Transcript
LINDA BRISKMAN: The problem is that there is no detail. What is going to happen to the men who are on Manus now? Are the plans to still resettle them in PNG and how is that going to be rolled out? Or is the plan to still try and convince other countries to take people from Manus Island, something that has been quite unsuccessful on previous attempts. So we need to know that. Dutton is continually saying we are not going to settle people in Australia, I don't think that line is sustainable any longer. There's got to be some bending, some compromise.
JO O'BRIEN: So you don't think this signals any wider change in Australia's overall policy on asylum seekers, it's more a response to the PNG court decision that the centre on Manus should close?
LB: It's hard to know what goes on behind the scenes in Canberra, because there's not a lot of transparency, but I think there are cracks in the system now. There's the situation on Manus with their Supreme Court decision, there's the Nauru files that have really shamed government policy, all around the world, not just in Australia. So I think there are cracks in the system that the government's not acknowledging. So I suspect there may be moves to cease offshore processing but at the moment they're holding the line.
JO: This announcement comes after last week we heard about more abuses in Nauru. What do you think about the way the Australian government has responded to those reports?
LB: Well there's been a lot of denial, a lot of scepticism by the government about the content of those files. But the minister did make a statement that it takes time to make changes and fix systems up, and it's unusual for the minister to actually be making comment. So I'm hoping this signals that there will be some changes, but the government's policy has been so deterrent-focussed that I think they would want to hold on to offshore detention as long as they can.
JO: You and these other academics in Australia are calling for a summit on this issue. What is it that you are wanting to see happen?
LB: The summit won't just focus on offshore detention, I mean that's the most critical issue at the moment and we want to see Manus and Nauru closed, there's no question about that. But what's been happening on Nauru, in some ways it's not surprising. The problems have been systemic for a long period of time. When I was doing investigations around 2005 on, we heard horror stories from some of the mainland detention centres. We've got to look more holistically at what's going on, we've got to look at not only what's happening in detention, what's happening to people who have been released into the community while their asylum claims are processed. We also have to look at how the government's going to deal with its determination to stop boats. What happens to people that we see turned back if they're not allowed to set foot in Australian territory. So what we're asking the summit also to do is to talk about regional relationships. What can be done in the region, beyond Australia to support asylum seekers.
