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Project SafeCom News and Updates 28 February 2006
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Project SafeCom
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Feb 27, 2006 15:19 PST
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Project SafeCom News and Updates 28 February 2006
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¤ - In this Edition - ¤
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1. The hand that stokes the fire
2. Truth overboard - the story that won't go away
3. Mystery of how vessel was lost
4. Editorial: A self-serving story
5. Howard still demonises refugees
6. Prime Minister: cover up one lie with an even bigger one
7. "Refugees don't sink damned boats, Mr Howard!"
8. Grandmother faces deportation over drug conviction
9. A cultural paradox stripped bare
10. Vanstone announces Asylum Housing Centre in Perth
11. Minchin gives munchkin reply on multiculturalism
12. Indon protest on Papua asylum bids
13. AWB bigger terror threat than Thomas: QC
14. TV runs hot and cold on climate change ads
15. Muslim garb confronting, says Howard
16. EU to stave off Palestinian funds crisis
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======================
1. The hand that stokes the fire
======================
The West must recognise how Muslim reaction stems from historical treatment
TODAYonline
Monday, February 27, 2006
by Charles Tan
THESE days, any action or criticism against Muslims or Islam is exploited
by extremists to gain maximum political mileage through mob oratory.
Take, for instance, the tit-for-tat move by Iran's most popular newspaper,
Hamshahri, in starting a cartoon competition on the Holocaust to get a rise
out of the West. The title of the competition: What is the limit on freedom
of expression in the West?
Christians have watched Jesus Christ being mocked in shows such as South
Park and Life of Brian, or recast in controversial light in The Last
Temptation of Christ and The Passion. While some were offended, and said so
very vocally, still we did not see a reaction on the scale of that
following the publication of the cartoons about Prophet Mohammed.
Are Muslims, therefore, more sensitive than others when Islam is under
attack? To understand the latest reaction, one has to study the root causes
which date back to at least the Middle Ages.
The period saw military expeditions led by Christians from Europe fighting
to wrest the Holy Land from the Muslims.
A new episode surfaced in the modern era when the United Nations (UN)
Special Committee on Palestine recommended that Palestine be divided into
an Arab state and a Jewish state.
The Arabs rejected the UN decision but the Jews, in 1948, proclaimed the
independent state of Israel.
Since then, the bitter fighting between Israelis and Palestinians, who
regard Israel as an occupying force, has not abated.
For decades, while the Palestinians suffered, the West aided and modernised
Israel. Then came the Gulf War. The West united to drive Saddam Hussein out
of Kuwait, no doubt to protect their oil supply.
Soon after, the Bosnian conflict erupted. In the name of "ethnic
cleansing", the Serb paramilitary forces killed unarmed Bosnian Muslim
civilians. Thousands of Bosnian Muslim women were sent to detention camps
and raped.
The West watched and only intervened when it was too late. No wonder young
Bosnian Muslim men were later found fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya.
Then came 9/11. For the first time, the American mainland was attacked and
the United States reacted with military adventurism. Given the excuse,
hawkish policy-makers turned Afghanistan and Iraq into battlegrounds.
Thousands of Muslim civilians became "collateral damage".
If that is not enough, Muslims perceive the West to be practising double
standards.
Take the case of Iran. The Pentagon has not discounted the possibility of
bombing its nuclear sites. Iran claims her nuclear programme is for
generating electricity; the West thinks otherwise. But as Muslims see it,
if Israel is allowed its nuclear capability, why not Iran?
The recent Hamas victory in the Palestinian elections is another case in point.
Hamas won power through the ballot box and yet the West refuses to
recognise it, because Hamas is considered a terrorist group. The result of
a democratically- held election seems to have different meanings —
depending on who gets elected.
The much-publicised torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay
has only exacerbated resentment in the Muslim world, and the situation was
not helped when a video clip of British soldiers beating up protesting
Iraqi youth was seen all over the world.
In Perth, Australia, a church founder and former Australian tennis champion
Margaret Court opined that Muslim families had children "on a production
line" and said she did not believe "Christians could ever co-exist
peacefully" with Muslims in Australia.
She was deservedly condemned by the Islamic Council of Western Australia
and the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils which accused her of
insensitivity at this critical time.
History has shown that Muslims and Islamic nations have suffered at the
hands of Western nations. While it would be wrong to think of the "Muslim
world" as homogenous, can we blame the strong tenor of reactions from some
parts of it?
Western nations should heed the warning in UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan's words yesterday at a conference of Muslim and European leaders —
that at the heart of the latest violent demonstrations lies "a trend
towards extremism in many societies".
Having said this, it is precisely through the practice of press freedom
that Western reporters brought to the world's attention the wrongdoings of
their fellow countrymen in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq, to name a few.
And some Western nations have taken in millions of Muslim refugees and sent
relief aid to countless Muslim countries.
