Once You've Been to Baxter You Can't Sit on the Fence

A story from the Baxter 05 convergence written by the NUS National Environment Officer.

I spent this Easter in the desert. I spent this Easter protesting at Baxter detention centre to draw the world's attention to the injustice of Australia's racist and inhumane mandatory detention system and treatment of asylum seekers.

Thursday morning as I heaved my pack onto the bus outside UTS, Sydney, all I was feeling was tired. Although I'd been planning for Baxter for months now, getting posters out from NUS and trying to get new students involved, I felt so unprepared. I'd even forgotten my hat.

Most of the people on my bus, including me, had never been to Baxter before. On the TV screen at the front, as the small towns hurtled past on the 25 hour journey, we watched footage of the last Baxter convergence, in 2003, and the convergence before that at Woomera. Watching footage of the fences being pulled down was so beautiful. Even more beautiful was the fact that there had been no police there to stop it!

When we got to Adelaide and to the Uni, I wished I'd had time before we left to make some placards and banners. I had so many ideas in my head but they weren't much use there now. Marching to Amanda Vandstone's house in the hot sun with only a small group of us on the pavement through suburbia wasn't the start to the full-on weekend I'd expected, but soon we moved to the road and as we walked up the hill the momentum built.

Waiting for us were the Melbourne crew, and our numbers doubled as we started chanting in front of the lines of cops protecting the residence of one of the people responsible for perpetuating some of the worst human rights abuses in Australia.

I made a speech. It was the first time I've made a speech into a megaphone. I had written it at breakfast this morning because I'd learnt some of the scheduled speakers had pulled out. People listened and I hoped they couldn't hear my voice shaking. I wondered if the police behind me were listening too, of if they were tuning out. The media microphones and cameras pointing at me freaked me out a bit. But people afterwards told me it was a good speech, and I was quoted in The Australian which was exciting for my mum (hi mum!).

After we'd had a meeting and decided where to camp, we set the tents up and marched down to the detention centre. The lights around the perimeter fence were so bright they burned the backs of my eyes. A police helicopter flew above us with a spotlight relentlessly searching the ground for any signs of activists on covert missions, or asylum seekers lucky enough to have escaped from the fortified prison. Not that there was any chance of anyone escaping this weekend; there were as many police as protesters there, as we soon learnt.

The white wooden fence posts in front of the barbed wire electric fence were shaking that night as we drummed and sung and chanted and made as much noise as we could, trying to let those imprisoned inside know that we were here, that we were here for them, that we cared, that not all Australians were racist and willing to lock them up in the desert for the "crime" of seeking asylum and fleeing from persecution.

We stayed until exhaustion set in and our throats were sore, then marched back to the tents where I fell into a deep sleep amongst the red desert dust under a full moon and a night speckled with the stars you just can't see in the city, interrupted only by the police helicopter and its intrusive lights. Just over the hill were the asylum seekers in the hell-hole of Baxter. I didn't know if they were sleeping or awake, but I hoped they knew I was thinking of them as I fell asleep.

Saturday morning, and another 3.5 km march down to the detention centre. We wanted to walk around the whole perimeter of the centre and we carried balloons to fly over the centre so the detainees could see them. They can only see up, not outwards. Only sky. And hopefully, our coloured balloons gave them hope.

The police didn't want us to march around the perimeter. We knocked down the first fence and kept going. I was wishing I hadn't worn thongs as I found myself at the front and staring at the heavy police boots. We chanted so the detainees could hear us and to keep our own spirits up. AZadi - freeDOM - AZadi - freeDOM echoed from all of us to the beat of the drums we carried.

My own drum was just an empty water container tied over my shoulder by a scarf. It was soon lost in the police scuffle as they charged on us, marching in blue and khaki lines into our linked arms. It was scary. I was scared. It felt like a war zone. A line of us, a line of them. We began to retreat. Then the horses charged, at a trot. A row of white horses. A woman fell over and the horses kept going. She could have died. People were screaming and crying. The media just kept taking footage. My blue thong was lost in the crush but a reporter went closer to the cops than i could have, and handed it back to me. Thankyou. Small acts of kindness in a crazy situation.

We moved back and along to the front gates. Some had been arrested, some hurt, but most of us were fine. Singing and dancing and drumming and chanting outside the gates again, stopping the normal flow of the centre's regularity. Regulated torture. Rules for breaking people down. Dehumanising them. Numbers not names. We stayed until mid afternoon then headed back in the heat to the tents.

Saturday evening a small group of us headed down to the centre again bearing kites. A woman had been arrested last year for flying one but the charges had been dropped. We had made beautiful ones and hoped we could get them over the fence so the detainees could see them. The sun was setting over the desert and it was incredibly beautiful. I wished the people behind the bars could see this and be here with us now. We take our freedom for granted in Australia.

The police soon appeared when they realised we were coming with kites. One woman was flying a kite by herself when a line of about eight police marched towards her in formation. 'Run' we screamed, but she didn't. She walked towards them as if to ask what was going on, and they grabbed her. She was arrested. Some kites were seized. We headed back, only to find the rest of the camp marching towards us on the road. They'd heard we needed support and so came down. If only they'd been there half an hour before!

