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Project SafeCom News and Updates 15 March 2006
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Project SafeCom
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Mar 14, 2006 17:58 PST
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Project SafeCom News and Updates 15 March 2006
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¤ - In this Edition - ¤
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1. Terror fears may spark asylum bids
2. Former asylum seeker claims jail fear was ignored
3. Remaking the mistakes of East Timor
4. Alex the Downer reveals
5. Senator Kerry Nettle visits Glenside, Baxter
6. Protesters take part in Queen's baton relay
7. Immigration policy is still a blight on the land of the fair go
8. Julia's not got what it takes? Balls!
9. UN human rights forum suspends meeting amid reform talks
10. Iran to spend millions foiling US 'meddling'
11. Muslims show support for English sermons
12. Cronulla riot shook Rafter
13. Mandarins stall FOI requests
14. Govt claims immunity at Cole inquiry
15. ACTU calls for visa inquiry
16. Business visa program out of control: ACTU
17. Iraq: the doomed adventure
18. Democrats push to close Guantanamo jail
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-|| as the 'Project SafeCom Daily News and Updates'.
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===========================
1. Terror fears may spark asylum bids
===========================
The Advertiser
From Graham Lloyd in Kiunga
14mar06
A NEW wave of West Papuan refugees may target Australia for asylum bids
amid fears Indonesian forces will unleash a fresh reign of terror, a
leading independence fighter has told The Courier-Mail.
The Free Papua Movement (OPM) southern regional commander, Jiren Bonny,
said the progress of the asylum bid by 43 West Papuans in detention on
Christmas Island was being closely monitored.
Speaking at a river camp at Kiunga on the West Papua-PNG border, Mr Bonny
rejected claims the Indonesian army was now under control in West Papua.
A document signed by nine regional West Papua tribal leaders and sent to
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in recent weeks said Indonesian
forces were training militia groups and preparing for an East Timor-style
looting spree should international support for West Papua independence grow.
The document said local people had been panicked by the redeployment of
troops from Aceh province to West Papua and claimed plans had been made to
loot and destroy West Papuan infrastructure if international troops were
sent to help any move to independence.
West Papua leaders in exile told The Courier-Mail four new refugee camps
had been established on the West Papua-New Guinea border, in co-operation
with the United Nations and local police, in preparation for a possible
influx of refugees.
The new camps, sitting empty, were in addition to one official and 17
unsanctioned refugee camps housing an estimated 8500 people.
Mr Bonny said he had travelled from West Papua to Kiunga for talks with
local authorities for a smooth take-up of more refugees.
Indonesia is seeking a speedy rejection by Australia of the West Papua
asylum seekers, saying the situation had stabilised.
But Mr Bonny says the situation is getting worse.
"The Indonesian Defence Minister recently sent two divisions of TNI
(Indonesian army) to West Papua with three navy boats to patrol the river
system," Mr Bonny said.
"The main message the Defence Minister has sent to TNI is to control the
West Papuan people through intimidation.
"There will be more refugees. The first door is into Papua New Guinea and
then possibly into Australia."
Asked if the situation was getting worse Mr Bonny said "yes."
Told Indonesia had said the "old ways" were over, Mr Bonney said: "It's not
true."
OPM co-ordinators Benjamin Syeap and Elimar Gambo, who are living in exile
in an overcrowded camp in Papua New Guinea, had a message for Australia.
"If Australia is concerned about West Papuan people, we ask the Australian
Government to act to release our people from the Indonesian people.
"We, as OPM, have no equipment to fight against Indonesia.
"The only way we can live is as refugees.
"If the Australian Government wants to help us, please talk with Indonesia
so they can leave our country and we get independence as soon as possible.
Mr Gambo said if Indonesia had nothing to hide, why did it not let foreign
monitors and journalists into West Papua.
"In public, Indonesia is saying everything is fine but our intelligence
says things are now very bad."
He says West Papuans live under constant threat and repression.
http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,18459684%255E401,00.html
======================================
2. Former asylum seeker claims jail fear was ignored
======================================
The Age
By Andra Jackson
March 15, 2006
A FORMER asylum seeker who was forcibly returned to the Republic of Moldova
has accused the Immigration Department of deporting him despite knowing he
would be jailed.
Alexey Golovchenko, 38, who was arrested on his return to Moldova in 2004
and is now a fugitive, has brought a case before the European Court of
Human Rights.
He is arguing that Australia should never have deported him to a country in
which he did not hold residency.
Moldova had no legal basis to issue him with travel documents, he said. He
has also accused the Immigration Department and the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees of thwarting his chance to live in Norway, which
had offered him refuge.
Mr Golovchenko, 38, who came to Australia seeking asylum in 1999, was born
in the Soviet Union. When the USSR broke up, he was assigned Moldovan
citizenship but renounced this in a failed attempt at Ukranian citizenship,
leaving him stateless.
Mr Golovchenko says that in 1992 he became involved in the conflict between
Transdnestr, a breakaway region of Moldova, and the Republic of Moldova.
He sought asylum in Australia on this basis, but was rejected. At the
Immigration Department's request, Moldova agreed to issue him travel
documents so that he could be deported.