But if the West is to avoid more of what it sees as over-reactions from the
Muslim world, then it should stop stoking the fires.
The writer is a Singaporean based in Perth.
http://www.todayonline.com/articles/103405.asp
===================================
2. Truth overboard - the story that won't go away
===================================
Sydney Morning Herald
by David Marr
February 28, 2006
The Prime Minister is still not facing the facts behind one of the key
episodes of his 10 years in office, writes David Marr.
FOR the celebrations of his 10 years in office John Howard has fashioned a
new line to cover an embarrassment that time will not erase: children
overboard.
After all these years he is still demonising the refugees who he admits
threw no children from the deck of the Olong that day in October 2001. He
told The Age the other day: "I did think that if somebody had done that, it
was a pretty bad thing to have done - and they did after all sink the boat,
didn't they?"
Wrong again, Prime Minister.
The false accusation of refugees throwing their children over the side was
made by Howard, Philip Ruddock and Peter Reith on October 7, 2001. The
election campaign had just begun and the "news" of these callous asylum
seekers putting their children at risk caused an immediate media frenzy.
But the boat - an overloaded, barely seaworthy fishing vessel with 223
people on board, including 56 children - was still afloat and limping back
towards Indonesia.
Under orders from Canberra, HMAS Adelaide had fired shots across its bows
during the night, boarded it several times and forced it to turn back. The
navy believed the time was coming to rescue these people. Canberra was
determined that they not reach nearby Christmas Island.
While the media was going wild back home, the Adelaide was shadowing the
stricken Olong. Its engines had failed - almost certainly sabotaged,
although this has never been established - and the captain of the Adelaide,
Commander Norman Banks, had no choice but to take the boat in tow.
As Canberra tried to make up its mind what to do with these people, Banks
aimlessly towed them round the Indian Ocean. Under the strain of towing,
the little boat was breaking up. Its crammed passengers were terrified.
Banks believed his orders to mean that taking them to safety on board the
Adelaide would be regarded back in Canberra as "mission failure".
For 24 hours this dangerous operation continued as the Olong sank slowly in
the water. Finally, Banks was forced to stop towing. The boat was going
down. Only then, with refugees and their children diving for their lives
into the sea, did Banks feel he could order a full-scale rescue.
It was photographs of this brave - and miraculously successful - mass
rescue on the afternoon of October 8 that would later be passed off by the
minister for defence, Peter Reith, as pictures of children thrown overboard
on October 7.
In the hours immediately after the rescue there was a furious showdown
between the chief of the Defence Force, Admiral Chris Barrie, and the
secretary of the Prime Minister's Department, Max Moore-Wilton - with the
navy insisting the saving of lives was paramount and no civilian
interference would be tolerated in such emergencies in future.
By this time - 48 hours after the original claims were made of children
overboard - the navy knew no such thing had happened. Yet Howard would say
this information had not reached him by election day a month later.
By this time, also, the rescued Iraqis were huddled in light rain on the
decks of the Adelaide. Banks told his sailors: "These people are human
beings first, [and] whilst we could not understand their plight, we had to
treat them as refugees."
He had it right: nearly everyone Banks rescued that day is now living in
Australia. Howard is not marking his 10 years with any apologies to them.
He told The Age: "Now what do I say to those people? Well, they're part of
the Australian community. They're welcome. They'd be treated as part of the
Australian community."
http://smh.com.au/news/national/truth-overboard--the-story-that-wont-go-away/2006/02/27/1141020023654.html
========================
3. Mystery of how vessel was lost
========================
The Australian
Patrick Walters, National security editor
February 28, 2006
DEFENCE sources have queried John Howard's claim that the asylum-seeker
vessel SIEV 4 sank as a result of deliberate sabotage by those on board.
Experts familiar with the SIEV 4 case say it is impossible to be certain
about the cause of the sinking of the vessel that became famous as the
centrepiece of the children overboard affair.
"It's a subjective judgment. SIEV 4's longevity as a seaworthy platform was
suspect," one source observed yesterday.
The Prime Minister told The Australian in an interview that asylum-seekers
"sank the damn boat", adding that they deserved no apology from the
Government. But senior Defence sources say it is impossible to be
definitive about what caused SIEV 4 to founder.
SIEV 4 sank surprisingly quickly once it began to go "bow down" late in the
afternoon of October 8, 2001, just north of Christmas Island.
The subsequent senate investigation into the children overboard affair
failed to establish conclusively what caused the sinking of SIEV 4,
although the inquiry heard that extensive sabotage had been carried out.
The boat carried 219 asylum-seekers and four Indonesian crew who were
plucked from the sea by the crew of HMAS Adelaide.
It is known that SIEV 4, a 20m wooden-hulled boat, was leaky and in poor
condition before it even left Indonesia.