They continued down to the gates to hold a vigil that night. I went back to the tents to sleep. Apparantly at the gates someone got drunk and naked and played guitar to the police. Of course, that's the bit the media showed. I wish people would think about the consequences of their actions before they act; and that applies just as much to activists as it does to Amanda Vandstone and John Howard. At the camp that night we heard news from some of those at the vigil that they could hear the detainees shouting and chanting back to them through the fence.

Easter morning I woke up to the singing of one of the Aboriginal elders, the custodians of the land. I thought of all the Australians that would be going to church this morning. Teaching their 2.5 kids about the Christian values of compassion and loving thy neighbour (unless they arrive on a boat and are not white). Jesus was a middle Eastern man persecuted for his beliefs about social justice. Would he be given asylum in John Howard's Australia?

We held one last march to the detention centre that morning. Rosie and I held the banner we wanted to fly as a kite, held up with tens of helium balloons. It read Freedom; close Baxter, and then freedom written in four different languages. I wasn't very excited about the prospect of being arrested for flying a kite, but at least today I wasn't wearing thongs. Before we really knew what was happening, police lunged and burst the balloons holding up our kite-banner.

I let the string go so it could fly into the sky but it was too late; the balloons were burst and in shreds on the ground. Bright red balloons. Like kids toys. I kicked myself inside for not letting go sooner so it could have flown up above us all, a sign of hope made by Sydney Uni students. Instead, we marched on to the gates.

We amassed at the fence and made as much noise as we could. We flew kites. The police charged through the fence and over the pipeline to confiscate the kites. We kept one and I helped someone put it back together. He flew it as he was running from the police. A few hundred metres down the line, we heard shouting and saw police and police horses hurrying there. Apparantly someone tried to climb the fence.

The cops went crazy, punching one of my friends in the face, jaw and stomach; and throwing another one into a saltbush where her face was badly scratched. They held another one of my friends down over a barbed wire fence. Some more were arrested. It was horrible.

Fighting with police is not why we came. Sure, it got us media, but it was all about the violence. Most of the media were not on our side. I heard the channel 9 (or channel 7 maybe?) cameraman talking to some of the high school activists. People are tortured in there, they go crazy and they end up killing themselves, one girl was telling him. "So what?" he replied. "People top themselves all the time".

I didn't realise I was shaking until I was nearly halfway back to the campsite with my friends from Newcastle. The weekend had been so full-on. I was exhausted, emotionally and physically. Packing up all my gear was excruciatingly hard in the heat. My lips were sunburnt and starting to swell. I lost my sleeping bag and my sleeping mat in my confusion and heatstroke. I just wanted to sleep. But all my friends were around, from all over the country, and as usual, they made me feel better.

In Port Augusta we held a rally in solidarity with the local indigenous community who have experienced a lot of racism and vicious attacks. It made me think about Lake Cowal, where I spent last Easter. At that time I was with a lot of the same crew from Sydney Uni who came to Baxter, only they were in first year then and I was one of the editors of our student paper.

Now the first years are in second year and have become amazing organisers in the refugee campaign, in newly established anti-racism collective, and of course still in the environment movement. Lake Cowal is still under threat from Canadian company Barrick Gold who want to mine the sacred ephemeral lake using cyanide leaching. Asylum seekers are still treated disgustly.

But things are changing, I can tell. Every convergence, every protest, every progressive media article, every person questioning the government. We will change things for the better.

"The world shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage".

By Anna Rose 29 March 05

Related:

Detention Centres, Solitary Confinement
On Friday night the NSW Council for Civil Liberties awarded Sydney solicitor John Marsden honorary life membership. Julian Burnside was invited to make the speech in Marsden's honour. In the course of his speech, Burnside referred to the unregulated use of solitary confinement in Australia's immigration detention centres, criticising it as inhumane and also as unlawful.

MP urges asylum seekers' release
A federal Coalition MP has called for the release of all asylum seekers being held in immigration detention centres.

Rau ordeal a raw deal
Ms Rau spent time in a Queensland prison and a hospital before being handed to immigration authorities who kept her in detention for another four months.

Australian held in Baxter detention centre
It has been revealed an Australian resident has been locked up in Baxter Detention Centre in South Australia for the past four months. Authorities had been unable to establish her identity since she was found wandering in far north Queensland last September.

Lawyers want Baxter detainee released for treatment !
Lawyers acting for a hunger-striking detainee inside South Australia's Baxter detention centre have asked the Federal Court to order a psychiatric assessment for the man, saying he needs to be in mental health care, not detention.

Baxter protesters 'being denied water, sleep'?
One of the three Iranian men has been on the roof of the gymnasium since Sunday last week, with two others joining him on Tuesday.

Detainees urged to abandon rooftop protest!
Kathy Verran from Rural Australians for Refugees, says one of the men has since come down and has been taken into the management unit. [solitary confinement for Xmas?]

Advocates warn of detention centre riot risk
A prominent refugee advocate warns South Australia's Baxter Detention Centre is on the brink of a major riot. A protest involving about 25 male detainees broke out at the centre on Tuesday, over a new system which is delaying the process of dispensing medication to detainees.