Mr Golovchenko told The Age that in 2004 he wrote to the department and the
UNHCR warning them that as a non-resident of Moldova he would be jailed. He
said he asked to be sent to Norway instead. It had offered to take him if
he had a letter of support from the UNHCR.
But Mr Golovchenko says he received no reply. He was arrested on his return
to Moldova and sentenced to 10 days' jail or a fine of 450 Moldovan lei
($A46) on March 23 last year. Mr Golovchenko fled and is now living in
Transdnestr, which Moldovan police have no right to enter at the moment.
Not being a resident of Moldova, he is not entitled to work, housing or
medical assistance.
Mr Golovchenko said yesterday that he was not trying to be returned to
Australia, he just wanted the department 'to be more careful with the
deportation.
The UNHCR's 1999 Global report refers to the precarious situation in
Moldova as a result of the conflict with Transdnestr, which left 130,000
displaced.
The New York-based group Human Rights Watch has reported that the conflict
included indiscriminate attacks on civilians and extrajudicial killings.
Amnesty International (Australia) refugee co-ordinator Graham Thom said it
appeared that Mr Golovchenko's request for more time so that a third
country willing to take him could be found was ignored. Instead, he was
"whisked away".
Mr Thom said it was a breach of the 1954 Treaty on Stateless Persons, which
Australia had signed, for a person to be sent to a country in which being
stateless was problematic and where they would be "left in limbo".
An Immigration Department spokesman said Mr Golovchenko had arrived in
Australia without valid travel documents. "He departed of his own accord on
November 29, 2004, on a travel document issued by the Moldovan authorities."
The UNHCR in Canberra confirmed it had received a letter from Mr
Golovchenko in September 2004.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/former-asylum-seeker-claims-jail-fear-was-ignored/2006/03/14/1142098463327.html
=============================
3. Remaking the mistakes of East Timor
=============================
The Age
By Scott Burchill
March 15, 2006
Denying the aspirations of West Papuans ignores the grim history of Timor.
Those disheartened by the immensity of the struggle for freedom in West
Papua have a new reason for thinking that East Timor provides a blueprint
for the future, notwithstanding the obvious differences between the former
European colonies.
Australian Government ministers and diplomats, including the infamous
Jakarta lobby, seem determined to stand on the wrong side of history again.
Their spectacular moral and political failures that contributed so much to
East Timor's 24-year immiseration are today being repeated in policy
towards Indonesia's eastern province. They have clearly learnt nothing from
the tumultuous events of 1999.
Recall their earlier modus operandi. Australians who campaigned for
independence and against human rights abuses in East Timor were defamed as
"racist" and "anti-Indonesian" for supporting "a lost cause which raises
false hopes, prolongs conflict and costs lives" (Richard Woolcott).
Civilian massacres that reached genocidal proportions were only "aberrant
acts", Indonesia's takeover of East Timor was "irreversible" and it was
"quixotic to think otherwise" (Gareth Evans). The policy was clear: "we're
not going to hock the entire Indonesian relationship on Timor" (Paul Keating).
Fast-forward to a recent US-Indonesia Society lunch in Washington,
addressed by former ASIO head and now Australian ambassador to the United
States Dennis Richardson. Canberra's man in Washington began his short and
patronising speech by outing himself as an unapologetic member of the
Jakarta lobby.
Richardson claimed the Jakarta lobby comprised "government officials,
academics and some in business (who allegedly) conspire together to pervert
Australia's true national interests for those of Indonesia". It is an
imaginary and disingenuous charge but a convenient straw man for those who
have much to be ashamed about.
There is no need for any concept of conspiracy when the interests of two
parties are mistakenly thought to be coterminous. The Jakarta lobby has
argued for good relations with the regime in Jakarta - especially its
vicious and unaccountable military - regardless of the appalling crimes it
was committing in Aceh, East Timor or West Papua. For Richardson and his
ilk, however, terrorism is only ever perpetrated by Islamists and never the
state, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
After claiming in his speech that Indonesia "is working hard to address
issues in Papua", without supporting such an assertion, Richardson made
some even more extraordinary remarks in response to questions.
First, he argued that "Papua is part of the sovereign territory of
Indonesia and always has been", a claim that would have made his audience -
including Indonesia's ambassador to Washington Sudjadnan Parnohadiningrat -
blush with embarrassment, to say nothing of any Dutch observers or
Australian World War II servicemen who might recall a different history.
Next, Richardson attacked those supporting freedom in West Papua in
strikingly similar tones to those used to demonise Australians for
assisting the East Timorese in their struggle.
He said it was "possible to ask the question whether those whose raison
d'etre was (the independence of) East Timor has now become Papua and
perhaps those critics cling to an Indonesia that no longer exists. For them
to accept the Indonesia of today and to actually reinforce the positive
developments in Indonesia is to deny them their raison d'etre."
It is an interesting line of attack. Criticise people because their concern
for human rights violations extends beyond the boundaries of one territory
(East Timor) and into others (Aceh, West Papua, etc) - who could be ashamed
of such a raison d'etre? - and then argue that because Indonesia is now a
procedural democracy, no further claims of widespread abuses are valid.
