Senator Andrew Bartlett
Thursday, December 30, 2004
 
Supporting tsunami victims
Criticisms are already being made about the size and the nature of the Australian Governments aid response to help the victims of the tsunamis. There is no doubt that the $35 million pledged by the Australian Government so far is inadequate, but I also have no doubt that a lot more will be pledged down the track. It makes sense to wait and see what sort of help will be the most effective.

So rather than get stuck into the Government at this stage, the best people can do is provide donations or other assistance themselves. If need be, criticisms can be made in a few months time, but for now the best task is to help get the level of public support up as high as possible.

The big test on this issue will be to ensure that the assistance from Australia continues well after the story disappears from our TV screens. It will take years to repair the communities and economies of the worst affected areas (and sadly, the damage done to the lives of many of the survivors can never be fully repaired). Much of the funding and other assistance will be almost as crucial down the track as it is now.

If you wish to help, I believe the best way is through a cash donation to the charity of your choice (aid organisations such as OXFAM, Red Cross, World Vision, and CARE Australia have launched appeals).

I am advised that cash is usually much better than goods. Transporting goods from Australia is expensive and there could be delays in getting them to areas in need in time. Regional aid organisations have established networks of community organisations on the ground and can buy and distribute relief supplies quickly and efficiently. Those with medical skills in Australia who wish to volunteer their services should call 1800 057 111.

Click here for some basic public information on the Tsunamis in South and South-East Asia. It is edited from material provided by the Australian Government to federal Members of Parliament.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Thursday, December 30, 2004 Permalink
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Tuesday, December 28, 2004
 
Indian Ocean tsunami
I've always been averse to the mainstream media's habit of using every tragedy as an opportunity to instantly manufacture and showcase their compassion as loudly as possible. It's all part of why car crashes, plane crashes and deaths of any sort are considered 'news' whilst issues that impact daily on people's lives are not.

However, it is not possible to overstate the enormity of the tragedy from the Indian Ocean tsunami and the more coverage that shows the size of the devastation and the massive repair job required, the better. Disasters and heartbreak on this scale make most other things appear to pale into comparison.

http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/ has lots of stories from people at a local level, which gives a more balanced picture than the Australian media with their need to find an 'Australian angle'. It's distressing that there may be as many as 20 Australians killed in this tragedy, but this link gives an idea of the scale of the tragedy for other societies.

According to a report from New Delhi, "the current loss of lives in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands currently stands at 3,000 and rising (it might well go up to 4,000). When we say 3,000 people in the A&N Islands, it amounts to around 0.9% of the islands' population. On a proportionate basis, the loss of lives in the islands must surely rank as one of the worst disasters ever in India, perhaps in the world.” To put that in an Australian perspective, a similar percentage would see casualties upwards of 200,000!

Or as another example of the scale of the disaster. In Sri Lanka, about 1.5 million people - or 7.5 per cent of the population - are reported homeless. Again, using Australia's current population of around 20 million as a guide, this would also equate to 1.5 million Australians being made homeless - or the entire population of South Australia.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Tuesday, December 28, 2004 Permalink
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Friday, December 24, 2004
 
Merry Christmas
Unlike Amanda Vanstone, who says it is offensive to say Merry Christmas to non-Christians, I will say Merry Christmas to all of you who take the time to read this page, whether you are Christian or not (I’m not these days, but that’s a subject for some other day).

I hope 2005 works out well for all of you. There’s lots that needs doing to help improve other peoples chances of 2005 working out well, so I’ll be trying to take it easy for a few days to build up some energy and figure out where to best focus it.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Friday, December 24, 2004
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Baxter Hunger Strikers
I've just heard news that some, although not all, of the hunger strikers have written a letter to the Prime Minister announcing they wish to cease the hungerstrike and start eating again on Christmas Day.

I'll quote a bit from their letter:

"We have thought much about the spirit of Christmas and how families and communities come together in celebration of kindness and peace. We miss our families and our mind cannot find peace, but we do not wish to disturb the Australian people with our sorrow. We want to respect your tradition and show kindness to those who are troubled by our deteriorating health.

We want to thank all those who supported and cared for us and gave us strength of mind to endure. We also listened to their plea for us to end the hunger strike and have therefore decided to start eating again on Christmas Day as a sign of our good will and friendship."

This is good news, but also a reminder for all of their supporters to keep up the fight on their behalf.