Villawood detainees go on hunger strike
A refugee advocacy group says up to 200 detainees at the Villawood Detention Centre, in Sydney, have begun a hunger strike to draw attention to their situation ahead of the federal election.

Afghan children lose High Court battle against detention
Lawyers have lost their constitutional challenge to the detention of four children at a South Australian immigration centre. Four siblings from Afghanistan, aged between seven and 15, have been in detention since they arrived in Australia in 2001.

Australia's "GITMO" System
Australia's "GITMO" System In June 2002 on the PM program on ABC radio, PHILIP RUDDOCK is quoted as saying: "Well, let me just say, detention centres are not prisons. They are administrative detention.

Senior cleric damns Baxter as 'disgraceful'
A senior world religious figure has called on the Federal Government to scrap its mandatory detention policy after visiting the Baxter detention centre in South Australia's north.

Detention centre media ban criticised
The Howard Government has been criticised in a report by media freedom advocate Reporters Without Borders for stopping journalists covering the conditions in refugee detention centres.

Baxter detainee continues hunger strike
A detainee at the Baxter detention centre near Port Augusta in South Australia has been on a hunger strike for a week. Sri Lankan Zeldon Daggie, 23, says he has been detained since arriving in Australia four years ago.

Democrats to keep up pressure over asylum seekers
The Australian Democrats will maintain their pressure on the next federal government over Australia's treatment of asylum seekers, if the party can retain its strength in the Senate.

PM eases stance on his embarrassment?

Fascist Prime Minister JOHN HoWARd tried to ease his embarrassment of the governments hardline mandatory detention policy, agreeing to release up to 100 asylum-seekers from behind razor wire after relentless campaigning by human rights activists.

In the latest victory for human rights activists, cabinet agreed yesterday to allow stateless detainees to live in the community, rather than detention centres, until they could be deported to their country of origin.

Fascist Immigration Minister Amanda Vanitystone is today expected to announce that the holders of the new visas will also be eligible for welfare entitlements, allowing them a better standard of living while in Australia.

The Government's latest shift on refugee policy came after human rights activists raised concerns about conditions in detention centres, with cabinet agreeing to relax strict controls on who can be released into the community. Announcing the shift, HoWARd insisted his fascist Government's hardline policy on border protection and commitment to offshore processing had not been compromised.

"What we have been looking at is a situation where a person has been judged not to be a refugee. In other words, all of the avenues of examination and adjudication have been exhausted, yet for practical purposes that person can't be sent back to the country from whence he came," he said.

"While that situation continues, it's not reasonable that he or she continues to be in detention and the desire is that that person be let out into the community on the understanding that when the impracticability about the person's return has been removed, then that person will be returned to the country from whence he came. Of course, at no stage has it been judged that that person is a refugee."

Senator Vanitystone will have the discretion to determine when to send stateless visa holders back to their country of origin. The new visa category will incorporate those who have exhausted their legal claims against the commonwealth.

The case of long-term stateless detainee Peter Qasim, who is in his seventh year in immigration detention, has been the focus of intense lobbying by Coalition backbenchers and advocates.

Mr Qasim, who claims to be from Kashmir, has dropped all appeals for protection and asked to be deported from Australia, but no country will accept his bid for residency.

The fascist HoWARd Government has and still does take a draconian approach to migration law, fighting hundreds of court battles to cement its right to detain a person living in Australia without a visa, following the arrival of the Tampa boatload of Afghan refugees in August 2001.

HoWARd exploited community angst over refugees at the so-called Tampa election of 2001 by campaigning on the memorable slogan: "We will decide who comes to this country, and the circumstances in which they come".

Human Rights activists have raised the issue of children in detention and stateless detainees with the Immigration Minister. And have been instrumental in changing policy on asylum-seeker issues such as temporary protection visas and regional workers.

Government MP Mr Barresi said last night that he had spoken to Senator Vanstone and Mr Howard of his concerns about the "mental decay" of indefinite detainees.

Mr Barresi said. "(The decision) doesn't undermine the border protection policy the Government has, but it does demonstrate a great deal of compassion."?

The policy change has come as activists from the NSW Refugee Action Coalition plan to rally in the hundreds outside Senator Vanstone's house in Adelaide and then move to Baxter on Good Friday?

By Elizabeth Colman, Steve Lewis and Just Us 23 March 05

Related:

2nd Renaissance -10- Voices Raised In Dissent [155]

"The next thing that came to mind was when you actually get on a river boat and cross that ocean and the river boat disintegrates, crikeys, what they must have been feeling must be pretty bad. I would not have the courage and determination to do that. You know. to cross the ocean in a river boat, I think, takes enormous courage and determination. And those are a couple of qualities that Australians really admire. And so I thought to myself, Anybody who's gone through that and survived and gets to Australia, there's a fair chance they're going to be a worthwhile citizen."

"Well, I'm on the road today. We're coming to Baxter Detention Centre to have a bit of a look. I mean the main reason for me having a look at Baxter is basically for my education, to try and find out a bit more about how refugees have to live, what they've got to put up with. Driving up into Baxter and looking around, the first thing I thought to myself, This looks awfully like a jail to me. So I'm going to be interested to see what its like on the inside."