According to testimony provided by the skipper of HMAS Adelaide to the
investigation into the children overboard affair in March 2002, water was
flowing over the deck of SIEV 4 the day before it went down.
Commander Norman Banks told the committee that while the boat was
"seaworthy", he had some concerns about its condition.
Crew members from the Adelaide who boarded the grossly overcrowded SIEV 4
noted that some of those on board were trying to damage the vessel.
The steering and engine had been damaged and planking had been removed from
the forward part of the hull.
SIEV 4 was judged to be a vessel in distress and taken under tow by HMAS
Adelaide in the afternoon of October 7.
Speculation that the tow had damaged SIEV 4 was refuted by Commander Banks,
who told the senate hearing that the bow of the vessel had remained intact
and that the tow had not caused it to break up.
The next day, the crew of the Adelaide made repeated efforts to repair the
vessel and pump water from SIEV 4. Their efforts failed and SIEV 4 sank
quite quickly soon after 5pm.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18292386%255E2702,00.html
======================
4. Editorial: A self-serving story
======================
The Australian
February 28, 2006
The Government is still shamed by children overboard.
JOHN Howard has succumbed to hubris in the way he expects history to
reflect what he wishes had happened, instead of the truth. In an interview
with George Megalogenis, published in The Australian yesterday, the Prime
Minister said he owed no apology to the refugees he falsely accused of
throwing their children into the sea during the 2001 election campaign
because "they irresponsibly sank the damn boat, which put their children
into the water". As self-serving spin this is hard to beat: an attempt to
assert that while his Government may have got the initial detail wrong, the
overall message was right – that refugees were so cynical as to sink their
own boat in an attempt to force the navy to rescue them and bring them to
Australia. Except that Mr Howard is still not telling the whole story. On
October 6, 2001, HMAS Adelaide intercepted a boat crammed with
asylum-seekers heading for the Australian coast and was ordered to turn it
around. At the time, the Government made much of allegations that those on
board were prepared to throw their kids overboard. But navy people on the
scene never reported this on the record. And the photos of people in the
water were taken days later, when their boat was sinking and the Adelaide's
skipper had ordered them into the sea to be rescued. Nor is it clear the
asylum-seekers sank their own craft, hoping this would lead to their being
brought to Australia. Certainly its engine failed, and with it went the
pumps. The Adelaide crew were reported as saying this was the result of
sabotage. But portable pumps from the Adelaide were being used to try to
keep the craft afloat, and the navy had it under tow when it started to
sink. The asylum-seekers had nothing to gain by taking to the ocean – other
than avoiding going down with their boat.
But the Howard Government did have something to gain. Then defence minister
Peter Reith and immigration minister Philip Ruddock knew an election-winner
when they saw one, and turned the "children overboard" affair into an
anchor for the Government's border protection policy. As evidence emerged
that the incident never happened, ministers and minders all ducked and
dived for cover. To their undying disgrace, mandarins who should have
served the public interest, not the Prime Minister's electoral ambitions,
helped them. Throughout the 2001 election campaign, this newspaper kept
asking for explanations in the children overboard affair while the
Government debated and dissembled, desperate to avoid admitting the
asylum-seekers never threw their children into the ocean. Two days before
the poll, The Australian broke the true story.
Mr Howard says he only repeated what he was told. Fair enough, there is no
evidence against this and it appears the Prime Minister was gulled, as were
many other Australians, by mendacious ministerial offices. But this neither
excuses nor explains why he is rewriting the record some five years later
with a version that still appears to conflate different events on separate
days and present desperate people as monsters ready to put their children
at risk of drowning. Right or wrong, the Government's strategy of using the
navy to stop asylum-seekers reaching Australian worked. The boats stopped
coming. And the Government has won two elections since the children
overboard affair. There is nothing any member of the Government can be
proud of in the memory of this wretched affair. It demonstrate how ruthless
politicians such as Mr Reith can play politics with independent advice from
the armed services and get away with it, if their hides are tough enough to
deflect the truth. The Government's behaviour in the children overboard
affair looks no less disgraceful now than it did back then – however the
Prime Minister seeks to spin it.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18286952%255E7583,00.html
=========================
5. Howard still demonises refugees
=========================
Letter to the Editor
The Courier Mail
The Iraqi asylum seekers who John Howard said were undesirables were
formally and officially assessed to be in need of protection from
persecution and could not safely go home. It was unjust of him to judge
them before he knew the real facts and he only makes it worse by now
accusing them of sabotage when a Parliamentary enquiry found no evidence to
support this further slur on their characters. I call that vilification and
demonising.
