This year’s “tough budget” theme is about to be replayed over and over to get us in the mood to accept cutbacks. It is as good a time as any to ask about certain expenditures made in our name which are without merit or reason. Two thousand asylum seekers are being locked up on Christmas Island
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Miqdad Hussain. A name that sadly is unknown to many people. Miqdad was a 23 year old Afghan man who died in an Australian detention centre last week in Cape York, one of five who have died in detention since last August (four by suicide). Miqdad hung himself in the early hours of the morning
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Two cents is what it cost each taxpayer to pay for Christmas Island funerals in Sydney last week. Two cents for little orphaned nine year old Seena to say goodbye to his dad who drowned in the Christmas Island tragedy. Two cents for Madian to bury his beautiful eight month old baby Zahra. As I
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Following a week in which yet another of Timor-Leste’s senior political leaders spoke out against the proposed regional assessment centre to be built in his country, a confidential 23-page concept document for the centre was leaked to the press. The report raises serious questions as to the desirability and sustainability of such a centre. The
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On October 18th last year Immigration Minister Chris Bowen announced that the government had decided to expand its existing residence determination program and would seek to transition several hundred children and vulnerable family groups out of immigration detention facilities and into community-based accommodation. Prime Minister Julia Gillard later offered quantification of this announcement, pledging that
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