These remarks display an ignorance of how far Indonesia still must travel
before it can claim to have developed a democratic political culture.
Civilian control of the military is but one of several prerequisites yet to
be seriously addressed. And as Richardson well knows, it was activists who
campaigned for freedom in East Timor and across the archipelago who led the
call for democratic change in Indonesia while he and his diplomatic class
held hands with the dictator Soeharto, thwarting the very changes he now
wants to champion.
Even more concerning is Richardson's failure to either notice or care about
the deterioration in conditions for the indigenous inhabitants of West
Papua since Indonesia's alleged democratic transition. Where are the
"positive developments" for them?
Finally, in words borrowed from a former Labor prime minister who found
East Timor to be an irritant in his personal odyssey with General Soeharto,
Richardson is equally adamant about the insignificance of atrocities
committed against the republic's Melanesian people: "I certainly don't
believe that policy approaches to Indonesia should be held hostage by the
issue of Papua."
There is little chance of this happening under a Coalition government. As
the 43 asylum seekers on Christmas Island have clearly demonstrated, John
Howard and Alexander Downer are more committed to West Papua's retention
within the Republic of Indonesia than those unfortunate enough to live in
the territory seem to be.
Dr Scott Burchill is senior lecturer in international relations at the
School of International and Political Studies, Deakin University.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/remaking-the-mistakes-of-east-timor/2006/03/14/1142098459749.html
===================
4. Alex the Downer reveals
===================
By Roy Eccleston
From the Australian
March 13, 2006
"The only federal project Mike Rann has not claimed is the Baxter detention
centre."
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18440075-421,00.html
=================================
5. Senator Kerry Nettle visits Glenside, Baxter
=================================
Greens Media
Senator Kerry Nettle
14.03.06
6½ years in Immigration Detention leaves refugee stranded in psychiatric
hospital
Greens Senator Kerry Nettle today visited longterm immigration detainees in
the Glenside psychiatric hospital in Adelaide to see for herself the
condition of those the government have kept locked up indefinitely.
"One man I met today has been in detention for over six years, and has
developed very serious mental and physical illnesses during this difficult
time," Senator Nettle said.
"This period of time in detention makes this man another Peter Qasim, the
longterm detainee who was recently released after seven years.
"Despite the Palmer report's recommendations regarding the need to release
longterm detainees into the community the government continues to hold
dozens of detainees who have all but given up hope for release.
"The nature of indefinite mandatory detention has put these men into
psychiatric care.
"The men I met with today were mentally well when they where imprisoned by
the Immigration Department, but have become sick while in immigration
detention.
"The government spends over $3 million each year on psychiatric care at
Glenside to treat problems its immigration detention policy has created.
"It costs over $800 per day per detainee to keep them at Glenside hospital,
which is a cost incurred as a direct consequence of locking people up at
Baxter detention centre."
Senator Nettle will visit the Port Augusta Housing Project and Baxter
Detention Centre tomorrow.
Contact - Jon Edwards 0428 213 146
=================================
6. Protesters take part in Queen's baton relay
=================================
ABC ONLINE NEWS
Tuesday, March 14, 2006. 4:23pm (AEDT)
A Queen's baton relay runner has campaigned against the practice of capital
punishment in Commonwealth countries.
Father Peter Norden was supported by a group of silent protesters as he ran
through inner-city Melbourne this afternoon.
The protesters held red placards with the words "Shame Singapore Shame" as
Father Norden went past.
Father Norden, who campaigned against Singapore's hanging of convicted drug
trafficker Van Nyugen last year, has rejected criticism of the protest.
He says the Commonwealth Games baton relay is an appropriate place to
champion his cause.
"Thirty-five of the 37 Commonwealth countries that have capital punishment
still put a noose around people's necks," he said.
"We don't believe that in a civilised society that this practice should
continue."
He has compared the protest to the Queen's campaign against AIDS and says
the Commonwealth Games is an appropriate place to raise the issue.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200603/s1591443.htm
===========================================
7. Immigration policy is still a blight on the land of the fair go
===========================================
The Age
EDITORIAL
March 14, 2006
A SENATE majority report this month called for an end to the system of
indefinite mandatory detention because of the harm done to people who had
the misfortune to be almost completely at its mercy. The present system, it
concluded, "is unable to meet the twin objectives of preserving the
integrity of the migration program while ensuring the humane treatment of
non-nationals". One might add Australian nationals and residents, given the
cases of Vivian Alvarez Solon and Cornelia Rau, as well as many others that
are still being investigated by the Commonwealth Ombudsman. The report also
urged an end to deportation of long-term Australian residents on character
grounds. Coalition senators complained in a dissenting report that the
majority report was "substantially flawed by a biased and highly selective
use of the evidence presented". In The Age's view, the evidence of human
suffering and injustice speaks for itself.
