If you were to believe the spin coming from the department of Home Affairs [a division of Dutton’s Ministry for Deception] you would have to believe that the asylum seekers and refugees on Nauru have adapted well to their new island home and that in no sense are they detained or restrained. Indeed, according to Dutton, they can walk freely around the island – it takes about ten minutes – whenever they like. They do, however, have to watch out for flying rocks thrown by locals but, what the hell, I hear that’s a problem for diners in Lygon Street Melbourne also.
We are told that on Nauru they have been getting jobs, some have opened restaurants and corner shops and all the kids are going to school everyday and absolutely loving their new life .
Those who have been living in tents for the past five years, are in fact camping out we are assured and on Nauru everything is hunky-dory and minister Dutton has done an amazing job and should really be prime minister in recognition of his endeavours, but let’s not go into that.
But, then we hear that during the Pacific Islands Forum currently underway on Nauru that a journalist from TV New Zealand – the ABC were banned – Barbara Dreaver had been apprehended by Nauru police because she was caught speaking to asylum seekers who evidently were out for their ten-minute walk. Ms Dreaver said she was detained for four hours and her phone was confiscated. She was later told that she had breached her visitors’ visa which only allowed her to report on the forum and not to talk to anybody else or engage in any other form of journalism.
Had she been in Australia and had a mate she could have sought ministerial intervention over her visa. It would only take a quick phone call to the minister for her to gain permission to undertake any activities that took her fancy including those of an au-pair or nanny, but no such freedoms existed on Nauru.
Then we hear that, the week before the Pacific Islands Forum asylum seekers were moved out of the detention centre and the mouldy, unhygienic tents were demolished : the tents at regional processing centre 3 (RPC-3) were erected five years ago, and at least 100 people have continued to live in them since the facility was opened in 2015.
Sources on Nauru say that contractors for Australian Border Force were seeking to ensure there were no asylum seekers and certainly no children living in tents behind the camp fences when foreign leaders and visitors arrived. Previous requests from families to be re-housed have repeatedly and consistently been ignored.
One observer on the island said “If it was right for people to live in mouldy, dirty, insecure tents for five years, why is ABF [Australian Border Force] so fearful to show it and be proud of itself? Why do they abolish the hell they made and hide it?”
In June a third asylum seeker or refugee died by suicide on Nauru, and comes only three weeks after a Rohingya refugee on Manus Island killed himself.
Twelve people have died from injuries or illness sustained in offshore processing centres since the facilities were reopened in late 2012.
A spokesman for Australian Border force said: “the department is aware of the death in Nauru today, 15 June 2018. Further enquiries should be referred to Nauruan authorities”. Nauruan authorities advised that : “it is Australia’s responsibility, it happened in their camp”.
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The problem on Nauru is Benito Dutton and the too many white South African staff in the Department of Xenophobia, Inhumane Policies & Racism.
Bring on the 2019 Federal election ASAP!!!
New England Cocky. Hear hear!
Terence, there is something seriously wrong in Nauru, but one also has to ask where are our morals…we can’t keep saying: ‘It’s our heartless leaders’, when we are the ones who voted them in.
It did not take long to get rid of Emma Husar, and most likely just for ‘man-made’ reasons…
And finally the Liberal Ladies have had enough of being bullied…will Michaeia be the last one standing…???
One day the truth will inevitably come out and then let’s see what excuses they come up with.
Ignorance will certainly not be one of them.
As well as truth we’ve also been lacking perspective about what’s been done in our name.
I hope the next Labor government will have the courage to follow up on Nauru, otherwise they will have to share the blame.
The Nauruan treatment of the NZ journalist was insufferably arrogant, but the problem is that they have likely been encouraged tacitly over some time to behave in the way they have toward people visiting Nauru.
Maybe the Nauruan government is like a Murdoch journalist.
Knows the truth but peddles the lie for fear of losing the job?
Apparently the only journalists from Australia who attended the PIF were from The Australian, the Daily Telegraph and Sky. All other Australia media joined with the ABC and boycotted the conference in protest to the ABC being banned.
Another factoid that came to light was that Australia (that’s you and me) are paying something in the order of
$600 million a year to maintain the Nauru detention centre, housing 783 detainees or around $766,000 per detainee, each year.
A very lucrative little earner for the corrupt Nauruan politicians but, the good news is that evidently much of that money comes back as they buy real estate in Australia : that’s why the ABC were banned. What Mr Dutton would call a win-win !
New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern once again renewed the offer to take 150 asylum seekers a year and once again Australia (Marise Payne) declined that offer on behalf of Peter Dutton who sees much greater potential political sport in using these people for a scare campaign during the next election.
Can Australia fall any lower? We have about 8 months to find out…
Love the last two comments.
Helvi, funny you should make that point re Cash, came to the same conclusion thinking on it last night.
Ah well, Paul, three great creative minds…!
Seriously, I often agree with your comments,and also Max Gross’ ones…
Re Cash, “great minds think alike, fools never differ”.
My mum was a storehouse of pithy axioms and this was one typically hammered home at every opportunity.
Another one was (solemnly), “neither a borrower, nor a lender be”.
30 Jun 2015
The Australian and New Zealand governments cared a lot about democracy, or lack thereof, in Fiji by imposing a slew of sanctions after then-Army Chief Frank Bainimarama’s coup in 2006. Many of these remained in effect for eight years until Fiji’s national elections last September. Nauru doesn’t have an army to mount a coup. Still, over the past 18 months, Nauru’s current government has:
• Arrested and deported Nauru’s Magistrate Peter Law in January 2014 while Law was preparing an inquiry into the death of Justice Minister David Adeang’s wife, who burned to death outside the family home in April 2013. Nauru also cancelled the visa for its Chief Justice Geoffrey Eames to return to work from vacation last year.
• Fired its Australian police commissioner as an investigation into bribery allegations involving Nauru President Baron Waqa and Justice Minister Adeang was in progress.
• Directed Digicel to shut off access to Facebook for the nation and subsequently refused to let the general manager of Digicel back into the country.
• Suspended five opposition senators from the 18-seat parliament chamber.
• Revoked the visa of Katy Le Roy, legal counsel to the Nauru parliament and wife of suspended opposition MP Roland Kun, so she cannot enter the country.
• Imposed a non-refundable US$7,000 application fee for any off-island journalist interested to visit Nauru, effectively preventing foreign media from visiting Nauru.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-30/johnson-nauru-must-be-held-to-account/6580944
3 Sep 2015
Foreign minister Murray McCully told Radio New Zealand on Thursday that issues with the justice sector and human rights in Nauru had been discussed for a number of months.
“We’ve just not been able to successfully resolve the differences that exist on that matter,” he said.
“To put the funding on hold for any justice sector support is something we do very reluctantly, but we are in a position where we think that support is going to be viewed as part of the problem, rather than part of the solution, if we allow things to go forward without any shift in approach.”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-03/new-zealand-suspends-aid-to-nauru-citing-diminishing-rule-of-law/6746202
In my post, above I mentioned that Australian taxpayers are funding offshore detention on Nauru to the extent of $600 million a year.
A good friend queried that number as perhaps being overstated so I referred back to my source, journalist Ben Packham who was among the News Corp contingent of journalists who visited Nauru last week for the Pacific Islands Forum.
Packham said this in The Weekend Australian yesterday :
Yes, it is a lot of money, can you think of any more productive uses for our taxes ?