So what is the Gillard Government wanting to do? The Gillard Government does not want to accept the decision of the umpire, our High Court, so it wants to change the law to do what has been deemed illegal by our high Court, namely to send asylum seekers to danger in Malaysia. How are they
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‘It is an extravagant waste and it needs to stop’ [1] (Stephen Smith, 2004 (ALP Shadow Immigration Minister on Manus Island). Today’s announcement of the restarting of Howard’s failed ‘Pacific Solution’ is a dark day for human rights in Australia. The Labor government which condemned the Pacific Solution is now intending to use former Prime
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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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Last week a rickety wooden boat carrying somewhere in the vicinity of 100 asylum seekers crashed onto the cliffs off Christmas Island resulting in anywhere up to 50 deaths. Many of these bodies will never be recovered. Forty-two people were pulled from the ocean mere metres off Christmas Island and are now in detention mourning
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