Frederika Steen
Chapel Hill Qld
==========================================
6. Prime Minister: cover up one lie with an even bigger one
==========================================
DEMOCRATS MEDIA
MONDAY FEBRUARY 27 2006
SENATOR ANDREW BARTLETT
AUSTRALIAN DEMOCRATS Deputy LEADER
Prime Minister gives insight into a key to his success – cover up one lie
with an even bigger one
Democrats' Deputy Leader, Andrew Bartlett, has reacted with disbelief to
the Prime Minister's dishonest claim that the refugees from the infamous
'children overboard' incident "sank their boat."
"The Prime Minister has sunk to new depths with this latest dishonest
slander," Senator Bartlett said.
"It can only be seen as an effort to divert attention from his culpability
in the children overboard deception and the responsibility his government
bears for placing the children's lives at serious risk."
"The Prime Minister is perhaps the most successful politician of his
generation, and his latest disgraceful statements give some indication
why. He is clearly more willing than any other politician to lie, and if
he is caught out in that lie, he tries to cover it up by telling an even
bigger one."
"Never admit the lie, never apologise to those who were slandered, just
widen the slur even further, while refusing to let yourself become aware of
any evidence that contradicts your statements."
Senator Bartlett, who was a key member of the Senate Inquiry which examined
the children overboard incident in great detail, said the facts are beyond
dispute about why the 'children overboard' boat (named SIEV 4 by government
agencies at the time) ended up sinking.
"It was the government's refusal to allow the refugees to be rescued from
the unseaworthy boat, instead directing that the Navy put it under tow,
which caused the boat to eventually break up and sink, putting the refugees
– including the children – in the water.
"The Commander of the HMAS Adelaide, the Navy vessel which intercepted the
boat, informed the Prime Minister's taskforce right from the start that the
refugee's boat was seriously overcrowded and unseaworthy. Despite this
fact, the PM's taskforce refused to allow the Navy to rescue the refugees
from the unsafe boat, instead directing them to tow the boat around until
an alternative could be found."
"It was the impact of towing this unseaworthy vessel for twenty-four hours
which contributed to it breaking up and sink. Only once the boat was
actually sinking and the refugees were ending up in the water were they
allowed to rescue them."
"It is an amazing tribute to the skill of the crew of the HMAS Adelaide –
and something close to a miracle - that they managed to rescue every one of
the refugees from drowning," concluded Senator Bartlett.
Media contact – Senator Andrew Bartlett 0418 743 789
=====================================
7. "Refugees don't sink damned boats, Mr Howard!"
=====================================
Scoop NZ
Monday, 27 February 2006, 2:20 pm
Press Release: Project SafeCom
"Refugees don't sink damned boats, Mr Howard!," says WA Rights group
Project SafeCom this morning, after The Australian reported today that the
Prime Minister John Howard in the book "The Howard factor", sponsored by
The Australian, alleged that the refugees aboard 'The Olong' were
responsible for sinking their boat - the boat slowly sank when under tow by
HMAS Adelaide on October 6 2001.
Project SafeCom published dozens of official NAVY photographs of the
sinking on its website 1½ years after the incident, when they were "leaked"
to the group by an unnamed source - see
http://www.safecom.org.au/kids-overboard.htm
"Refugees rarely sink their boats, Prime Minister," the group's spokesman
Jack H Smit said, "usually it is the people smugglers who do the sinking,
sometimes the sinking is due to physical sabotage by sting operators
working from countries such as Indonesia, and sometimes these sting
operators are contracted by countries such as Australia."
"Five years on, it seems that the Prime Minister has learnt nothing from
the shameful massaging of the facts that were uncovered as lies spread
initially by the then Defense Minister Peter Reith in the lead-up to the
2001 Federal Election."
"The Prime Minister remains one of the very few politicians in Australia
who maintains the slandering descriptive word 'illegals' to denote
boatpeople. He does that right up till today while most politicians have
dropped this term, because there is no law in Australia making it "illegal"
to enter Australia with or without papers in order claim asylum under the
terms of the UN Convention," said Mr Smit.
The only thing we see confirmed about Howard, time and again, is that this
is a Prime Minister who "has a conscience" only when it suits him
politically."
"Just two weeks ago we learnt from the ABC Four Corners program that Howard
has also silenced CSIRO scientists, and that those scientists who should
warn the government and the Australian public about climate change and the
impact on the millions of Climate Refugees this climate change is
producing, are forbidden to mention the refugees."
John Howard's line is "don't mention the refugees, unless it's in a
negative light", and he shows his conscience has not learnt anything from
his shameful dealings with the truth when it concerns the world's most
vulnerable citizens' groups."
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0602/S00470.htm
=======================================
8. Grandmother faces deportation over drug conviction
=======================================
The Age
By Andra Jackson
February 28, 2006
A MENTALLY ill 53-year-old Vietnamese grandmother who was a permanent
resident is facing deportation over a drug conviction six years ago in
which the trial judge acknowledged "there is no real evidence as to the
level of (her) complicity".