This month alone more cases have shown the system can still be as inhumane,
costly and plain stupid as it was before Immigration Minister Amanda
Vanstone took aim at her department's "culture". Although this is a real
problem, bad policy such as the Pacific Solution, as conceived by the
Government, is the root cause. The effects are laid bare on the desolate
and bankrupt island state of Nauru, which was contracted to house detainees
offshore. As The Age's Michael Gordon reported, "two of the world's
loneliest asylum seekers", who were sent to Nauru nearly 4½ years ago, are
to be left on their own in a camp that costs Australia $1 million a month
to maintain.
Muhammad Faisal, 26, and Mohammad Sagar, 29, are not the opportunist
"illegal immigrants" of popular imagination; they have been found to be
refugees from persecution in Iraq. An adverse ASIO assessment meant they
were left behind when 25 others were allowed to enter Australia last year.
They have not been told why they are regarded as a security threat, so
cannot respond to any accusations. There is no provision for appeals or
independent review of the assessment. For them, Nauru is a mini-Guantanamo
Bay, out of sight, beyond help in the courts and hellish for their state of
mind.
Christmas Island may be more comfortable for 43 West Papuan asylum seekers
who were detained in January, but that does not allay concerns about
mandatory detention in remote places. Taxpayers are again needlessly
burdened — it cost $73,000 to fly two of the group to Perth for medical
treatment two days after their transfer to the island.
Then there is the case of deported Melburnian Robert Jovicic, who was left
destitute on the streets of Belgrade. He was allowed to return last week on
compassionate grounds, only to learn that his special purpose visa expires
on April 6. Officials told him to "act in good faith" and apply for
citizenship of Serbia, where he had never lived before his 2004 deportation
on character grounds. Having lived here for all but two of his 39 years, he
is essentially Australian, except in official eyes, and is properly
Australia's responsibility. Still, there is no right of appeal against the
minister's decision. Mr Jovicic is now a hostage of cruel uncertainty and
needs psychiatric care. Ali Tastan was also deported and left destitute, in
Turkey this time. As an Australian who has schizophrenia, his case again
raises questions about the treatment of people with mental illness, whether
that is a factor in being detained or a consequence of it.
Regardless of illness, it is wrong to subject people who have not been
convicted of any crime to indefinite detention. The common factor in cases
such as those of detainees Mr X and Mr Y, on which the Ombudsman's damning
report was tabled this month, is a disregard for the seriousness of
depriving individuals of their liberty for years on end. That is where
mandatory indefinite detention leads. Any policy that relies on
indiscriminate detention and deportation is itself contemptuous of people
who are often vulnerable as a result of persecution or mental illness. At a
time when Commonwealth Games visitors from around the world are being
welcomed with a celebration of so much that is good about this country, it
is a jarring shame that such an inhumane system remains in place.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/editorial/immigration-policy-is-still-a-blight-on-the-land-of-the-fair-go/2006/03/13/1142098400552.html
===========================
8. Julia's not got what it takes? Balls!
===========================
The Age
By Kaz Cooke
March 14, 2006
JULIA Gillard, it's said, has four strikes against her as a possible leader
of the ALP. Never mind that only three strikes will see you off the field
in baseball, a strategic game made extra fun by sneaking to the next base,
secret signals and, in my case, sleeping with the coach. But I digress.
I don't know what the ALP brains trust, which by now must be four blokes
and an urn, is thinking. Surely they can't have many members or much more
than $2.50 left. And Kim Beazley has about as much chance of being elected
prime minister as an iceberg lettuce.
Last time I voted in a federal election, I was so thrilled there was an
alternative candidate to the ALP and the Liberals in my electorate I tried
to vote for her twice. Anything to avoid going for the mob who took away
poor people's right to have decent teeth, or for the ones who let them get
away with it.
Telling the Labor Party faction-fanciers that Beazley can't win seems about
as effective as a lecture on manners and common decency from Senator Bill
Heffernan. Under Beazley, the ALP is like an elderly labrador. While the
Government is taking away so many workers' rights it makes you wonder when
oxygen will be listed as a perk, the labrador opens one eye and farts like
a sigh, its paws twitching in dreamlike reverie.
Sorry, where was I? Four strikes against Julia Gillard. She's a Victorian,
she's from the left of the party, she's a woman, and she doesn't have a
husband and kids.
Imagine if she did have a husband and kids - they'd be hounded by the media
while she was accused of neglecting her family to do her job. Not like all
those absent fathers in Parliament who couldn't tell you their kids'
favourite colours, the drama teacher's name or what their offspring had for
tea last night.
While being a man in Parliament is apparently a get-out-of-town free card
for buggering off and poncing about sounding important while their wives
get on with the sticky and exhausting end of bringing up children,
apparently it's somehow compulsory for women in Parliament to have kids.
I don't know whether Miss Gillard knows one end of a bub from the other,
and I don't care, although I bet she's quite experienced with tantrums. I
like her joke that she can't remember what colour her real hair is because
she's been dyeing it so long. Lots of women will relate to that.
Brace yourself for the thinly veiled accusations that Gillard is frigid, or
slutty, or bats for the other team. It's got to be one of the three,
doesn't it? Or, phwoarr, all of em!
