Here is a video of the interview.
You may note that I predicted that the motion against turn backs would go through but that I was wrong, it was not carried. And the reason it was not carried, according to inside sources , is that the CFMEU which has 20 votes, did a deal with Bill Shorten that they would vote against the motion in return for the support of the Parliamentary Party on the issue of the China free trade agreement.
This was of course disappointing but even more disappointing for Labor for Refugees was the refusal of the National Left to endorse our policy of closing down the detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island. The opposition of the Left to this proposal meant that it was not even raised on the floor of Conference.
So all in all it was a very disappointing conference. But there were a few positive initiatives and I shall mention just one of these.
Late last April I flew to London to attend the wedding of my daughter Deborah. Because National Conference was only a few months away I asked Pauline Brown to act for me as National Co-convener of Labor for Refugees and she did a splendid job.
On the plane I read the book by Professor of Law Jane McAdam entitled Why seeking asylum is legal and Australia’s policies are not.
Then in chapter 10 of this book I came across the following:
“One of the main obstacles to the fulfilment of human rights in practice is translating them from International obligations into domestic law. In Australia these international obligations need to be formally adopted into national law before they are enforceable. Hence, international human rights obligations are only justiciable ( i.e. capable of being decided by a court in Australia) to the extent that they are reflected in national law.”
I emailed my colleagues in Labor for Refugees on the desirability of raising this issue at National Conference and it was agreed we do so.
As a result we have the following addition to paragraph 36 of chapter 9 of the ALP National Platform:
Labor will adhere to Australia’s international human rights obligations and will seek to have them incorporated into the domestic law of Australia and taken into account in administrative decision-making and whenever new laws and policies are developed.
Friends, those who hysterically point to Australia at one time in recent history having had to cope with 50,000 asylum seekers in a year (but the maximum number was actually 25,173 in 2012/13) should consider the case of Germany which last year took in 1.25 million asylum seekers or 1.5% of their population of 80 million. If Australia took in 1.5% of its population of 24 million that would amount to 360,000. Australia as an island can never expect to face the problem of a mass influx of people as experienced in Europe.
There are those who argue that we must solve our own problems in Australia before helping refugees arriving from outside our borders. But if this attitude were adopted to the letter we could be cutting of all foreign aid. But Australia as a wealthy country has an obligation to help the less fortunate members of the international community.
Let’s consider one particular social problem in Australia which has been in the news lately, that of homelessness. It is a huge shame that in a wealthy country like ours that we have failed to solve the problem of homelessness.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics the number of homeless people in 2011 was 105,000.
And the number of occupied private dwellings was 8,182, 000.
That means that for every homeless person we had 78 occupied private dwellings
It should not be beyond the imagination and capability of the community to devise a scheme for the accommodation of every homeless person in a dwelling.
The scheme could include but not be restricted to taking in a homeless person under one’s own roof for a period of time. But there could also be an alternative option of a contribution towards the payment of rent.
No comments:
Post a Comment