If people want to know heaps more about the hunger strike, what 's been happening and some ideas on how you might be able to help, as well as other matters to do with refugees such as the plight of the Bahktyari family, click here.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Friday, December 24, 2004 Permalink
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Thursday, December 23, 2004
 
Democrats & Greens
A week or so ago, some of the media ran with suggestions the Democrats were thinking of trying to merge with the Greens. This was a distortion of comments made by Lyn Allison, but it become a story anyway which then gave others the chance to comment on it (even though what they were commenting on was wrong to start with).

It's amazing how often this question comes up, which led me to thinking about why it keeps getting mentioned even though its never really looked like happening. I remember in my earlier times in the Democrats, we ran as part of a broader alliance of groups - loosely calling ourselves the Green Alliance - with Drew Hutton as the Lord Mayoral candidate (Drew was the Greens Qld Senate candidate in the election just gone).

This was before the Qld Greens Party was formally formed. There were plenty of opportunities then and in the preceding years when those who gravitated towards forming the Green Party could have joined or merged with the Democrats but chose not to.

They always perplexed me, because usually the reasons people gave for going to all the trouble of setting up a separate party - which would then inevitably be in competition with the Democrats - were variations along the theme of "the Democrats were formed by an ex-Liberal Party Minister so they're all really just closest Liberals and therefore too right wing".

I still hear comments like that every now then even today. I’ve always found such a line of 'reasoning' incredibly shallow, but I guess it's another reminder of the strength of perceptions over reality. Of course, some people wanted to set up a separate party so they could have control of it, and others specifically wanted a more overtly ideological 'Left' party.

I have been involved in negotiations a few times over the years to varying degrees and at various levels about the possibilities of cooperation/alliance/ merger with the Green Party. I never saw any genuine signs of real interest in this path from Green Party people even back in the early '90s.

Sometimes I think that's a pity - I used to be quite in favour of the idea some years ago (a view not shared by every one in the Democrats obviously). But 12 years of effort by the Greens to replace the Democrats in the Senate has left the two of us with a lower combined vote and no extra Senate seats between us.

Still, the two parties are quite different in our approach to politics and on business/economic issues and I don't really see the point in even bothering to look at alliances at the moment.

Despite all that, here's a photo of Bob Brown and me with an appropriately cuddly slogan.


DEMOCRATS & GREENS

Laura from Melbourne, produced it and posted it on her site, so I though I'd copy it here.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Thursday, December 23, 2004 Permalink
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Wednesday, December 22, 2004
 
End of year lunch
Yesterday was the regular staff end of year Xmas lunch, which we'd set the date for some weeks back. My lovely staff had even kindly picked a vegetarian restaurant for me. So I had the rather unusual experience of sitting there watching everybody else eat Xmas lunch whilst asking me how my fasting was going.

Still we had a good time and people were certainly pleased that the last day or so had seen much more success than usual in getting the refugee issue into the media. I got more details on the number of phone calls we'd been getting about the issue, with the tally at lunchtime standing at 25 in favour and 15 against. The emails continue to come in as well.

It’s especially pleasing to hear that the extra focus on the issue has given a boost to the detainees, as well as many of the hardworking refugee advocates throughout the community who have been slogging away for so long.

It's been a hard year for the Democrats' staff. They are a great group of skilled and committed people who have made a real difference in a lot of unacknowledged and uncredited ways. Without sounding too gushing, it amazes me how harmonious the current group is in working together. It is one of those additional sad aspects of the election result that some of these people are losing their jobs as a consequence of there being fewer Democrat Senators. But it was good to still be able to be around them today at least.

These days I don't drink alcohol and on this occasion I couldn't eat either, which seemed consistent with one of my innate abilities, to bring somberness to fun occasions. However, people enjoyed the irony of the situation (and watching me suffer a bit) and I still got the satisfaction of seeing everyone eating vegetarian and enjoying it of course.

We capped off the occasion by all going to the movies together. After my slightly bizarre 'lunch without food', we saw the very bizarre Team America - World Police. This movie is by the guys who created South Park , which is a show I have long enjoyed. It is a puppet movie in the style of the Thunderbirds and, like South Park, revels in the amateur look of its effects. It gets away with language and sex scenes that would definitely have got it an R rating if it had real actors. It is in appalling taste and naturally I therefore found it very amusing.

