Boat people aren't "illegal"

For those outside Australia who aren't familiar with the politics of a mere 22 million people, there has been a huge debate in this country for years about people arriving by boat from Indonesia seeking asylum in Australia. The whole debate wasn't going along too badly until Howard used the asylum seeker issue to stir up racism here about them to win the election at the time. The debate has been clouded by that racism ever since. 

I'm not going to get into the current gov policies in regard to asylum seekers. That's been going on for years and I think frankly that people (including me) are sick to death of the whole issue being dragged endlessly through the media. 

What I would prefer to see I guess is a constructive debate about the whole subject free from bigoted lies and racist fears. I had a neighbour with his wife and two kids a while back who was an asylum seeker here (dunno how he arrived BTW I never asked), so I know what these people go through when they come here. Contrary to popular belief, he wasn't given a house (the four of them lived in a one bedroom unit) and he had to work to pay all the bills. He wasn't entitled to any welfare like all those Centrelink payments for families and the like. They really struggled to get by, but were still very nice people. I actually wrote a reference letter for them as being nice people for the Dept of Immigration when he requested it. Recently he got his Australian citizenship.

So, not for any sort of political reason but because I actually lived next door to an asylum seeker family, what annoys me about the whole debate going on now in Canberra and around the country is the simple ignorance, lies, and fear about, almost bordering on mass hysteria in some parts. Probably the worst thing of all is that instead of finding a decent solution to the problem the politicians are engaged in politicising the problem for their own political gain. With me I know how that feels being in a vulnerable minority myself and how the whole marriage equality issue gets dragged through the political wringer time after time. It's taking an issue that affects people's lives in a big way, and demeaning it down to a Punch and Judy Canberra stoush. 

I suppose that with Abbott's popularity fading after he misfired on the carbon tax scare campaign, he's now looking for another issue to galvanise support for him again. I expect the Coalition is extremely worried about a new resurgent Labor and desperately want to get back to the good old days of Abbott, who waged such an effective scare thing with the carbon tax that most commentators were writing off Labor nearly 2 whole years out from the election with the Coalition 16 points ahead in polling. Now it's much closer, and it appears Abbott has found his new fear thing to monger about. 

Mr Abbott toughened his rhetoric against asylum seekers on Wednesday, saying more than 2000 are ''coming illegally to this country'' every month without papers. 

''The people who have come illegally to this country need to know that they are breaking our laws, that they are, if I may say so, taking advantage, unfair advantage of our decency as a people,'' Mr Abbott said. Read more

Well it worked for Howard right? Sadly it worked horribly well for Howard. I remember during that election campaign and an old lady at work just crapping on about how Howard was going to protect us from the terrorists/boat people, bla bla.... fuck she was really up in arms about it. It's to Australia's shame that the people let them selves be manipulated like that, seeing Howard win that election on racial demonising. 

Will it work for Abbott? Dunno. Abbott isn't Howard, and like I said people are sick to death of pollies and the media banging on about boat people for years and years. There's also the small detail that Abbott's credibility is shot to pieces after his "sky is gonna fall" thing with the carbon tax. People are getting a bit more knowledgeable about the subject too I think, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the population isn't as gullibile as it was years ago when Howard first bought race into politics.

Just a bit of truth in the debate would be nice, that's all. No matter how much Abbott raves about them being "illegal" they're not. It's not illegal for anyone to seek asylum from persecution, period. To say it is is a lie and simply demonising these people to gain political advantage. How repulsive.

But ANU international law professor Don Rothwell said it was clear it is not illegal to enter Australia without a visa and seek asylum. 

''Any person who arrives at Australia's borders, whether it be at an airport or harbour or being intercepted by navy patrols is entitled to present an asylum claim to Australia,'' he said. Read more