"Well, having been inside, I guess the two words that sort of come to me are depressing and frustrating. You'd like to be able to do more about it and you sort of feel like you're handcuffed. You're born here and pretty proud of a lot of things that Australia does, but to hear them talk about, you know, some of the things that Australia has done to them was embarrassing. You wanted to say to them, "Look, not all Australians feel that way." And, you know, it's pretty bad. I feel horrible about having to apologise for my own country. That's a horrible position. I don't like being put in that position."

... Ian Chappell, former Test Captain and Australian Cricketing Great, recorded in an Australian Story documentary, shown of national TV, July, 2003.

Note:

The Baxter Detention Centre houses refugees and asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Iraq and other world trouble spots.

The policies and practices of the Australian government in detaining refugees, and the conditions under which they are held, sometimes for years, have been strongly criticised by both the Australian Human Rights Commissioner, Dr Sev Ozdowski, and by Justice P.N. Bhagwati, Former Chief Justice of India, who undertook a review on behalf of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in mid 2002.

In response to the critical content of the latter report, produced on behalf of Mrs Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Australian government issued a terse statement, to the effect that, "Nothing in Justice Bhagwati's report is cause to change the view that Australia's system of immigration detention is effective and not inconsistent with our international obligations."

Obviously, Ian Chappell does not feel that to be the case, and he has spoken out in disgust and anger.

Predictably, one of the three Federal Ministers that issued the joint rebuttal above was the Australian Attorney-General. It was legislation framed by his department, to censor the Internet and legalise Big Brother style surveillance, that prompted Ian Clarke to write Freenet in the first place.

Once elected officials have control over the rule of law, they often come to rely on the fact that everything their regime does within the letter of their own legislation is legal. They overlook the necessity for the both the laws of the land, and their interpretation, to also be fair, humane, and moral. Australia's rule of law is increasingly failing to meet the latter standards.

In reality, the treatment of asylum seekers and refugees by the Australian government, involves crimes against humanity. The participation of Australian forces in unjustified invasions of countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq, falls within any reasonable definition of a war crime. So do the attacks on civilian populations and the use, and support of the use, of WMDs such as DU and NDU weaponry.

* When it comes to criticising breaches of human rights and the perpetration of illegal acts of war, the average Australian is blunter than representatives of the UN. On the streets one finds a waggish humour incorporated in Australian's description of the (OWO) Old World Order cabal in Canberra. Some ordinary Australians now refer to the above Ministers, their Cabinet colleagues and their departmental officials, as "The SMELLY Gang".

Note:

For the benefit of non-Australian readers, the KELLY Gang is the nation's most famous group of historical outlaws, who, together with their leader, Ned Kelly (1855-80), fought a final battle with troopers, while wearing protective iron armour on their heads and torsos. Outlaws of that period were termed BUSHRANGERS.

If there is a bunch of outlaws in office in Canberra, supporting immoral US policies and the War on Terror, then, by inference, there are gangsters in the White House. At least, that's how many Australians are coming to see things. They might not yet be demonstrating outside the Parliament, but their wry humour reflects their resentment of evil actions carried out in their name.

Related Links:

Detention Centres, Solitary Confinement
On Friday night the NSW Council for Civil Liberties awarded Sydney solicitor John Marsden honorary life membership. Julian Burnside was invited to make the speech in Marsden's honour. In the course of his speech, Burnside referred to the unregulated use of solitary confinement in Australia's immigration detention centres, criticising it as inhumane and also as unlawful.

MP urges asylum seekers' release
A federal Coalition MP has called for the release of all asylum seekers being held in immigration detention centres.

Rau ordeal a raw deal
Ms Rau spent time in a Queensland prison and a hospital before being handed to immigration authorities who kept her in detention for another four months.

Australian held in Baxter detention centre
It has been revealed an Australian resident has been locked up in Baxter Detention Centre in South Australia for the past four months. Authorities had been unable to establish her identity since she was found wandering in far north Queensland last September.

Lawyers want Baxter detainee released for treatment !
Lawyers acting for a hunger-striking detainee inside South Australia's Baxter detention centre have asked the Federal Court to order a psychiatric assessment for the man, saying he needs to be in mental health care, not detention.

Baxter protesters 'being denied water, sleep'?
One of the three Iranian men has been on the roof of the gymnasium since Sunday last week, with two others joining him on Tuesday.

Detainees urged to abandon rooftop protest!
Kathy Verran from Rural Australians for Refugees, says one of the men has since come down and has been taken into the management unit. [solitary confinement for Xmas?]

Advocates warn of detention centre riot risk
A prominent refugee advocate warns South Australia's Baxter Detention Centre is on the brink of a major riot. A protest involving about 25 male detainees broke out at the centre on Tuesday, over a new system which is delaying the process of dispensing medication to detainees.

Villawood detainees go on hunger strike
A refugee advocacy group says up to 200 detainees at the Villawood Detention Centre, in Sydney, have begun a hunger strike to draw attention to their situation ahead of the federal election.

