Australian Federal Politics
One of the most disillusioning things that can happen to a citizen of a democracy is to discover that one's own government - the legal and political extension of oneself - has lied to one. This is far more damaging both to an individual's belief in his or her government and in the end to that government itself than is a citizen's disagreement with that government. This does not, of course, only happen in Australia. Many Americans (to look across the Pacific) believed that their government should not go to war with Iraq, but even as they disagreed with their government's actions approval for American President Bush remained high. However, after it was discovered that the Bush administration lied to the American people about its claims for the necessity of going to war and going to war quickly, more and more Americans have begun to have an unfavorable opinion of their government - and rightly so. If there is a single obligation that a democratic government has to its people it is to tell them the truth. The Australian government has itself recently failed to do this and as a result deserves to lose the confidence of the people that it claims to represent.
One of the most shocking examples of the government's lying to the Australian people occurred last year as a part of the administration's attempt to limit the number of foreigners who are seeking asylum - often by desperate stratagems. To understand the specific incident that this paper examines - which involved asylum seekers putting children overboard in an attempt to be rescued by the HMAS Adelaide - it is important to understand something of the background of the current influx of people seeking asylum in Australian. Many of these come from the Middle East and North Africa and, according to the department of immigration, are often shuttled to Australia via Bangkok, which is the capital of an established smuggling route. The demographics of the asylum-seekers as of 2000 (and it has not changed greatly since then) is as follows:
Iraq: 51%
Afghanistan: 27%
Iran: 5%
China: 4%
Malaysia: 4%
It has offered other nations promises of both funds and aids to take refugees bound for Australia, a policy that could well be seen as an attempt to bribe other nations. This policy that earned it a rebuke from the international human rights group Amnesty International:
The recently-elected Australian government must seriously consider the consequences of its dispersal policy. "While the world has been focused on the humanitarian and refugee crisis unfolding in and around Afghanistan, the Australian government has been sending boatloads of Afghans and other asylum-seekers around the Pacific," Dr. Pace added.
The policy has clearly failed to stop desperate asylum-seekers trying to reach Australia, and the people smuggling rings have not been broken. While the government has been creating a 'fortress Australia', hundreds of men, women and children fleeing persecution and attempting to reach safety, are being arbitrarily detained in camps and on boats, often in very poor conditions." (http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engASA120102001?Open&of=eng-aus)
While Australia has been censored by international agencies (including the United Nations) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1659410.stm) such censure clearly has not affected the ways in which the majority of Australians themselves see the problem of immigration: John Howard was reelected to office in 2001 on a hard-line anti-immigration policy that since the summer of 2001 has used Australian naval vessels to prevent refugees from landing. Even with the support of the citizens who voted it into power, Howard and his government have failed to…
