On 28 June 2012, the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard announced the appointment of an Expert Panel to provide advice and recommendations as to how the Australian Government could prevent people seeking asylum by boat. This came at a time when numbers of people arriving at Christmas Island were growing and detention camps across Australia were at capacity.
The Expert Panel comprising three men, Angus Houston, Paris Aristotle and Michael L’Estrange held round table meetings with government, non-government and parliamentary stakeholders.
In addition written submissions were also called for. I attended two round tables representing the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.
On 12 August 2012, I attended the handing down of the report in Parliament House, Canberra. As the three men stood at the lectern together, Angus Houston announced the Off- shore solution with the words from the report that
There was a collective intake of breath and visible shock in the room full of refugee sector people, media and a few politicians as the recommendation to recommence the offshore camps was announced. This shock deepened as the principle which underpinned this cruelty was unveiled. A principle of “No Advantage” was announced. A barrage of questions from media and the sector over the following weeks were met without clear explanation as to exactly what No Advantage meant beyond a phrase that anyone who came by boat would go to the “back of the queue”.
Five years later the evidence of this principle has been revealed in refugee policies which have been cruel and punitive in practice. The length of time for processing has blown out. People who arrived back in 2010 are still without even temporary visas. They have no access to family reunion. No Advantage has seen 30,000 people in the community in limbo. Processing of claims has only just started with a flawed process of “Fast Track”.
No Advantage has seen thousands of people in the community stay on Bridging visas even after they have had their claims processed and been given positive decisions. Some of these people are now being asked to go back and start again. The department has allowed the Bridging visas to run out and expire without renewing them. This places people in the terrible position of being unlawful. Without the bridging visa they are without income or the right to work. Immigration officers say that they will not pick them up and put them back in detention however if they wish they can re-detain at any time. If police stop and ask for ID and see that their Bridging Visa has expired, police report this to immigration and they are taken into detention.
No advantage saw the right for Unaccompanied Minors to see their families stripped away. Most of all No Advantage underpins the increasingly punitive off-shore regime where even death by violence, death by medical neglect, rape of women and sexual abuse of children has deterred either the current or the previous government from this policy.
There is no future plan for these refugees. There never was a plan beyond keeping them as political hostages. The principle of No Advantage was conceived by the Expert Panel and implemented by successive governments like giving a knife to a baby and expecting that no harm would occur. The people were transferred to Nauru and Manus straight after the Expert Panel recommendation and placed in appalling plastic tens without sufficient water, non-functioning toilets and shower facilities. The staff was untrained and vicious in their control of the people.
The Nauru Government has always been clear in their view that the refugees settled in Nauru do not have a long-term future there. The Cambodian solution is now an acknowledged failure with $55million failing to provide resettlement for even five refugees. Kyrgyzstan, East Timor, the Philippines and a tranche of South American countries have all refused overtures to participation in long term resettlement schemes. The United States option may be a solution for a few but there are still many who have as yet no future.
No Advantage and Offshore are cruel policies destroying people’s lives, robbing children of their future and wrecking the soul and reputation of our nation.
“The trouble is that once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
And once you’ve seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing,
becomes as political an act as speaking out.
There’s no innocence. Either way, you’re accountable.”
Arundhati Roy
Jane Salmon for Pamela Curr