The move would separate Thi Xua Huynh from her six children, all Australian
citizens, and her 11 grandchildren.
Mrs Huynh, from Sydney's Edensor Park, has spent the past six years being
moved in and out of prison and immigration detention while her family has
tried to have her returned to them.
She speaks no English and is in a Sydney psychiatric hospital, where she
was transferred from Villawood detention centre on February 11 suffering
depression.
Her son, Luong Anh Huynh, said his mother had high blood pressure and acute
anxiety. "I could see her condition getting worse. She doesn't know when it
(detention) will be over."
Anglican clergyman Denis McIntyre, assistant minister at Pitt Town parish,
has appealed to Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone to restore Mrs Huynh's
visa, saying "her story is one of the saddest imaginable".
Mrs Huynh was sponsored to Australia in 1992 on a family reunion basis
after her refugee husband and Luong and another son fled to Australia in 1981.
She arrived in Sydney to find her two eldest sons had become drug addicts.
Her husband walked out a year later.
Son Luong was taking her for a hospital check-up in Liverpool on August 24,
1999, when he saw someone he knew and got out to do a drug deal. Returning
to the car, he noticed police had him under surveillance and tried to throw
the drugs out the window.
The package containing 7.43 grams of heroin landed near his mother, who,
with Luong, was charged with supplying heroin.
Luong, who pleaded guilty, received an 18-month jail sentence in May 2000.
Trial judge Robyn Tupman said the Crown was considering not proceeding
against Mrs Huynh. But the case went ahead six months later.
Justice Greg Woods acknowledged: "There's nothing, no hard and fast
evidence that anybody knows who the principal offender is." Mrs Huynh, who
pleaded not guilty, received a 24-month jail sentence with an 18-month
non-parole period. It was reduced on appeal and she served a year in
Mullawah and Penrith jails.
On her release in 2002, her visa was cancelled and she was placed in
detention at Villawood.
She was released a year later after a successful appeal in the Federal
Court against the cancellation of her visa. The then immigration minister,
Philip Ruddock, appealed to the High Court and the cancellation of her visa
was restored. Last November she was returned to Villawood.
Psychiatrist Howard Napper, who examined Mrs Huynh in December, reported
that she looks older than her years. She is severely depressed, not eating
or sleeping, has shaved her head and is convinced she is dying. "This could
well be a life-threatening situation," he said.
Luong, who credits his mother with helping him kick his drug habit, visits
her daily. "I can see in her mind everything is going backwards for her,"
he said. "All she needs is her family."
An Immigration Department spokesman said: "If someone is unlawful under the
Migration Act, they must be detained until they either receive a visa or
leave Australia."
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/grandmother-faces-deportation-over-drug-conviction/2006/02/27/1141020024523.html
==========================
9. A cultural paradox stripped bare
==========================
Sydney Morning Herald
February 27, 2006
It seems magazine nudity is more acceptable than the cover-up of the hijab,
writes Gwyn Topham.
Your teenage sons can pick from two new publications today. In one, a
history of John Howard's 10 years in office, the Prime Minister expresses
concern about attitudes to women among Muslim Australians. In the other,
they can see "real girls" strip and - in the news section - try to "shag
Paris Hilton". Is Howard really worrying about the right set of attitudes?
The second publication is Zoo magazine, a new semi-pornographic weekly,
already a bestseller in Britain and now launched here. The formula is
simple: a lads' mag sweating with the kind of not-quite-there porn that
keeps it on the bottom shelf. It's an ideal starter kit for teenage
misogynists. Before its launch, newsagents were giving away promotional
copies - a bit like popping into the chemist and getting a free trial pack
of low-tar cigarettes with your prescription.
As the editor, Paul Merrill, says: "We'll be creating a new marketplace;
what we do will define the market." With a $14 million investment,
including television and billboard ads, the publisher, EMAP, is confident
it can emulate the British success. Launched in early 2004 at the same time
as Nuts, the two very similar titles sell more than half a million copies a
week. Only Zoo's sister title, the monthly FHM, sells more, continuing the
relentless mainstreaming of pornography.
In its inexorable rise, Zoo has run promotions such as offering readers the
chance to win cosmetic surgery for their girlfriends. Or, as the magazine
put it: "Win your lady a brand new set of expertly crafted tits."
Merrill says the Australian magazine is broader and - for now - less
graphic. Although, in case readers are distracted by the sport and jokes,
his introduction quickly gets to the point: paying for sex. "Skip this
boring bit and check out Michelle from Bowral on page 68. It's gotta be
worth $1.95 for her alone."
As Zoo's agony aunts advise an ostensible reader, "Luke from Perth", a
"massive fan of porn" who wants his disgusted girlfriend to be
"enthusiastic about it" - "You need to start off on something light. Then
you can get more hardcore." It starts here.
