Prime Minister Scott Morrison can learn from the pitfalls that contributed to the downfall of the Rudd and Gillard governments.
Iranian Kurdish poet Behrouz Boochani, a long term detainee on Manus, wrote about the cruelty he witnessed in detention in his book, No Friend but the Mountain.
Amnesty International via AAP
It’s critical that the Australian government take a new direction in refugee policy and move beyond its tired rhetoric of deterrence as a justification for detaining refugees on Nauru and Manus.
Iranian theatre company Verbatim Theatre Group performed Manus as part of this year’s Adelaide Festival.
Mohammad Sadeq Zarjouyan
He is not, however, being accompanied by Home Affairs
Minister Peter Dutton, who leads much of the campaigning on the issue.
Crossbenchers Kerryn Phelps, Julia Banks and Rebekah Sharkie celebrate the passing of the “Medivac” law through the House of Representatives.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Since the Tampa affair in 2001, successive governments have been anxious to be seen as “hard-line” on asylum seekers, but the cost – to people and the country – has been too high.
This week One Nation and Brian Burston were beyond embarrassing.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
If the government really intends to “reopen” Christmas Island in any major way, it could find itself spending a lot of money there on few if any people.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and other Coalition MPs described Labor as weak on borders after the opposition and the crossbench voted to pass a bill allowing medical transfers from Manus and Nauru.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
A refugee law expert on a week of ‘reckless’ rhetoric and a new way to process asylum seeker claims
The Conversation44 MB(download)
Today on Trust Me, I'm An Expert, a refugee legal expert busts myths about how proposed medical transfer rules would work, and described some of this week's border security rhetoric as 'reckless'.
Phelps has only been in parliament since she won the Wentworth by-election but she has got one big win under her belt.
Lukas Coch/AAP
A bill to allow for asylum seeker on Nauru and Manus Island to be transferred to Australia for medical and psychiatric treatment has passed both Houses. How will it change things for those detained?
Shorten has been caught every which way in the last few days.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
After Shorten was briefed by security officials and with enormous political pressure coming from the government, Labor moved back from its support of the bill as it has come out of the Senate.
In the event Labor holds firm, all eyes will be on independent Cathy McGowan, the crossbencher whose vote is still a question mark.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
If the government feels it is on the rack over the amendments, Labor also is in an awkward position, and at least one of the independents finds herself in the spotlight.
The Prime Minister has been anxious over the last two days to hose down talk that a government defeat on the bill could lead to an election.
Rob Blakers/AAP
Morrison declares the amendments, based on a proposal from independent Kerryn Phelps, would leave the government powerless to stop the entry of a paedophile, rapist or murderer.
The government has been hopeful that it can persuade independent Cathy McGowan to break ranks with other crossbench supporters of the bill.
Lukas Coch/AAP
Scott Morrison and David Coleman said: “There are now only four asylum seeker children on Nauru and they have all been approved for departure to the United States of America with their families”.
With the Morrison government now in minority, it is possible a bill for the transfer of asylum seekers from Nauru could pass against the government’s wishes.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
There has been recent speculation that governments could advise royal assent not be granted if bills are passed against their wishes. Here’s why this is very unlikely to happen.
Detail from Alex Seton’s A Durable Solution? - a series of memorial plaques naming the 12 men who have died under our ‘care’.
Sullivan & Strumpf
Alex Seton’s sculpture A Durable Solution? dominates the protest exhibition at the forthcoming ALP national conference. He has also created an official memorial to Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan
In happier times: Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison are now in dispute about the purpose of Turnbull attending the Oceans conference on Australia’s behalf.
AAP/Lukas Coch
It has been another turbulent week in politics, this time capped off by a difference of opinion between the most recent former prime minister and the current one.
This week’s fallout from Turnbull’s Indonesian excursion has undermined Morrison on foreign policy – about which he gave his first major address on Thursday – and cast doubt on his personal credibility.
Dan Himbrechts/AAP
For years Turnbull had to endure the sniping of Abbott, the man he brought down. Now Turnbull is the sniper at the window, though Morrison didn’t cause his fall (unless you buy the conspiracy
theory).
Hanns’ arguments challenge the strong warnings from Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton about the danger of reviving the people.
smuggling trade if there is any relaxation of policy.
Lukas Coch/AAP
In a paper being sent to all federal MPs, Shaun Hanns argues that current policy is based on an unfounded belief that resettlement in Australia would lead to an out-of-control influx of boat arrivals.
Saturday’s disaster in the Wentworth byelection, in which refugee policy was an issue, underlined the political necessity of making.
progress.
AAP Image/ Refugee Action Coalition