Tony Abbott pledges to ‘stop the asylum boats’
Australia’s third prime minister in three months pledges a crackdown on asylum seekers as he is sworn into government, with a plan to buy up boats in Indonesia. But what impact will it have?
Prime Minister Tony Abbott was the first of 42 government executives to be sworn in at a ceremony at in Canberra.
There was only one woman among the new 19-strong cabinet – Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who will be Australia’s first woman in that post – and she was in prominent position in all the publicity photos of the ceremony.
But that was not the only controversy surrounding the new prime minister. Mr Abbott has made no secret of his plan to try and reduce the number of asylum seekers coming to Australia, since winning the general election on 7 September.
On Wednesday, he told the ceremony: “we are determined to honour our commitments to scrap the carbon tax, to stop the boats, to get the budget under control and to build the roads of the 21st century.
A complete disregard for asylum seekers but absolute contempt for legal and moral obligations – Amnesty International
“We will be a problem-solving government based on values, not ideology.”
And he has announced new policies to try and tackle the asylum issue – some of which have already proved unpopular with Indonesian officials.
Mr Abbott has suggested buying fishing boats from Indonesian villages to prevent them falling into the hands of people smugglers. Under another controversial aspect to the policy Australian officials would also pay for information about people smugglers.
And under a policy set in motion by Australia’s last Labor government, refugees arriving by boat will now be given temporary protection instead of being permanently resettled in Australia.
‘Political football’
Most of Australia’s asylum seekers arrive via Indonesia, originally travelling from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Sri Lanka, and can pay smugglers up to $10,000 to get to Australia from Indonesian ports.
There has been a big increase over the last 12 months to over 25,000 in 2012-2013.
We are determined to honour our commitments… to stop the boats – Tony Abbott
But the number of people coming to Australia’s shores is relatively small compared to international standards. Just 3 per cent of the world’s asylum seekers are based in the continent: the UK has double that amount, with 6 per cent, while 17 per cent live in the US.
Nonetheless, politicians on both sides believe the electorate is interested in this issue, and it has become a “political football”, Professor Sharon Pickering of Monash University, told Channel 4 News.
In the run up to the elections, the Labour party took out a large scale advertising campaign, running adverts in the newspapers in a range of languages.
Punitive measures
However there is growing concern about the impact of the policies both on the asylum seekers themselves and on relations with neighbouring Indonesia, where officials have already said they will block the proposals.
Amnesty International has condemned the decision to refuse to resettle asylum seekers in Australia. Graeme McGregor, the refugee campaign coordinator said when the plan was announced, that it showed “not only a complete disregard for asylum seekers but absolute contempt for legal and moral obligations.”
The increased focus on asylum also follows the 2010 Christmas Island boat disaster, when a boat carrying 90 asylum seekers sunk killing 48 people. Politicians on all side expressed their regret and promised to do something about the issue.
“Unfortunately what they’ve done, under the banner of saying they’ll save lives, is construct a highly punitive series of actions focused on turning boats around, offshore detention, turning the entire issue from a civil function, to a military function,” Professor Pickering, an expert in so-called “irregular” border crossing, told Channel 4 News.
And there is limited evidence of any long-term, strategic impact of the government’s policies, she added: “The current measures unfortunately are an extension of recent approaches, which have not proved to stand the test of time, to serve the interests of asylum seekers, or Australia or the region.”
Tony Abbott with his wife, daughters and the Governor-General Quentin Bryce (right)