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Anaesthetising the national conscience: the Howard government''s refugee policy is a hypocritical contradiction of the oft-espoused rhetoric of the ''fair go''.

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Tony Abbott said recently, in connection with the Prime Minister's revised attitude to parliamentarians superannuation, that it takes real guts to do the right thing in difficult political circumstances'.

He acknowledged implicitly that there can be a difference between what is right and what is convenient, or politically expedient, or electorally popular. Perhaps he also recognised that there are standards of conduct that transcend political manoeuvering.

In Australia, we pride ourselves for our human rights record. Here is a prominent Australian speaking in November 2000:

I want to talk about the centrality of human rights to our foreign policy objectives, and our decision to make effectiveness the guiding principle of our actions.

The second reason for our distinctive approach to human rights has more to do with an Australian way of doing things. Our approach is pragmatic but it is also firmly rooted in an ideological commitment to liberal democratic ideals. I believe this blend of the practical and the idealistic very much reflects the character of Australia. A separate public forum could no doubt be dedicated to discussing what core Australian values are--or if they even exist--in the year 2000. Personally, I have no qualms in saying that one of our abiding values is that of a fair go for all.

Australians care about human rights because they believe strongly in a fair go, they support the underdog and they take particular exception to abuses of power. They see justice and human dignity as the self-evident right of all people. They also prefer to cut through the rhetoric and do something useful.

A fair go for all is probably as close as we, in Australia, get to a shared core value.

Refugees

Let us now consider the way we treat people who seek asylum in Australia:

The Howard government has introduced two policies that are an affront to decency. One is a policy of deflection, and the other a policy of detention. We try to stop them from getting here, by taking them from the high seas and locking them up in Nauru, or on Manus Island. If they get here, we lock them up in the Australian desert.

Alexander Downer, in the speech I just referred to, went on to say that 'human rights are central to the maintenance of a peaceful world and our nation's security ...'. It follows that it is very much in Australia's interests for the government to work out how best to deliver an effective human rights policy. It is also, of course, in the interests of the ordinary people of the world who just want to live their lives free from the fear of poverty, war and tyranny. But I want to emphasise the word 'effective' because this is the litmus test for everything this government does in the human rights field.

... This audience will be well acquainted with my view that you do not measure a government's interest in human rights by the decibel reading of its public criticism of others. You measure it by what it actually does ...

These words ring false today.

The Government's recent hard-line stance on the refugee issue is officially justified in the name of our sovereignty. To guard our sovereignty, the Government calls boat people 'illegals' and it locks them up. It is the great lie on which Government policy rests. People who come here informally are not illegal. They commit no offence by arriving without papers, without an invitation, seeking protection. They may be locked up for months or years, but our...

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