Afghan children lose High Court battle against detention
Lawyers have lost their constitutional challenge to the detention of four children at a South Australian immigration centre. Four siblings from Afghanistan, aged between seven and 15, have been in detention since they arrived in Australia in 2001.

Australia's "GITMO" System
Australia's "GITMO" System In June 2002 on the PM program on ABC radio, PHILIP RUDDOCK is quoted as saying: "Well, let me just say, detention centres are not prisons. They are administrative detention.

Senior cleric damns Baxter as 'disgraceful'
A senior world religious figure has called on the Federal Government to scrap its mandatory detention policy after visiting the Baxter detention centre in South Australia's north.

Detention centre media ban criticised
The Howard Government has been criticised in a report by media freedom advocate Reporters Without Borders for stopping journalists covering the conditions in refugee detention centres.

Baxter detainee continues hunger strike
A detainee at the Baxter detention centre near Port Augusta in South Australia has been on a hunger strike for a week. Sri Lankan Zeldon Daggie, 23, says he has been detained since arriving in Australia four years ago.

Democrats to keep up pressure over asylum seekers
The Australian Democrats will maintain their pressure on the next federal government over Australia's treatment of asylum seekers, if the party can retain its strength in the Senate.

Forum on refugee and indigenous human rights

CO-HOSTED BY CHILOUT (children out of detention)

29 July 2004 at 7pm, Auditorium room,
Paddington Woollahra RSL Club,
226 Oxford St Paddington.

Speakers: Senator Aden Ridgeway, Lawyer Julian Burnside QC and Big Brother Evictee, Merlin Luck.

The long-term mandatory detention of asylum seekers not only breaches multiple UN treaties to which Australia is a signatory, it goes against the principals of any decent and humane society.

Refugee law and policy is not just about refugees being given a fair go. It's about the powers that the Howard government seeks to grab for itself; powers that undermine our democracy and the fundamental rule of law.

Lawyer- Julian Burnside is a prominent lawyer and Queen's Counsel working in the area of human rights. He is an outspoken critic of current refugee policies, and represented the Tampa asylum seekers.

Julian will discuss the legal issues surrounding detention, as well as his experiences working with refugees both as a lawyer and advocate. He will relate the arguments put forward by the government in legal cases challenging detention - important information about the government's ideas regarding the limits (or not) of their power that were never reported in the press.

Activist - Shattering the tag of 'reality TV personality' with his protest on Big Brother, Merlin Luck is travelling around the country talking at public events to raise awareness of the plight of refugees in Australia.

Merlin courageously used his airtime on the Big Brother TV show to make a stand about refugee detention. Merlin has recently travelled to Baxter detention centre and will talk about his visit as well as talk about the refugee movement from an activist perspective.

Politician - Senator Aden Ridgeway, the only Aboriginal Federal parliamentarian, visits Villawood immigration detention centre and is a critic of current refugee policy.

The Howard Government wants to abolish the Board of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), replacing it with nothing, and then mainstreaming all Indigenous programs.

What does this mean for the future of reconciliation in Australia? Senator Ridgeway will talk on the parallels between Indigenous and refugee policy. The issues may appear different on the surface but the root cause - expedient racism - is the same.

Kate Gauthier
Office of Senator Aden Ridgeway
Ph: 02 9818 8422
Fax: 02 9818 8099
Mob: 0414 876 139

Senator Ridgeway is the Australian Democrats' Spokesperson on Trade and Overseas Development, Arts and Sport, Industry and Small Business, Indigenous Affairs and Reconciliation, Forestry, Consumer Affairs and Tourism.

Related:

Senior cleric damns Baxter as 'disgraceful'
A senior world religious figure has called on the Federal Government to scrap its mandatory detention policy after visiting the Baxter detention, centre in South Australia's north.

Australia's "GITMO" System
Australia's "GITMO" System In June 2002, [war criminal], Philip Ruddock, is quoted as saying: "Well, let me just say, detention centres are not prisons. They are administrative detention.

Greens call on Mark Latham to commit to ending Howard's abusive policies Greens Senator Kerry Nettle has called on Mark Latham to commit to abolishing the human rights abusing policies of the, [war criminal], Howard government if they win the next election.

Report recommends freeing child detainees
The Human Rights Commission has found that some children held in Australia's immigration detention centres have been exposed to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.

Child detention breaches UN convention: human rights report
A leaked, [?rubbish], final draft report by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) is calling for urgent changes to Australia's immigration detention laws.

Detention centre media ban criticised
The Howard Government has been criticised in a report by media freedom advocate Reporters Without Borders for stopping journalists covering the conditions in refugee detention centres.

Compo claims could follow child detention, group warns
A refugee group has predicted a string of compensation claims, after the Human Rights Commission found numerous and repeated breaches of the UN convention on the rights of the child in immigration detention.

No more children for Baxter, pleads SA
The South Australian Government is urging the Commonwealth not to shift any more children into the Baxter detention centre in the state's north.

Refugee protests expected to move to Sydney
Refugee advocates look set to protest in Sydney this Easter instead of the Baxter detention centre near Port Augusta in South Australia's north.