A total gross-out vomiting scene (extra ironic for a fasting non-drinker) and a puppet of Kim Jong-Il speaking in a voice that kept reminding me of Cartman from South Park were both highlights. The final speech to a gathering of world leaders could go down in the category of great political speeches of our time (it made more sense than a lot of the stuff I hear in the Senate anyway), except that it is so filled with obscenity that it couldn't be broadcast.

Anyway, we all had fun and left with a strong urge to swear excessively and use offensive and completely inappropriate analogies. I'm sure it will wear off soon.

I ended the day by watching The West Wing . Not surprisingly I have a soft spot for President Bartlet (and Martin Sheen's birthday is the day before mine.) If you're a fan of the show, have a go at the quiz Which West Wing Character Are You? (I'll mention who I got some other time) I think it’s a great show, although not really that close to what politics is like, but still far closer than what is portrayed in Team America I guess . Then again, maybe not.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Wednesday, December 22, 2004
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Tuesday, December 21, 2004
 
Public Comments on hunger striking asylum seekers
I thought some readers may be interested in the level and nature of the feedback I've received over the last couple of days (if you're not, then read no further).

By late Monday evening, I'd received 96 email messages about my fast in support of the detainees.

I'm aware of 19 phone calls to my office about it too, but this may not be a complete total, as I didn't check with all my hardworking and wonderful staff. Of the 19 phone calls, 6 were negative and 13 were positive.

I received a larger amount of media calls on this issue over the last day and a half than I can recall on any other single matter this year. This includes at least 9 extended radio interviews today (as opposed to the 'quick grabs' for the hourly news bulletin type of interview) in all states except Tasmania. There were also 3 TV news interviews.

There were 3 main categories of emails - supportive messages from Iranians overseas, and positive and negative messages from people in Australia.One type of feedback I didn't expect was from people overseas. A report by Reuters news came to the attention of some of the Iranian diaspora in various parts of the world and a number of them wrote in with messages of support and thanks for drawing attention to the serious human rights abuses of the current Iranian regime.

I received 39 messages from overseas. 19 of these were from the USA, 7 from the UK, 4 each from Canada and Sweden, and the rest from Italy, Netherlands, India and Japan.Of the 57 email messages I've got so far from Australians, 46 have been positive and 11 have been negative. Of the negative ones, 10 were critical towards asylum seekers and/or Muslims, or abusive of me and 1 expressed concern at the use of hunger strikes as a form of protest.

Below is a link to a sample of the email messages I received. It gives an idea of what sort of responses a politician can get to something like this.

There's no doubt that email can bring out the abusiveness and obnoxiousness in some people, but it's still useful to know how people feel. The comments have not been edited, apart from ensuring there are no identifiers and cutting some references to other matters.

I should warn readers that a few of the negative ones do vilify Muslims. I do not support or endorse these comments in any way at all, they are included to ensure an accurate snapshot of the comments received and because it is in the public interest for people to be aware of what sort of views are out there.

COMMENTS

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Tuesday, December 21, 2004 Permalink
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Monday, December 20, 2004
 
It's been an interesting couple of days since I announced I would fast in support of the asylum seekers in Baxter. I've had a lot of feedback - some negative, the majority positive. I might gather together a sample of some of the emails (without identifiers) so people can see what sorts of things others are saying.

I must admit it's something I did think twice about before doing. There have been a number of hunger strikes amongst detainees in the past and I've always supported their struggle for justice whilst encouraging them not to continue with hunger striking - our country's law and Govt policy already causes them immense harm and I don't like to see that harm added to.

I knew by fasting in support it could be perceived or portrayed as encouraging such behaviour, despite me making comments to the contrary, but - a bit like the detainees themselves I suspect - the situation for them is so desperate and with every other option explored to try to get greater awareness of their plight, it was worth giving it a try.

The worst that could happen would be that it would make me look bad, which I can live with, and if it gains greater attention for the plight of detainees then it’s worth it. At best it might also provide an opportunity to provide some hope to detainees and make them feel that they have enough support and awareness that they can call off their own hunger strike.

When you have followed the issue closely and have met with plenty of detainees, it is very easy to understand why they sometimes resort to such desperate actions. I've met with hunger strikers in Woomera in the past, including some women with stitches in their lips, and I visited the asylum seekers on Nauru not long after they ended their hunger strike at the very end of last year.

When people are denied freedom and hope and justice and can see no prospect of gaining it, it is not surprising they take such desperate action when they feel they have no other option, however much one might want to discourage it.