Howard and others find it easy to identify the "problematic" attitudes and
societal pressures within Muslim communities that may affect women's choice
of whether to cover their heads; less so to acknowledge the gradual
pornification of the West, the "raunch culture" documented by writers such
as Ariel Levy, that ends up with professional women such as Terresa Lee,
21, deciding it is a good career move to strip for a magazine that weans
teenage boys on to porn.
Last week, Howard said he found women wearing veils "confronting".
Meanwhile, Zoo has as a regular feature the Real Girls Strip Search, in
which "we hit the street and convince young ladies to get their kit off".
It seems it's now more acceptable for Australian women to appear naked in a
magazine than wear the hijab in public.
While Howard agonises over Muslim attitudes towards women, his
well-balanced constituents are pushing magazines for young men in which the
only possible female role is semi-naked and gagging for it.
Guardian journalist Gwyn Topham is at present working for the Herald.
http://smh.com.au/news/opinion/a-cultural-paradox-stripped-bare/2006/02/26/1140888744908.html
==========================================
10. Vanstone announces Asylum Housing Centre in Perth
==========================================
Immigration: DIMA Media Centre
2 February 2006
Vanstone Builds on Commitment to Alternative Detention Arrangements
The Government remained committed to finding alternative arrangements for
immigration detainees with special needs who are of low risk, Minister for
Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Senator Amanda Vanstone, said today
during the inspection of a new residential housing centre (RHC) under
construction in Perth.
‘We are always looking to develop our alternative detention arrangements
for immigration detainees with special needs,’ Senator Vanstone said.
‘This could include women and children. While the Government has a
commitment to not holding women and children in detention centres, there
are circumstances where this may be necessary, albeit for brief periods,
such as while alternative arrangements are made.’
The Perth RHC, which will accommodate as many as 12 residents in the
Kanowna Avenue East site, will be a purpose-designed and built RHC.
‘The RHC will comprise two five-bedroom houses, each with two bathrooms,
kitchen, dining and two living areas. One house will be configured to
accommodate residents with disabilities,’ the Minister said.
‘Security will be discreet, involving security cameras and alarms. The RHC
will be surrounded by a typical suburban fence, allowing it to blend with
the surrounding residential environment.’
Senator Vanstone said living in the RHC would afford residents a level of
control over their day-to-day lives which was not always possible in the
normal detention environment, including allowing them to cook all their own
meals and be responsible for the running of their homes.
‘This will include accompanied visits to local shops as well as local
recreational facilities and educational and other activities. Children can
also attend local schools,’ she said.
Construction of the Perth RHC is due to be completed in September 2006 and
is expected to be ready for use by late 2006.
An RHC has been operating in Port Augusta since November 2003.
‘We are also developing an RHC with a capacity for 40 people in Sydney,
near the Villawood IDC, which is expected to be ready for use mid-year,’
Senator Vanstone added.
http://www.minister.immi.gov.au/media_releases/media06/v06013.htm
========================================
11. Minchin gives munchkin reply on multiculturalism
========================================
monday 27 february 2006
SENATOR LYN ALLISON
AUSTRALIAN DEMOCRATS LEADER
Minchin gives munchkin reply on multiculturalism
Senator Minchin hit the Costello autopilot today when the Democrats Leader
asked him in Question Time to explain what the Government’s ‘Australian
values’ were.
“When they become Australian citizens, they should commit to liberal
democratic ideas, pluralism and rule of law. There’s a separation of church
and state and pluralism. It includes freedom, tolerance and the rule of
law. Part of that mosaic is tolerance of difference. Extremism is not a
part of that,” Senator Minchin said.
“This government already deports immigrants who go to gaol for the breaking
the law. Will there be another new set of values or laws that only apply to
newcomers? The Treasurer’s proposition is absurd, divisive and unworkable,”
Senator Allison said.
“Some of the ‘values’ displayed by the Howard Government over the past 10
years include dishonesty over the children overboard fiasco, avoidance of
ministerial responsibility, locking children in detention, restricting
freedom of speech, forcing struggling sole parents in to the workforce and
giving greater weight to profits rather than public good.
“The Liberal Party has been openly courting evangelical Christian groups,
some of whom subscribe openly to God’s law rather than obeying secular law.
“The Liberal Party definition of pluralism is based on dividing groups
rather than making a coalition between them,” Senator Allison said.
==============================
12. Indon protest on Papua asylum bids
==============================
news.com.au
From: AAP
By Rob Taylor in Jakarta
February 27, 2006
INDONESIA today complained that Australia's processing of asylum
applications for 43 Papuans on Christmas Island was "dragging".
In Canberra, Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said she was unable to
confirm when a decision would be made about the asylum claims.
"Domestic law in Australia takes time. It is dragging a little a bit,"
Indonesian Foreign Minister Hasan Wirayuda said after a Jakarta meeting
with visiting Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
"It is a time-consuming process," he said.