Baxter detainees' drug use 'not monitored'
The Australian Democrats say detainees at the Baxter detention centre in South Australia are being given high levels of psychotropic medication without adequate monitoring.

Legal action considered to return asylum seeker
The Australian lawyer for an asylum seeker stranded in an airport transit lounge in South Africa says she is looking at court proceedings to bring him back to Australia.

Santa Clause is coming to Baxter
On the 1st day of Christmas 'We give you the gift of peace'.
On the 2nd day of Christmas 'We give you the gift of Joy'.
On the 3rd day of Christmas 'We give you the gift of love'.
On the 4th day of Christmas 'We give you the gift of hope'.
On the 5th day of Christmas 'We give you the gift of faith'.

Ombudsman launches Port Hedland riot inquiry
The investigation comes at the request of the incoming Labor party president, Carmen Lawrence. Soon after the riot at the Western Australian detention centre about two weeks ago, Dr Lawrence released a statement alleging guards had beaten a 14-year-old boy and used a cattle prod on another.

Nauru staff 'fear children are next'?
The group representing the asylum seekers on Nauru has denied women and children have joined the strike and says they have not been asked to take part. [In other words "A" typical fear-mongering by Vanstone like kids overboard to gain some political leveraged!]

More asylum seekers join hunger strike
More asylum seekers in mandatory detention on the island of Nauru have joined a hunger strike to protest against the Federal Government refusing them refugee status. There are concerns that some of the hunger strikers may suffer serious injury or death from dehydration.

Australian Govt human rights record 'worsening'
Community groups have given the Federal Government five out of ten for its record on human rights this year. A national review conducted by groups including the Australian Council of Trade Unions and churches has concluded Australia's record on human rights has deteriorated.

Downer out of touch: Archbishop Carnley
Anglican Archbishop Peter Carnley has called on Alexander Downer to lift his game, saying the Foreign Minister has put Australia into a "difficult position internationally".

JUSTICE KIRBY: JUDICIAL ACTIVISM
Kirby's insight is decent, last week Justice Kirby threw at the Federal Government's barrister, the Solicitor-General David Bennett QC, in a ground-breaking case heard in the High Court, testing for the first time Australia's Mandatory Immigration Detention Scheme.

Howard Govt: Absolute vacuum on Compassion, Reality and Justice
The Northern Territory's Labor Senator, Trish Crossin, says the Federal Government showed no compassion for asylum seekers when it excised Melville Island from Australia's migration zone earlier this month.

Here is a new project
1. Do you believe it is right to imprison innocent children?
2. Do you believe it is right to imprison innocent women?
3. Do you believe it is right to imprison innocent people?

New A-G Ruddock has no regard for the independence of courts
As immigration Minister Ruddock's respect fell short of human rights when he tried to stop appeals introducing the Pacific Solution which means if an illegal immigrant is picked up in Australian waters by our navey they are sent elsewhere for processing. If their application for asylum is rejected they can be deported without legal appeal in Australia.

Judge renews child detainee release call
A Family Court judge, for a second time, has appealed to Immigration Minister, Philip Ruddock to address the issue of children in detention.

Ruddock to challenge Family Court ruling
Ruddock said it is unfortunate the Full Court of the Family Court made the decision. He said a successful High Court challenge could see the children returned to detention.

Children in Baxter Detention Centre: Tell me a fable...
Opponents vow to fight yesterday's Family Court ruling against the release of five children from South Australia's Baxter detention centre has strengthened the resolve of groups fighting the Federal Government's policy of detaining child asylum seekers.

Where did you say you reside Mr Carr?
New South Wales Premier Bob Carr says a protest outside Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock's Sydney home should have been called off for moral reasons. Mr Carr says people who want to protest against the Federal Government's immigration policies should do it in Sydney's CBD, not outside Mr Ruddock's home.

Three protesters tricked outside Ruddock's house
Protest organisers have been critical of police actions at a pro-refugee rally near Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock's Sydney home.

Australia: Child detention, tell me a fable...
Democrat's leader Andrew Bartlett wants all children in immigration detention centres released, in the wake of the Family Court refusal to put a stay on one of its landmark rulings.

Amnesty calls for release of children from detention centres
Human rights group Amnesty International is pressuring the Federal Government to immediately release children from detention centres in the wake of the latest report on detainee children.

Child detainees 'living in a nightmare', report finds
A report being released today documents disturbing evidence about mental health for children in detention centres. The report is a joint work by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, NSW University and NSW psychiatrists.

Demonstrators prepared for Baxter protest
Thousands of demonstrators will converged at Port Augusta in preparation for this weekend's expected protest at the Baxter detention centre. 

Indigenous Human Rights Links:

Australian Govt human rights record 'worsening'
Community groups have given the Federal Government five out of ten for its record on human rights this year. Mr Purcell said the Government was also marked down because of the policy of holding children in immigration detention centres.

Labor to request Senate inquiry into ATSIC's future
The Federal Opposition has announced it will call for a Senate inquiry into the Government's plan to abolish the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC).