For me embarking on a short fast has aspects that are not too hard - after all the main requirement is to not do something. I've been taking it very easy, sitting around at home, trying to keep cool and drinking what feels like gallons of water and some juice. I've been catching up on watching DVDs, listening to some new CDs (new ones I've bought of old records as usual) and would have been watching the cricket if it hadn't finished so early. So despite the perception of some that I'm doing something dramatic, I feel like I've been lazing around doing very little - although I have done a lot of media interviews.

It's been a very long time since I can recall a serious level of media interest in things I want to say, which in a way is extremely frustrating. When I released policies on refugees or other fundamental matters like aboriginal issues or children or work & family during the election, I was lucky to get a paragraph or two in a couple of papers. Indeed, despite drawing attention to some extraordinary breaches of basic rights in the treatment of asylum seekers throughout the year, it has been hard to get much significant media interest, although there are a few journos who try hard.

As usual, the focus on the 'political scandal' angle of things, such as the unsubstantiated 'cash for visas' allegations against Philip Ruddock, or what seemed to be a redundant interest in the Prime Minster's truthfulness with the children overboard issue, claimed way more media interest than the huge injustice and suffering generated by the laws which lie underneath both these stories

The aboriginal issue is a parallel. Neither major party leader spoke at any length on this during the election and there was minimal media interest. It took a terrible death in custody on Palm Island and Michael Long walking from Melbourne to Canberra, and suddenly it’s on the front pages and the subject of extensive opinion pieces and analysis.

John Howard was quoted on the weekend saying he's ashamed of the state of aboriginal health. I guess it's good he's talking about it now, but it's hard to believe he's that ashamed if he didn't feel the need to give any priority to it during the election. Of course, the hard but essential task now will be to maintain the sense of priority and importance about indigenous issues once the front page splashes die away again.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Monday, December 20, 2004
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Sunday, December 19, 2004
 
STATEMENT ON REFUGEES’ HUNGER STRIKE

I will continue to fast in support of the Iranians locked up in Baxter detention centre. Whilst I was initially only planning to fast for a couple of days, I do believe it is important to stress how very serious the situation is and how completely desperate the people in detention are.

I have not said I will hunger strike for as long as the detainees do. I will take it one day at a time in deciding what is best, but what I have said is that I will continue to support them, as do many thousands of people in the Australian community, in their struggle for justice and freedom.

I do not encourage people in detention to engage in hunger strikes, as it risks causing them serious self-harm and I continue to encourage those people in Baxter to resume eating. They have already shown their strength and determination, and many Australians are even more committed to do what they can to help them.

However, whilst I do not encourage self-harm, it is very important to continue to show support for them and to try to demonstrate to the wider public just how incredibly serious the situation they face is.”

The asylum seekers are faced with a so-called ‘choice’ between perpetual imprisonment and serious persecution. Some have already been locked up for over 5 years for committing no crime. In such a situation, it is not surprising that people will resort to desperate measures.

Showing solidarity with the asylum seekers is one measure that can prevent them from giving up hope all together, which would risk more dire consequences. What they do should be a decision entirely for them, which is why I do not want to link my decision on fasting to theirs.

The Australian Government must take the simple step of acknowledging that our law has led to a grossly unjust situation. A recent report by the Edmund Rice Centre Deported to Danger has shown that many asylum seekers deported have been persecuted on their return. Iran is a country with one the worst human rights records in the world and we should not be returning people to such a situation.



posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Sunday, December 19, 2004
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Friday, December 17, 2004
 
If you haven't read any books by Franz Kafka, I recommend you do - especially The Trial. Nothing I've read better portrays the bizarre, surreal, nightmarish torment refugees in detention have been subjected to by our Government - perhaps embellished with a dose of Catch 22 just to round off the horror.

I saw a news report yesterday which gives a glimpse of this - its so sick and shameless it's almost funny in a very black way.

A hunger-striking Iranian man in Baxter is seeking a court order to get an urgent psychological assessment. The court was told he is severely mentally ill and urgently needs to be transferred to a psychiatric hospital. He has a history of self-harm and suicide attempts.

The Govt lawyer tried to delay the hearing, saying evidence from the detention centre's psychologist was not ready because he was busy dealing with the protest at Baxter. To quote - "There's a focus at Baxter on some detainees, including some on the roof, which is taxing the staff there."
  • Yes that's right, the psychologist couldn't do an assessment of the health of the hunger striker because he was too busy dealing with the hunger strikers.