Kim Beazley won't admit he's a dirigible that's snapped its moorings, full
of warm air, pootling across the sky in increasingly elliptical parabolas
of pointlessness. And if the ALP seriously can't consider a new leader
because he's not from Sydney and he believes in slightly more social
justice than Donald Trump and he's a she, then they may as well tie
themselves in a hessian sack and throw themselves in the Yarra right now.
I don't know much about Kevin Rudd, but he seems rather across the AWB
business, and, frankly, somebody's got to be. He's keeping his head down
and travels with his own testicles, so there's much more chance of him
suddenly strolling into the lead position, like that gold medal-winning
Olympic skater did when everyone else in the race fell over.
Please, Australian Labor Party, the country is begging you. Get a new
leader. Choose Rudd or Gillard, or a compromise — Molly Meldrum's a bloke
with a girly name. Let the new leader pick their own team regardless of
which stupid faction they belong to, then make like a rottweiler and go
after that smirkfest they call the Liberal Party.
For God's sake, Tony Abbott's in charge of women's health. Somebody, do
something.
Kaz Cooke is a Melbourne writer and cartoonist.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/julias-not-got-what-it-takes-balls/2006/03/13/1142098401951.html
=============================================
9. UN human rights forum suspends meeting amid reform talks
=============================================
ABC ONLINE NEWS
Tuesday, March 14, 2006. 0:00am (AEDT)
The United Nations (UN) top human rights forum began what could be its
final session ever, but the gathering was suspended immediately to give
governments time to reach a deal on its replacement.
Peruvian Ambassador Manuel Rodriguez Cuadros brought down his gavel to end
the meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission after just four minutes of
purely procedural statements.
On Friday, Rodriguez Cuadros and member governments of the 53-nation
commission agreed to put their annual six-week session on ice for a week
because all 191 members of the UN General Assembly had still been unable to
reach consensus on setting up a new UN Human Rights Council.
"The system of protection of human rights of the United Nations faces a
situation of exceptional importance," Rodriguez Cuadros told the meeting.
Critics say the commission, which was created in the late 1940s, has lost
its way amid political horsetrading, that it is tarnished by the presence
among its member states of notorious human rights abusers, and that it
fails to tackle violations by powerful countries.
The General Assembly is expected to meet at UN headquarters in New York
this week to try to find its way out of the impasse over the creation of
the council.
Broad support
A draft text already on the table there has broad support among member
states but is opposed by the United States.
The draft calls for the council to have 47 members, elected by secret
ballot by an absolute majority of the UN's 191 members.
The panel would meet three times a year for a minimum of 10 weeks.
But Washington says that the current proposal would simply perpetuate the
faults of the commission.
"It would be too easy for countries that are habitual violators of human
rights to get onto the Human Rights Council," Kevin Moley, the US
ambassador to the UN in Geneva, says.
"We're not interested in rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. The
commission has been a failure," he said.
"If you have a council which looks very much like the commission, you're
not protecting human rights."
The United States wants a smaller body whose members would be elected by a
two-thirds majority of the General Assembly, and has indicated that it
would prefer a delay of months in addressing the issue.
"There's always a chance that some agreement could be reached. But our
position is firm at the moment: we would continue to vote no," Mr Moley said.
Talks to continue
It was not immediately clear if the commission session in Geneva would kick
off again from March 20 if the General Assembly failed to strike a deal in
New York over the coming week.
Mr Moley says there is little point in a formal session.
"We would be for a short, truncated, procedural-only commission in order to
do the necessary transitional work to a council," he said.
Asked whether postponing the commission indefinitely until there was an
agreement on the council would cause a vacuum in human rights monitoring,
Mr Moley says:
"The commission as it has been operating in recent years has not filled the
vacuum. It has been ineffective," he said.
"Why one would think that having a commission which is a discredited
institution is a furtherance of human rights is a mystery to the United
States."
- AFP
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200603/s1590693.htm
=================================
10. Iran to spend millions foiling US 'meddling'
=================================
ABC ONLINE NEWS
Tuesday, March 14, 2006. 9:08am (AEDT)
Iran's Parliament has approved spending $13.6 million to counter what it
calls "plots and acts of meddling" by the United States.
The Parliament's action is in response to the US administration, which has
recently set aside $75 million for what it calls "advancing democracy in Iran".
A commentary by Iran's state-run news agency said the US money is for
conducting psychological warfare and funding what it calls "tools of
espionage" against Iran.
The Parliament has now approved a budget of almost $13.6 million in next
year's Budget.
It said the money will be spent to help foil plots and act of meddling by
the US.
It is not clear how the money will be spent.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200603/s1590784.htm
==================================
11. Muslims show support for English sermons
==================================
The Age
March 13, 2006 - 6:10PM
Some Australian Muslims have shown an interest in having mosque-based
sermons translated into English, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says.
Some sections of the Islamic leadership in the United Kingdom had already
canvassed the idea and it was now taking root in Australia, he said.
"Some people in the Australian context see the value that the British
Islamic leadership has placed in having English language translations
available, if not sermons given in English," Mr Ruddock told Sky news.
"In the United Kingdom ... at the moment Islamic leadership is demanding
that in the mosques there be either English sermons ... or translations
available."
But he declined to spell out whether he supported the idea.