Reconciliation dreaming
Djerrkura had witnessed the collapse of ATSIC, which he led from 1996 to 1999, with sadness. Despite the peak indigenous organisation's flaws, which he did not deny, its abolition, he said, had been done in "the classic imperial fashion, without negotiation, without understanding and with little empathy". He noted that as early as December 2001 he had called on his successor Geoff Clark to resign for the good of the organisation. But he reserved his harshest words for John Howard.

The bone has been pointed at Howard
A Queensland Indigenous leader says an ancient Aboriginal curse placed on Prime Minister John Howard is no laughing matter and could even have deadly consequences.

More asylum seekers join hunger strike

More asylum seekers in mandatory detention on the island of Nauru have joined a hunger strike to protest against the Federal Government refusing them refugee status.

There are concerns that some of the hunger strikers may suffer serious injury or death from dehydration.

The Immigration Department has confirmed that by last night 25 men were going without food and water inside the Nauru detention camp.

It started with nine men last Wednesday morning, of which two have now been taken to hospital.

Four of them sewed their lips together.

A department spokesman says the men are being closely monitored and that the International Organisation for Migration, which runs the camp, will deal with any situation that arises.

Refused refugee status in Australia, the men say they will not return to Afghanistan.

Refugee advocate Elaine Smith is talking daily to people inside the camp.

She says many of the hunger strikers would rather die than go back.

"I don't see any chance of them backing down which is really worrying because they can be pushed to the limit," he said.

But the Government says the men's actions will not change the fact that their protection visa applications failed.

By Encouraged Harm 15 December 03

Related:

Australian Govt human rights record 'worsening'
Community groups have given the Federal Government five out of ten for its record on human rights this year. A national review conducted by groups including the Australian Council of Trade Unions and churches has concluded Australia's record on human rights has deteriorated.

Downer out of touch: Archbishop Carnley
Anglican Archbishop Peter Carnley has called on Alexander Downer to lift his game, saying the Foreign Minister has put Australia into a "difficult position internationally".

JUSTICE KIRBY: JUDICIAL ACTIVISM
Kirby's insight is decent, last week Justice Kirby threw at the Federal Government's barrister, the Solicitor-General David Bennett QC, in a ground-breaking case heard in the High Court, testing for the first time Australia's Mandatory Immigration Detention Scheme.

Howard Govt: Absolute vacuum on Compassion, Reality and Justice
The Northern Territory's Labor Senator, Trish Crossin, says the Federal Government showed no compassion for asylum seekers when it excised Melville Island from Australia's migration zone earlier this month.

Refugee policy, here is a new project: Burnside
The idea is to have thousands of Australian citizens writing to federal parliamentarians asking very simple, but hard, questions about the key aspects of refugee policy. I have devised a letter writing kit for this purpose. I attach a copy. It contains instructions which, are, I hope, fairly clear.

New A-G Ruddock has no regard for the independence of courts
As immigration Minister Ruddock's respect fell short of human rights when he tried to stop appeals introducing the Pacific Solution which means if an illegal immigrant is picked up in Australian waters by our navey they are sent elsewhere for processing. If their application for asylum is rejected they can be deported without legal appeal in Australia.

Judge renews child detainee release call
A Family Court judge, for a second time, has appealed to Immigration Minister, Philip Ruddock to address the issue of children in detention.

Ruddock to challenge Family Court ruling
Ruddock said it is unfortunate the Full Court of the Family Court made the decision. He said a successful High Court challenge could see the children returned to detention.

Children in Baxter Detention Centre: Tell me a fable...
Opponents vow to fight yesterday's Family Court ruling against the release of five children from South Australia's Baxter detention centre has strengthened the resolve of groups fighting the Federal Government's policy of detaining child asylum seekers.

Where did you say you reside Mr Carr?
New South Wales Premier Bob Carr says a protest outside Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock's Sydney home should have been called off for moral reasons. Mr Carr says people who want to protest against the Federal Government's immigration policies should do it in Sydney's CBD, not outside Mr Ruddock's home.

Three protesters tricked outside Ruddock's house
Protest organisers have been critical of police actions at a pro-refugee rally near Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock's Sydney home.

Australia: Child detention, tell me a fable...
Democrat's leader Andrew Bartlett wants all children in immigration detention centres released, in the wake of the Family Court refusal to put a stay on one of its landmark rulings.

Amnesty calls for release of children from detention centres
Human rights group Amnesty International is pressuring the Federal Government to immediately release children from detention centres in the wake of the latest report on detainee children.

Child detainees 'living in a nightmare', report finds
A report being released today documents disturbing evidence about mental health for children in detention centres. The report is a joint work by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, NSW University and NSW psychiatrists.

Demonstrators prepared for Baxter protest
Thousands of demonstrators will converged at Port Augusta in preparation for this weekend's expected protest at the Baxter detention centre.

JUSTICE KIRBY: JUDICIAL ACTIVISM

Activist judges are alert and aware of common decency. They can make governments accountable for breaches of human right standards. Over the past week at the University of Exeter, High Court Justice Michael Kirby has delivered a series of tongue-lashings to his critics, those "bully boys (and girls)" who believe activist judges undermine the democratic deal and dare to say so.