As well as signalling Indonesia's impatience over how long the cases have
run, Dr Wirayuda also made little headway with calls for face-to-face
consular access to the Papuans.
He said Indonesian official access to the group so far had been limited to
telephone conversations.
"Telephone access is not satisfying enough. We are trying again to have
direct access," he told AAP.
Mr Downer said the Papuans have not received Indonesian consular visits
because they had not wanted them.
"If they don't wish to have access we will not give them access," Mr Downer
said.
He said he explained the asylum process to Dr Wirayuda and said the
applications, regardless of the outcome, would not affect Australia's
support for Indonesia's territorial integrity and rejection of Papuan
separatist claims.
"We fully support Indonesia's territorial integrity. We fully support the
province of West Papua remaining part of the Republic of Indonesia," he said.
"We offer no sympathy or support for succession from Indonesia."
The 36 adults and seven children arrived at Cape York earlier this year
after spending five days at sea in a rickety boat.
They were then taken to Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, where their
asylum claims were now being assessed.
Refugee groups have lobbied the Government to release the independence
advocates into the community on the mainland while the claims were being done.
But Senator Vanstone said the Papuans would go through the normal processes.
"Look, they're going through the normal process, that process can take some
time," she said.
"Getting in-country information is not always easy. That's not something
that's done by my department, that's done by the department of foreign
affairs and trade.
"They will be handled in the normal way."
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18286827-29277,00.html
====================================
13. AWB bigger terror threat than Thomas: QC
====================================
The Age
February 27, 2006 - 2:59PM
A leading human rights lawyer says prosecuting AWB executives would send a
stronger anti-terrorist message than a long sentence for a man who took
money from al-Qaeda.
Melbourne barrister Julian Burnside, QC, says the $300 million in kickbacks
the wheat exporter allegedly paid to Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq would
have fuelled terrorism in the region.
Mr Burnside made a bail application last year on behalf of Muslim convert
and former Melbourne taxi driver Joseph Thomas, 32, who was convicted on
Sunday of intentionally receiving funds from al-Qaeda and holding a false
passport.
Thomas was cleared of two charges of intentionally providing resources to
al-Qaeda.
The defence has said it would appeal against the conviction on both counts.
Mr Burnside, who no longer represents Thomas, told ABC radio that it was
problematic for the police to base their case on one police interview
particularly when Thomas was denied access to a lawyer during that interview.
"The things with which he is convicted of doing are at the very low end of
the scale," Mr Burnside said.
"If you want to send a message to people about assisting terrorists then
there should be action brought against the executives of AWB, because
putting hundreds of millions into Saddam Hussein's pockets is going to do
more for terrorism than anything that Jack Thomas ever dreamt of doing."
© 2006 AAP
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/AWB-bigger-terror-threat-than-Thomas-QC/2006/02/27/1141007308395.html
===================================
14. TV runs hot and cold on climate change ads
===================================
Sydney Morning Herald
By Wendy Frew Environment Reporter
February 28, 2006
THE former US president Bill Clinton last week described it as "the only
thing that could end civilisation and make all else irrelevant", while the
British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said it was the biggest threat facing
the planet.
But it seems the people at FreeTV Australia, the body that represents
commercial TV licensees and vets their advertisements, have not heard about
climate change.
Last week FreeTV's Commercials Advice division withdrew approval for a
series of advertisements quoting a prominent scientist, Tim Flannery, on
the dangers of climate change.
In the ad for an Adelaide-based renewable energy company, SolarShop, Dr
Flannery said climate change was the "greatest threat facing humanity today".
The four ads, costing a total of $50,000, were due to go to air in Adelaide
on Sunday morning. But after initially approving them last Wednesday FreeTV
changed its mind at the last minute, asking that two of the ads be reworded
and resubmitted for approval.
"In order to preserve the accuracy of the advertisements, can you please
revisit this statement and consider using alternative wording as
description of the issue of climate change," the watchdog's lawyers said in
a letter to SolarShop's advertising agency.
The TV watchdog went so far as to offer a few helpful hints.
"Examples you might wish to consider are 'Climate change is one of the
greatest threats facing humanity today' or 'Climate change is an important
issue for us all'."
After a flurry of negative media coverage about the decision, FreeTV again
reversed its decision yesterday afternoon and the ads are expected to air
in South Australia some time soon.
FreeTV's chief executive, Julie Flynn, denied the watchdog's lawyers had
overreacted or that the publicity had anything to do with the latest decision.
"We have just cleared the ads after strong representation from the
advertiser that Dr Flannery is an authority in his own right," Ms Flynn said.
She said the ads had initially been referred to lawyers because of concern
that, with a state election looming in South Australia, they might be
deemed political. FreeTV's lawyers decided that was not the case but they
were unhappy with the reference to climate change, suggesting it might be
misleading under the Trade Practices Act.