  • Yes it's true, people who are deliberately driven insane by the detention regime of this Govt have to go to court to try to get access to proper psychiatric care.

  • Yes it's true, the Govt fights these court actions to try to stop the detainees from getting 'out' to a psych hospital.

  • And yes, the Govt was successful in getting the Court to adjourn the matter to give them more time to provide to the Court with their mental health assessment of the hunger striker.


posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Friday, December 17, 2004
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Tis the season to be taking things a bit easier - which is why it is so much greater a torment if you are someone who can't.

A large number of detainees at Baxter are now well into a second week of a hunger strike. Even though the situation at Baxter detention centre appears to be getting worse, it's not getting much news - I presume on the grounds that it's not really "new". Hunger strikes, hospitalisation, psychological collapse, deliberately orchestrated torment - it's all fairly run-of-the-mill in Australia these last few years. Plus Mr Howard won the election, so maybe it’s assumed the majority of the public support this (which is not something that I believe).

It can take a while in indefinite detention before the despair really starts to kick in. It was a little over a year ago that detainees were hunger striking on Nauru after 2 years on the island and no pathway for their future. I visited them not long after. I have always tried to discourage detainees from hunger striking - it can be very harmful and I had felt it would often paint the Govt into a corner where they wouldn't help as they didn't want to look like they were responding to blackmail.

However, it is hard to know what else these people in detention can do. The Iranian men in Baxter have been in detention for 4 or 5 years and have seen some of their countrymen deported without warning. In one notorious case, a father had his young daughter deported from the centre without his knowledge or a chance to say goodbye while he was locked up in solitary confinement. He was then told the only way he could see her again was to go back to Iran - not recommended treatment for maintaining good mental health. I am sure they would also be aware of the research that has now been done showing that some of those returned to Iran have been persecuted.

It's not like the Australian Government can treat them any worse anyway, so it's no surprise that hunger strikes are occurring. I saw in the men on Nauru that the hunger strike experience had actually empowered them - after years of hopelessness and despair, they were finally exercising some control over their lives in about the only way they could.

It is only because of the enormous courage and resilience of refugees that some of these people have not died - it cannot stay that way forever.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Friday, December 17, 2004
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Wednesday, December 15, 2004
 
Tuesday was my first full day of 'not being leader' and I spent a few therapeutic hours in my office in the Valley in Brisbane clearing out large amounts of documents and paperwork which have accumulated over the past 7 years. I managed to fill a full sized wheelie bin without really trying and there's plenty more I haven't looked at yet.

I got a few emails from people who obviously assume I'm now out of the Parliament, which is a bit disconcerting. Of course, I'm now Deputy Leader and also party Whip in the Senate, which gave the Advertiser in Adelaide a chance to manufacture an insulting story about whether or not the Government Senate Whip, Jeannie Ferris, had anything to fear now that she (gasp) has to regularly be in meetings with me.

Tuesday was also my 8th wedding anniversary. I got into the Senate in Oct 1997 (quite unexpectedly due to Cheryl Kernot’s resignation) the year after I was married, so I've spent nearly the whole 8 years travelling backwards and forwards to Canberra. There are some parallels with my daughter Lillith, who was born in October 2001. I became Leader the year after her birth (quite unexpectedly due to Natasha Stott Despoja’s resignation) and I've spent the majority of her life travelling backwards and forwards to Canberra - and around the whole country.

Lilith was born during the 2001 election campaign, and I didn't even know if I'd be out of a job before she was one month old. It was an interesting time. When she was one hour old I was cradling her in one arm outside the hospital ward whilst I was talking preference decisions on my mobile phone with the other arm. I remember the paper taking some photos of her with me when she was one day old - something I can be grateful to the media for, as it provided me with a couple of very nice photos.

I guess it was because the photos were nice that they decided not to bother running them in the paper, unlike the photos of Lillith when she was seven days old taken with Natasha Stott Despoja. They managed to get one photo (out of what would have easily been 15 minutes worth of photo-taking) of Natasha inadvertently pulling a face while holding Lillith. That was the one they ran on the front page the next day and re-ran it about 10 more times during the campaign. I've seen it reproduced in two recent political books as well. Natasha was the first person I told when Lillith was born (it was a bit early in the morning to ring my mother), so I guess there's some sort of synergy in the two of them being tied together in some way through that photo.

