their Australian citizenship has focused on whether or not this is just a thought bubble and whether or not it is politically wise to be holding yet another referendum. The real issue goes much deeper, to the merits of the proposal. Ministerial powers to remove Australian citizenship fundamentally devalue it. Dual nationals are the biggest losers. (more…)
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Australian immigration and the federal election
The Albanese Government has done a reasonable job in repairing the immigration train wreck it inherited from the Coalition. However, excessive caution and fear of being wedged has severely limited its achievements. In the forthcoming election, the Dutton Opposition can be expected to be short on policy, but to stoke up fears about border security and foreigners. He will borrow from the nasty Trump playbook when convenient. Australia deserves better immigration policy and administration. (more…)
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Denigrating refugees: Media Watch is no exception
Australian citizens and residents who originally came to this country seeking asylum, as they are clearly entitled to do under international law, have been in the news recently, through no fault of their own and not in a good way. Sections of the media and some politicians have attacked them for doing what all citizens and residents have a right to do, that is to bring their partners and close relatives to Australia. (more…)
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A Home For M
Grassroots support can help many refugees find their feet. Working with very stretched organisations to support refugees. Safety is a primary concern. (more…)
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European deportation of Syrian refugees – a sign of the times
Millions of Myanmar refugees could be next if Junta falls (more…)
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Offshore people dumping by a spooked government
The Albanese Labor Government has been spooked by recent High Court decisions which protect the human rights of non-citizens who cannot be returned to their home country because they are owed protection obligations. (more…)
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“Barn of Broken Doors”: Nauru poet deplores offshore detention
Mohammed Salamat delivered this anguished poem about his detention on Nauru outside Federal Parliament last Tuesday November 19, 2024. The reality of ‘offshore processing’ by the Australian government is still very much a fact, in legislation and the news. (more…)
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“The elephant in the room”: the refugee status determination process
Having befriended and worked closely with many Asylum Seekers for the pasts 14 years I have no hesitation in highlighting a key problem with the recent Migration Bill changes. It is the uncritical assumption that the refugee status determination process is professional and fair and sensitive to changing realities. That assumption is simply not true. (more…)
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‘Dark day for humanity’ as Australia chooses cruelty in Migration Bill changes
Refugee and refugee support groups Australia-wide are deeply concerned about the extremely damaging implications of Australia’s new migration laws which are founded on principles of punishment rather than human rights protection. (more…)