"I'm not in the business of prescribing how we exercise freedom of worship
in Australia."
© 2006 AAP
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Muslims-show-support-for-English-sermons/2006/03/13/1142098397220.html
=====================
12. Cronulla riot shook Rafter
=====================
The Age / AAP
March 14, 2006 - 1:45PM
Tennis great Pat Rafter has revealed how badly affected he was by the
Cronulla riot as he continues in his quest to promote multiculturalism in
Queensland.
Rafter has told of the unease that could be felt in Sydney during the riot
and subsequent revenge attacks - a time he spent with close friend and
Lleyton Hewitt's coach, Roger Rasheed, who is of Lebanese origin.
The two-time US Open champion described the December 11 riot and its
aftermath as a shame but was confident the incidents did not represent the
view of the majority of Australians.
"There was definitely a lot of tension because I was hanging out at that
particular time with Lleyton Hewitt's coach, Roger Rasheed, who is also
Lebanese," Rafter said.
"There's only a few here and there who were up to mischief but I could feel
the tension within him.
"He was looking around thinking, 'OK, what's going to happen to me' and it
was such a shame.
"It was really disappointing and I saw that first hand on a couple of
occasions.
"There was another situation also, not with Roger, but with someone else so
it's just unfortunate at that time.
"Things have passed and people are a lot smarter and aware to that fact now."
Rafter, crowned Queensland's inaugural multicultural champion last year,
believed the racial tension that led to the riot had lifted.
"We saw at Cronulla the handshakes (after the riot) and I think there's
going to be a lot of friendships made out of that also," he said.
"People will look back and say I was silly and there'll be a lot of regret
there for a lot of people and I honestly hope they think that way."
Rafter said he was happy to volunteer his services to promoting
multiculturalism in Queensland whenever family commitments allowed him to.
"It's something that's very dear to my heart because I've seen a lot of the
world and I know the way things work," he said.
"Most people are great. It's just the odd one here and there that causes
trouble for both sides and we'd just like to let them know that the
majority of people don't think that way."
© 2006 AAP
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Cronulla-riot-shook-Rafter/2006/03/14/1142098446378.html
========================
13. Mandarins stall FOI requests
========================
The Australian
Michael McKinnon, FOI Editor
March 14, 2006
BUREAUCRATS are deliberately stalling policy-related Freedom of Information
requests, a commonwealth Ombudsman's investigation has revealed.
The report also shows FOI requests are not acknowledged properly, face
excessive delays and government decisions are poorly explained.
The commonwealth Ombudsman, professor John McMillan, has recommended
creating an FOI commissioner who could monitor compliance by government
agencies.
"The investigation supports the view that the FOI Act works well in
facilitating public access to personal information but not so well in
providing access to policy-related information," he says.
"The Australian Law Reform Commission, the Administrative Review Council,
the commonwealth Ombudsman and the Senate Legal and Constitutional
Legislation Committee have revealed similar findings in previous reports.
"There is now consensus that many of the shortcomings could be addressed
with the establishment of a constant, independent monitor."
A spokesman for federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said the report and
its recommendations had only recently been provided and would receive
careful consideration.
The report, to be released today, says that in some agencies there are
"systemic delays caused by insufficient resources allocated to processing
FOI requests".
There "appears to be a culture of compliant but protracted processing of
FOI requests" in other government agencies.
The report recommends that agency managers issue a clear statement to staff
committing to sound FOI practice and the goals of the FOI Act - extending
as far as possible the right of the Australian community to access
information in the Government's possession.
It also says that when agencies claim exemptions that justify
non-disclosure, the exemptions are not always fully explained.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18456602%255E2702,00.html
=============================
14. Govt claims immunity at Cole inquiry
=============================
ABC ONLINE NEWS
Tuesday, March 14, 2006. 12:47pm (AEDT)
A legal claim from the Government has delayed the appearance of federal
officials at the oil-for-food inquiry.
The inquiry had been expected to begin hearing evidence from foreign
affairs officials this morning, but is now considering a claim for
"immunity in the public interest".
The Government has said it is cooperating fully with the Cole inquiry.
The inquiry has heard that the general thrust of evidence from Department
of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials, if they appear, is that they acted
as a post box for AWB.
They will tell the inquiry that the Australian wheat export contracts were
not reviewed, merely sent on to the United Nations for approval.
Commissioner Terence Cole has heard that wheat contracts paid for from UN
oil-for-food accounts were inflated to pay almost $300 million to Saddam
Hussein's regime between 1999 and 2002.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200603/s1591149.htm
=====================
15. ACTU calls for visa inquiry
=====================
ABC ONLINE NEWS
Monday, March 13, 2006. 4:07pm (AEDT)
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) wants an independent inquiry
into Australia's business visa program because it believes foreign workers
are being exploited.
The Department of Immigration is investigating claims that US company
Halliburton has employed Indonesian workers in South Australia on
conditions not equal to local standards.
Unions also cite Teys Brothers Abattoir in Naracoorte, which is using the
visa program to employ Chinese workers.
At the same time, 20 workers remain locked out because they will not sign
individual contracts.