Natasha gave birth to her own child on Tuesday - a baby boy named Conrad - and I imagine the media will be keen to run photos of him and his mum soon enough.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Wednesday, December 15, 2004
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Tuesday, December 14, 2004
 

The past couple of weeks have seen the final fortnight of Parliament sittings for the year.

I didn't write much about it, as it was hard to do anything that wasn't just a large whinge about the total contempt of the Government for anyone 's else’s point of view and for Parliament itself - other than an even larger whinge about the media's complete lack of interest in any issue of substance, unless there's some conflict in it somewhere. Whilst the controversy over Deanne Kelly's funding decisions is important, the media interest is basically there because there is blood in the water rather than because of the substance of the issue. It also provides a convenient smokescreen for ignoring all the other issues that do have substance.

I attended the rally in Brisbane on Saturday calling for justice for aboriginal Australians. It is good to see some media and political focus on the issue, but it is a disgrace that it takes a death in custody and for someone like Michael Long to walk to Canberra for this to happen. Of course when this vital issue does get on the front pages, it is immediately prostituted by the Government's appalling and calculated distortion of the idea of 'mutual obligation' - only agreeing to provide necessary support for aboriginal communities if they will do something that the Government can use for political point scoring.

I find it even more galling due to the deliberate decision by both major party leaders to avoid talking about aboriginal issues at all during the election - something they were able to do because the media made the same decision, despite the efforts of people such as myself and Aden Ridgeway to draw attention to it.


posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Tuesday, December 14, 2004
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Friday, December 10, 2004
 
Christmas Island Detention Centre
During the break between sitting weeks a couple of weeks ago, I managed to visit the detention centre on Christmas Island, one of the few federal MPs who have visited that centre to meet with the detainees there. The situation facing the group on Christmas Island has not got very much public attention, and of course that is the reason the government, at great public cost, took those people to Christmas Island.

It is a fact that the detainees on Christmas Island did get to the migration zone. Their boat sailed through to just off the coast of Port Hedland, so there was absolutely no legal need to take them to Christmas Island. It did not affect in any way the progress of their refugee claims. It was absurd to take people from literally next door to a detention centre at Port Hedland, which was still operational at the time, and put them on a Navy vessel and ship them all the way out to Christmas Island.

It was a valuable experience for me, and I think for the detainees, to be able to visit them and to talk with them, because they have very few visitors from the mainland and certainly very few visitors from the federal parliament. There has been only one as far as I am aware.

There are currently 43 Vietnamese asylum seekers on Christmas Island. They fled Vietnam and ended up in Australia, as people may recall, in about the middle of last year. This group of people are all related in terms of broader extended families and in terms of the activity that they were all engaged in. They claim to have been distributing pamphlets, speaking out against the Vietnamese government and calling for political freedom and better treatment for the people.

They arrived in the boat the Hao Kiet off the coast of Port Hedland on 1 July last year after a month at sea and were then taken across to Christmas Island, arriving on 5 July.

As a total coincidence I was actually there at the time, in my capacity as a member of the Joint Standing Committee on Migration, which was conducting a visit to look at the preparations for the revamping of the detention centre there - preparations that were being very hurriedly sped up to allow for the arrival of these people. However the government waited until the committee had left the island on the government plane and then it shipped in the Vietnamese asylum seekers literally on the same day, within a few hours of our departure. We were not able to meet with them at all.

We saw the centre literally the day before the Vietnamese moved in. So it was good to go back there nearly 18 months later to see the place after it had been lived in for so long. The situation does have some advantages over the situation in other detention centres I have been to in that the group is all of one nationality and all broadly known to one another beforehand. So you don’t get some of the problems of people from mixed ethnic backgrounds and nationalities being pushed in together. Having said that, there are still some issues there. They all live in one compound, all 43 of them, in very small rooms about two widths of a single bed for the room one beside the other, in a big elongated demountable.

One very obvious transition I noticed in being shown around the place was the vegetable garden that they have managed to create in the space of 18 months from when we were there. I have a photo taken at the time when the area was just bare dirt.




Now there are all sorts of vegetables grown there, which I have also received photos of.




Apparently it’s the best veggie garden on Christmas Island. Each group that I visited brought gifts of lettuces and other vegetables that they had grown in the camp. I hasten to add that I didn’t bring them back to Australia, because of the importance of maintaining quarantine, but they didn’t go to waste.