A spokesman for SolarShop's managing director, Adrian Ferraretto, said
"common sense and some wonderful media coverage had prevailed".
http://smh.com.au/news/national/tv-runs-hot-and-cold-on-climate-change-ads/2006/02/27/1141020023633.html
===============================
15. Muslim garb confronting, says Howard
===============================
news.com.au
From: AAP
February 27, 2006
MOST Australians found the full traditional garb of Muslim women
confronting, Prime Minister John Howard said today.
But he said there were no plans to ban the head-to-toe costume.
Mr Howard said the experience in France, where schoolchildren were banned
from wearing overtly religious clothes and symbols, showed how difficult it
was to legislate against clothing.
The Prime Minister's hand-picked Muslim advisory committee is meeting in
Canberra today and tomorrow, amid a controversy over government comments
about Muslim extremism.
Treasurer Peter Costello has called for Muslims wanting to live under
sharia law to move to an Islamic country, while Mr Howard has warned
against jihadist elements of the Australian Muslim community.
Some government backbenchers have called for the hijab, or headscarf, to be
banned.
But Mr Howard said he had no plans to change the law.
"I don't mind the headscarf but it's really the whole outfit, I think most
Australians would find it confronting," Mr Howard told Southern Cross
Broadcasting.
"These are things that it's very hard to lay down legislation for.
"I don't believe that you should ban wearing headscarfs but I do think the
full garb is confronting and that is how most people feel.
"Now, that is not meant disrespectfully to Muslims because most Muslim
women, a great majority of them in Australia, don't even wear headscarfs
and very few of them wear the full garb."
Turkey and France were among the only countries in the world to have such
laws, but both had some anomalies, Mr Howard said.
For example, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's wife Emine, a
devout Muslim, could accompany her husband to official functions in
non-government buildings but not to functions in government buildings
because of her dress, he said.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18286069-29277,00.html
==============================
16. EU to stave off Palestinian funds crisis
==============================
ABC ONLINE NEWS
Monday, February 27, 2006. 10:18pm (AEDT)
The European Union will release substantial aid to the Palestinians to
stave off a looming financial crisis despite the appointment of a leader of
the Islamist militant group Hamas as prime minister.
EU foreign ministers are gathering for talks on how to respond to the
impending formation of a Palestinian government by the movement, which does
not recognise Israel's right to exist.
"Today I will announce a very substantial package of assistance to meet
basic needs," European External Relations Commissioner Benita
Ferrero-Waldner said.
She says the package will total 120 million euros ($A192 million),
including 40 million euros to pay electricity bills and 64 million euros
channelled through the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees.
"In effect we will pay electricity bills for them, direct to the utilities
concerned, including in Israel," she said.
The EU is the largest donor to the Palestinian Authority, but its funding
has been thrown into doubt by the election of Hamas, which the bloc lists
as a banned terrorist group.
The move comes after Israel stopped the monthly transfer of $50 million to
$55 million ($A80 million to $A88 million) in tax payments to the Palestinians.
US officials have warned that Washington could also cut off funding.
"The Palestinian Authority cannot achieve balance in its finances without
outside help," Ms Ferrero-Waldner said.
She is calling on others, especially Arab countries, to do more to fund it.
Ms Ferrero-Waldner notes that even when Israel transfers the tax revenues
which it collects on behalf of the Palestinians, the Authority still runs a
deficit.
The EU has also decided to unblock 17.5 million euros ($A28 million) frozen
in a World Bank-administered trust fund.
The bloc originally paid 70 million euros ($A112 million) into this, of
which 35 million ($A65 million) was disbursed but the remainder stopped
over the Palestinian Authority's failure to meet certain benchmarks.
This 17.5 million euro tranche will be used to pay salaries and is the only
part of the new aid package to be paid directly to the Palestinian Authority.
Wolfensohn's concerns
There is intense debate among major powers on how to react to Hamas's
election victory.
International envoy James Wolfensohn has warned in a confidential letter
obtained by Reuters that without emergency funds, the Palestinian Authority
faces financial collapse within two weeks.
Mr Wolfensohn says even if the Palestinian Authority survives with
emergency funding, the financial crisis could bring violence and chaos.
He says the Quartet of international mediators - the United States, the EU,
Russia and the United Nations - must develop a long-term funding plan once
a Hamas-led government is in place.
His letter to foreign ministers of the Quartet is dated February 25 and
apparently timed to influence the EU deliberation.
Hamas has named Ismail Haniyeh as prime minister designate.
Ms Ferrero-Waldner says EU has yet to decide whether it would support his
government.
"We have to see what will be the program of the government. We have to give
them time," she said.
She adds that the bloc will seek to work with Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas, regarded as a moderate.
- Reuters
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200602/s1579714.htm
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