ACTU president Sharan Burrow says the business visas should not be used to
replace local workers.
"These short-stay visas are now being abused," she said.
"We've called for the Ombudsman to inquire into the use of these Visas,
because obviously DIMIA [the Department of Immigration and Multicultural
and Indigenous Affairs] is not able to police its own rules and regulations."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200603/s1590429.htm
==================================
16. Business visa program out of control: ACTU
==================================
The World Today - Monday 13 March 2006
Reporter: Jennifer Macey
ELEANOR HALL: The Australian Council of Trade Unions is today accusing the
Federal Government of letting Australia's business visa program run out of
control.
Almost 400,000 temporary business visas were issued last year, with numbers
growing and the ACTU says the Department of Immigration and Multicultural
Affairs has failed to check that overseas workers are being paid award wages.
The union body has now asked the Commonwealth Ombudsman to investigate the
Government's temporary business visa program.
But business groups argue skilled migration will greatly boost the economy,
which is suffering from a skills shortage.
This report from Jennifer Macey.
JENNIFER MACEY: A recent Productivity Commission report showed that in the
last financial year almost 700,000 foreigners were working in Australia on
temporary business or working holiday visas.
And over the past 10 years people entering Australia on temporary business
visas has doubled to nearly 400,000.
The number of long stay business visas, that allow people from overseas to
work for up to four years, has also grown by 24 per cent to nearly 50,000.
ACTU President Sharan Burrow says this visa program is out of control.
SHARAN BURROW: Well more than 18 months ago the Minister told us that she
would not entertain guest labour in Australia. We were heartened by that.
But her department is now presiding over, in effect, just that. People who
are enslaved to one employer, totally dependent on them for transport,
often food, certain accommodation, able to be deported on the whim of that
employer, and exploited into the bargain.
JENNIFER MACEY: Unions argue that some employers are using temporary visa
programs to exploit overseas workers by paying under award wages and
forcing people to work long hours.
The ACTU is now asking the Federal Ombudsman to investigate how the
Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs issues these temporary
business visas.
And Ms Burrow says there are dozen of examples where employers go to labour
firms seeking short stay workers.
SHARAN BURROW: We've seen highlighted cases in the last couple of weeks of
everything from Filipino women being used in high-class Canberra
restaurants in exploitative ways, to Slovenian workers being paid in their
own country, not even paying taxes in Australia, but forced to work 60 hours.
We've seen Murray Bridge where, you know, local workers have been locked
out of the abattoirs and Chinese workers replacing them. The list goes on.
It's a tale of horror in regards an Australia who, for all intents and
purposes, has to date treated their workers with respect.
JENNIFER MACEY: However, business leaders say the Government's skilled
migration program is essential to solving the skills shortage crisis facing
many industries, brought about in part by record low unemployment and an
ageing workforce.
Peter Hendy is the Chief Executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce
and Industry.
He rejects union claims that the temporary visas are, in effect, a guest
worker program.
PETER HENDY: I think that they're running a scare campaign, to be honest.
The union movement is historically a knee-jerk protectionist grouping,
wanting to keep out skilled workers from overseas. I think this is just a
continuation of that.
In fact, what we need in this country is to tap into the ability to get
skilled workers to come into Australia. We have major skill shortages. It's
a function of the fact that we've got an ageing population, and we've got
the best unemployment figures for 30 years. So if we want to deal with the
skill shortage issue we have, one of the issues we need to look at is
migration.
JENNIFER MACEY: But there have been cases where people from overseas on
temporary visas have been paid below award wages.
PETER HENDY: Well, if people are abusing the law, they should be
prosecuted. I've got no hesitation in saying that.
JENNIFER MACEY: Business groups say many foreign workers are doing the jobs
that don't appeal to Australians, such as fruit picking in rural areas or
factory work.
But unions say that many local workers are pushed out of jobs by cheaper
overseas migrants.
ELEANOR HALL: Jennifer Macey reporting.
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2006/s1590314.htm
======================
17. Iraq: the doomed adventure
======================
The Age
By Hugh White
March 14, 2006
WHEN he sent our forces to help invade Iraq, John Howard was sure they
would not be there long: months, not years, he said. Last week his new
Defence Minister, Brendan Nelson, was visiting the troops still in Iraq
three years after the invasion. And he made it clear he expected them to
stay a lot longer still.
I'm sure Dr Nelson is right. So how and why was John Howard so wrong?
The conventional view, fed by an acrimonious flood of critical "I told you
so" memoirs and analyses, is that a brilliantly successful invasion was
followed by a hopelessly ill-planned and mismanaged occupation.
They didn't stop the looting after Saddam Hussein fell, they didn't restore
power and water supplies, they didn't crack down early and hard on the
insurgency, they didn't have enough troops in the country. The new accepted
wisdom is that if only these errors had been avoided, Iraq would now be
well on the way to stability and democracy, and our troops would be safely
on their way home.
I don't buy it. The failure in Iraq is not a failure of execution; it's a
failure of conception. The occupation and political reconstruction of Iraq
was not a good idea badly implemented. It was a bad idea that no amount of
administrative skill, political savvy, cultural sensitivity or military
firepower could have made work.