It was wonderful to see all of that having been grown in that space of time paw paw trees and other things as well. There were also beds that they had planted, grown and pruned in such a way as to have the name of the boat, the Hao Kiet, the name of Christmas Island and the date of their arrival in the camp as a permanent reminder of where they had come from and the date on which they had arrived.




Out of the group that arrived, nine people have already received protection visas from Australia, having been assessed as in need of genuine protection. Those two families are living in Perth and Melbourne. It highlights an anomaly and is part of the reason for the additional distress that the detainees still on Christmas Island are feeling, because some of them have been accepted and others have not, despite having been involved in the same activity and despite the fact that many of them are linked in a family sense. As I understand it, the rest of the family of one of the young women there had been granted a visa but she had not, for reasons that she could not understand. And from reading the decision, I couldn’t understand it either. She is 22.

Amongst the group currently in detention there are nine children. Whenever the minister talks about children not being in detention in Australia anymore we have the little asterisk saying that it does not count Christmas Island. People on Christmas Island get annoyed when they are not counted as part of Australia and they feel forgotten generally.

We had the opportunity to meet with a number of residents of Christmas Island as well and I would like to thank all of the people I met with. They were all extremely friendly and welcoming. Unless you are an asylum seeker and are going to get locked up, I would recommend going to Christmas Island.

It is a fascinating place with an amazing environment and a very interesting and unique culture and history. Unfortunately for the asylum seekers they do not see much of that because they are locked up in their detention centre. They do get out on escorted trips but their freedom is being denied them and they are in conditions that could hardly be called luxurious or even anything more than basic. But conditions are not the real problem, of course. It is the lack of freedom that is the real problem.

There is no doubt that there is still significant oppression and persecution in Vietnam. The US State Department has placed Vietnam on a persecution watch because of the continuing and increasing acts of oppression against political and religious freedom in that country. The Vietnamese communist government has specifically been cited by the US for failing to guarantee individual religious freedom for its citizens. Amnesty International has reported strong and ongoing concerns with the human rights situation in Vietnam. So there is no doubt that there are serious problems and serious human rights breaches in Vietnam.

Obviously, with refugee claims it has to be demonstrated that those breaches apply to each persons individual case to a certain level for a certain reason. That is part of the issue of assessing people’s claims. But the fact is that these people have been on Christmas Island now for nearly 18 months, and they look like being there for a long time yet.
We do not want more wasted lives, particularly of the children who are growing up in this environment. I met a nine-month-old baby who was born in a camp and a woman who is pregnant. That situation should not be continued. Just because the government has been re-elected does not mean this issue has gone away. It has not and the Democrats and I will continue to raise it.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Friday, December 10, 2004 Permalink
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Wednesday, December 01, 2004
 
On the Monday, most of the media coverage was on Labor's internal brawls and tension between Senator Stephen Conroy and Mark Latham. All the TV news coverage of 'today in Parliament' that I saw featured a fairly witty and funny comment by Peter Costello in House of Reps Question Time about a rooster (Conroy) waging a jihad on a dead parrot (Latham).

Meanwhile in the Senate, a law was being passed which empowered police to intercept the private emails, SMS and voicemail of Australians without needing a warrant. This new law, which is directly relevant to the vast majority of Australians, received no television coverage at all that I'm aware of - I guess it just wasn't entertaining or funny enough.

The drama of interpersonal fighting within a political party obviously makes far better media and is deemed way more newsworthy than a massive leap in police powers - powers which will not even be able to be monitored to ensure they are properly used, because no warrant will be required to use them. See Brian Greig's press release for more detail.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Wednesday, December 01, 2004
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Last week I visited Christmas Island for 3 days.

I went first and foremost so I could meet with the Vietnamese people who have been in the Island's Immigration detention centre since July last year. Whilst I was there I also met with many other people and groups on this fascinating island. I'll write more about some of those issues later.

I returned on the Thursday night flying into Perth and then to Adelaide early the next morning for the funeral of Janine Haines, which was a sad affair in a number of different ways.

After a couple of days at home over the weekend, it's been back to Canberra and parliamentary sittings.

The irritations of the way politics is portrayed have been grating on me much more than usual this week, probably because it's combined with me having a fairly bad case of the flu, which is very unusual for me (as I'm one of those people who 'never get sick' - with physical illnesses anyway).

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Wednesday, December 01, 2004
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