AUSTRALASIA
A Cargo of Questions 1992
South Australia
BORDERTOWN
Bordertown is in a prosperous agricultural area of South Australia, close to the state border with Victoria, an abstract line forming a division that runs north south 3km west of longitude 141 Degrees East across desert, mountain and river, from the Murray river to the ocean of Discovery Bay.
The Prime Minister, Mr Keating, last night proposed regular head-of-government meetings to promote cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, a key initiative in his first wide-ranging foreign policy speech. Urging that Australia intensify its role, especially in its political role, in the region, Mr Keating said the opportunities for Australia in Asia "cannot be overstated. We must be careful not to overplay our hand, but if our timing is good and we choose things which genuinely serve the wider interest, we can help shape the regional agenda". Mr Keating's speech, entitled 'Australia and Asia. Knowing Who We Are', was delivered to the Asia-Australia Institute in Sydney, and continued his recent themes: that Australia must turn to Asia more, and that it still had to throw off the remnants of the old British shackles. He was pleased "but not surprised" by the positive reaction in South-East Asia to the "recent surge of independent and republican thinking in Australia". But the process of asserting an independent Australian spirit had to be taken a lot further. Mr Keating rejected the argument that Australia's democratic institutions and traditions of tolerance and open debate somehow disqualified it from forming successful relationships in Asia. "My starting point is that Australia's democratic institutions and traditions are non-negotiable," he said. THE AGE, 8 April, 1992
Knowing who we are?
Knowing who they are?
Knowing who we are not?
Information Wrap
The Federal Court has blocked attempts by the Immigration Minister, Mr. Hand, to deport 37 Cambodians whose applications for asylum have been rejected. The action has been taken by lawyers acting on behalf of the boat people, following the government's decision to reject their applications amid uncertainty about the political situation in Cambodia. Most of the Cambodians, who are part of a group of more than 400 boat people in detention, have been awaiting a decision since 1989. The Melbourne-based Refugee Advice and Casework Service took the matter to Mr. Justice Ryan yesterday after Mr. Hand refused a request of temporary refuge for its 22 clients held in Villawood. The government's decision to deny the Cambodians refugee status was criticised by the Catholic and Anglican churches and the New South Wales Law Society. The NSW Law Society President, Mr. John Marsden, said that their lives would be at risk the moment they set foot in Cambodia. "When a goverment suddenly announces that after two years of vacillation that hundreds of people will be deported, you wonder if decisions have been made on grounds of information or for the sake of expedience."
THE AGE, April 8, 1992
Also
The 1951 Refugee Convention provides the standard international law definition of refugee status: "The term 'refugee' shall apply to any person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, member of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country." the convention was drawn up at the height of the cold war and the Soviet bloc withdrew from the drafting process. The West, therefore, turned it into a propaganda tool by designing it to protect individuals fleeing from the Iron Curtain countries. The definition, thus, is grounded in violations of individual civil and political rights. To that extent it is effective, but is inappropriate to cope with mass trans-border movements.
THE GUARDIAN, 5 August, 1992
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