Government Breaks Australian Values Again

12 September 2007

A Just Australia calls on the Government to immediately resettle in Australia the 72 Sri Lankan refugees currently detained on Christmas Island. "If the Government continues to attempt to avoid our protection responsibilities by seeking third countries to take these refugees, Australia will be breaching fundamental international laws which prohibit the detention of refugees." said Kate Gauthier, National Coordinator.

"The Government is happy to preach to Australians about values such as a fair-go, respect and responsibility, but this once again shows they are unable to put basic Aussie values into practice when it comes to how they treat vulnerable people."

"The Minister claims that they will be seeking other countries to settle these refugees. But since the Pacific Solution began, fewer than 4% of refugees were taken by countries other than Australia and New Zealand. Its just not a realistic solution and the Minister knows it. These men will have to wait many more months and will end up resettled in Australia anyway, but after yet more delay and trauma."

A Just Australia recently released their report with Oxfam Australia "A Price Too High" on offshore processing on Nauru. This report found that since 2001 it has cost the Australian taxpayer more than $500,000 per person to process fewer than 1,700 asylum seekers in Nauru, Manus and Christmas Island. By comparison, the latest estimate from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship suggests that the cost of holding asylum seekers in a mainland Australian detention centre is only 3.5% of the running costs of offshore processing.

A Just Australia commends the Labor Party response to the report, which was to restate their policy to immediately shut down the detention centre on Nauru.

These particular Sri Lankan refugees waited for over 6 months for their cases to be processed, making a mockery of the 90day processing deadlines self-imposed by the Department of Immigration in the wake of the Cornelia Rau and Vivian Solon scandals. The Department claims this reform, like all others such as the release of children from detention centres, only applies to the mainland of Australia.

"Its time the Government stopped spending an obscene amount of taxpayer dollars to traumatise such a small number of people who are fleeing persecution. We call on the Minister to live up to the traditional Australian values of a 'fair-go' and bring these refugees to Australia."