Kirby's insight is decent, last week Justice Kirby threw at the Federal Government's barrister, the Solicitor-General David Bennett QC, in a ground-breaking case heard in the High Court, testing for the first time Australia's Mandatory Immigration Detention Scheme.

Australia's highest court finally rebels against the outlandish efforts of the Howard fascist government.

Fortunately, Kirby is delivering knowledge to his critics for the sake of humanity. He told his English audience that critics of judicial activism "are contemptuous of fundamental human rights and jealous of any source of power apart from their own". They "hate it when judges express the law in terms of legal principles to protect minorities, the weak and the vulnerable".

Contemptuously those bullies who criticise judicial activism are feeding their greed and lining their filthy pockets all the time. These vultures are all too willing to side with fascist governments regardless of human rights.

Dictators like John Howard and his cronies have lost sight of human rights standards.

Howard has undermined the parliamentary process and the rule of law. Politicians and (corporate club critics) who grasp at the notion of "human rights". Critics who lie, bend the truth and deceive us all, a result that is politically motivated and makes them feel good but bears little relation to democracy and justice for all in the struggle of life.

A STRUGGLE ON TWO FRONTS: PRISONS & IMPERIALIST WAR

On guard to protect liberty from evil minded rulers, thoughtful? You bet. Judges who use their role to encourage human rights (and therefore promote liberty) have reminded us of their job description. Of course, judges have to make choices when they interpret vague laws.

Undoubtedly, the common law legitimately moves in small, incremental ways. The benefit is that when you give them a platform judges take a deep, intricacy Kirbyeinsight mile to tell you what is in their soul. They travel down roads they have a right being on, using as their road map their own vast personal experience and knowledge.

Guantanamo escape may be justified: Kirby

For example, inside Kirby's Guide to Law-Making you will probably find a long chapter on "human rights" followed by an even fatter chapter on international law, because, as Kirby said in an interview in April: "(International law) will make us more creative." And then there is the chapter on protecting "minorities, the weak and the vulnerable" where phrases like "community values" and "social justice" will equal any references to the rule of law.

Why? Because the rule of law is guided by community values and social justice. So for all those critical bullies (Un-Australian's) that think they're not in the same boat. Think again! In other words the Un-Australian's don't see themselves as 'equal', that's why judges speak out above their critics.

As one judge on a bench of seven, Kirby's activist forays make human rights a reality opposed to fascist governments and corporate media who just don't care. But don't you worry, because they'll get by without their rabbit pie.

In NSW, unfair dismissal laws stop unscrupulous employers who try to pay employees below award rates by using independent contractor arrangements. Think garage sweatshops and overworked, underpaid migrant workers.

The Un-Australian newspaper said, "You soon had senior executives claiming unfair dismissal, using the same laws to secure $14 million option packages and has been extended to corporate executives who are neither weak nor vulnerable."

Are senior executives equal regardless of their status? Should corporate media journalists place barriers before equality and the law, for their hip pocket nerve endings? How would they react if it were their job on the line? Was this argument by the Un-Australian newspaper, just a sleazy way of undermining judicial activism? A payback? Or simply a way to undermine unfair dismissal laws as being useless and invalid?

An alleged expert Sydney lawyer John Colvin put on a pedestal by the Un-Australian newspaper to back up their story, who is in employment law said, "he has seen the IRC become the rich boys' legal playground."

He has written about the "lucky executives in NSW" who can apply to the IRC to "set aside negotiated contracts of employment even when they provide for lengthy notice periods, termination payouts, share schemes and bonuses.

"An employee will always call a termination "unfair" but why do IRC judges so often agree? Because they can. "Fairness," says Colvin, "is a bit like beauty, which can reside in the eye of the beholder." NSW politicians made it easy for them by drafting vague laws, leading the judges out into the wilderness and abandoning them, as former High Court judge Hayden Starke said once."

"Laws can translate into expensive litigation. Employers will pay a premium to avoid those costs. That jacks up the costs of employment and that, in turn, acts as a disincentive to business to set up headquarters in NSW."

But do unfair dismissal laws act as a deterrent to keep away bad business practice in NSW. If the answer is yes then perhaps it serves the greater good Mr Colvin?

The IRC has claimed jurisdiction over all sorts of commercial contracts far removed from the original intention of parliament. Fortunately, the state's highest court is [allegedly], objective and impartial.

Overturning a decision of the IRC, the president of the NSW Court of Appeal, Keith Mason, recently delivered a scathing critique of the IRC: "Like the Chief Justice, I am profoundly troubled by the march of the commission's jurisdiction into the heartland of commercial contracts."

On it went. "The matter is also troubling," said Mason, "because it must frankly be stated that the members of the commission do not generally have the experience of the judges of the Equity Division in such matters and because ... the commission lacks the ongoing assistance of appellate and other supervision by the Court of Appeal or the High Court in such matters." Translation: An interventionist court out of control and out of its depth. That about sums up what's right about having a balance with judges.

What would Kirby make of this latest criticism from judges of the NSW Court of Appeal?

You are entitled to your opinion!

By No Rabbit Pie 27 November 03

THE FOX: They'll get by without their rabbit pie so run rabbit, run rabbit, run run, run!

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