You can see why political leaders might prefer to see the problems in Iraq
as failures of execution. That shifts the blame a little from those who
thought of the idea to those who had to carry it out. But if we are to
learn by our mistakes, it is important to understand exactly what those
mistakes were, and who made them.
We need to face squarely the mistakes of our leaders. We can all be glad
that Saddam no longer rules Iraq. But we all know that none of the leaders
who conceived and drove the invasion would have done so had they been able
to foresee how things stand in Iraq today. Howard was more careful than the
others, but he lent his weight and Australia's to their arguments.
They all misunderstood the costs and risks they were running in setting out
to reshape Iraq. And that is what they were about. One thing the flood of
instant history has made clear is that, while Howard, George Bush and Tony
Blair undoubtedly believed Iraq had WMD, that was not why the invasion went
ahead. It went ahead to destroy the Baath regime and replace it with
something more congenial, something more aligned with our interests and,
they stressed, our values.
The conception at the heart of this enterprise was that, if a fully
functioning liberal democratic Iraq did not spring spontaneously from the
ashes of Saddam's dictatorship, it could be speedily and efficiently
conjured by the application of American power. Especially military power;
the whole project was, after all, a Pentagon initiative.
This misconception was powered by a misunderstanding of the nature and
limits of armed force. Armies are good at fighting other armies, but they
are of limited use for anything else. The contrary view is the beguiling
illusion that military force can be used to achieve political goals and
promote values, rather than secure purely military objectives.
It is an idea that not even Vietnam could quite kill off. The invasion of
Iraq three years ago was a product of its resurgence. The situation in Iraq
today is yet another demonstration of its fallacy. A force of 180,000
troops — and the expenditure of billions of dollars a month — gives the
coalition very little influence over what happens in Iraq today, or over
the shape of Iraq's future. There is still a faint chance that Iraq's
ill-matched factions will find a way to work together in some semblance of
national government. But whether they do or not is out of our hands.
We had the power to destroy Saddam Hussein's regime, but not to build a new
one. Only the Iraqis can do that. Only they can make the compromises, build
the trust, contain their fears and curb their rage enough to generate the
sense of shared interests necessary to make Iraq work as a democratic
political entity. All we can do is watch.
Our leaders claim that we can make a difference by training Iraq's security
forces, so that Iraqis can defeat the insurgency and then get on with
forming a government and a cohesive state. I'm sceptical. At the practical
level, how can the coalition forces teach Iraqis to fight the insurgency
when it is so clear that they cannot fight it effectively themselves? But
more fundamentally, Iraq can't build an effective army before there is an
effective government for it to serve. Iraq's security forces will do
nothing to stabilise Iraq until they have an effective, legitimate and
broadly supported government to follow.
In Iraq, the politics is primary, and over the politics we in the coalition
have almost no influence at all. All the talk of training the security
forces is just a way to cover our impotence. So, should the coalition pull
out now? I still do not think so. From the Iraqis' point of view, the fact
of our impotence cuts both ways: we are not doing much good, but nor are we
doing much harm. There remains no reason to think that if the coalition
left, Iraqis would quickly make peace, and it may be that just by being
there we help to prevent things getting worse.
From the coalition's point of view, and especially Washington's, to leave
now would be a disastrous political and strategic defeat, with
unpredictable consequences. Of course, it might come to that anyway, but in
the meantime our leaders just hang on and hope that, even if we have
failed, the Iraqis will somehow make something work. It's a forlorn hope,
but better than certain humiliation.
And for Australia? We are there, above all, to support our ally. As an
exercise in alliance management, that is probably justified. But the fact
that we find ourselves in this predicament, compelled to sustain a largely
futile symbolic presence in a land in which we can achieve so little, is a
testament to the failure of Howard's initial conception.
We need to remember this the next time someone tries to argue that we
should send our new Hardened and Networked Army to promote Australia's
values far away.
Hugh White is a visiting fellow at the Lowy Institute and professor of
strategic studies at ANU.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/iraq-the-doomed-adventure/2006/03/13/1142098401936.html
==================================
18. Democrats push to close Guantanamo jail
==================================
The Age / AAP
March 14, 2006 - 8:09AM
The Australian Democrats have launched a petition calling for the US
Guantanamo Bay military prison to be closed.
The continuing incarceration of South Australian accused terrorist David
Hicks was a disgrace, Democrats foreign affairs spokeswoman Natasha Stott
Despoja said.
"David Hicks has languished in the Guantanamo gulag for four years and
still has no real prospect of receiving a fair trial," Senator Stott
Despoja said.
"Guantanamo Bay is saturated with breaches of international law and the
facility must be shut down."
Hicks, formerly of Adelaide, has been locked up at Guantanamo Bay since his
capture in Afghanistan in late 2001.
He is charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes, attempted murder and
aiding the enemy.
About 490 foreign terrorism suspects, many of them suspected Islamist
militants, are being held at the US naval base in Cuba.
Most have been detained for three years or more and only 10 have been
charged with a crime.
© 2006 AAP
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Democrats-push-to-close-Guantanamo-jail/2006/03/14/1142098430282.html
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