It's time for a new sort of genuine leadership on the refugee issue

Any policy that involves locking up the children of asylum seekers is doubly indefensible. Not only does it defy logic, ie their parents have not committed an offence by seeking asylum from persecution, so neither they nor their children should be locked up in the first place. It also contravenes the UNHCR’s Guidelines and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). For example, Articles 2, 3, 9 22 and 27 of the UN CRC make it clear that detention of children is not in the best interests of the child and is inherently discriminatory. Article 2 specifically requires states to protect children from discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions or beliefs of a child’s parents, legal guardians or family members. As a signatory to these UN instruments, Australia urgently needs to rethink its approach.

It is time for the Australian government to give immediate priority to examining the implementation of a community-based approach to the reception, detention, determination, integration and resettlement of refugees. More broadly, it is time for all political parties to lead and enable the community in a bipartisan process of rethinking and redesigning our policy approach to refugees.

We are in a particular moment of our history where there seems to be a growing sensibility among the Australian people that the way we deal with refugees could be done not only differently but better. The former senior public servant, John Menadue, has reminded us of this:

In the end, the government must abandon its xenophobia and punishment of the vulnerable and traumatised. It must abandon mandatory imprisonment. It doesn’t work. Australia has a self interest as well as a humanitarian responsibility in this. Refugees have made, and continue to make, an outstanding contribution to this country. They are risk takers, highly motivated and prepared to leave everything for the sake of a new start for themselves and their children in a new country. We need more of that spirit in Australia.

We could, indeed, do with more of that spirit. But what is required to grow that spirit in Australia is a fresh commitment to principles of justice and fair treatment.

We need to recognise that there is no necessary dichotomy between our national self-interest and humanitarian altruism. Through creating the conditions in which all people can exercise their fundamental human rights we can best promote the mental, physical and social health of the Australian community as well as the wider world, now and into the future.

It is a question, then, of balance, and here our judgements should be tempered always with a clear appreciation of what people the world over share: our common humanity.

There is enough evidence in the public domain by now to suggest that the government should move beyond its detention regime for asylum seekers and towards a community-based reception regime. The Australian Democrats have been calling for this in the Senate. And sections of the Labor Party seem to be committed to a similar perspective.

Ultimately this is a question of upholding people’s human rights.

All people, especially those fleeing from persecution, should be treated with dignity and compassion. It is their right as human beings. At the moment, we live in a state that is taking liberties - liberties that are intrinsic to all people, as human beings, as citizens of the world. We are all being diminished as a result.

The social movement that has grown around this issue is providing a community-based leadership for the nation. It is a leadership based on everyday people speaking up and speaking out about ensuring the rights of all people, whatever their background, whatever their circumstances, to a just and dignified life. And it is a leadership based on the principles of inclusiveness and embracing people as inter-cultural citizens.

The message that the mainstream political parties need to heed from this community leadership is that truly visionary and ethical leaders require hard heads and soft hearts if we are to develop a sustainable global-local order that is productive and just, secure yet sensitive, responsible for national citizens as well as responsive to the needs of international citizens. As our leaders would have us move beyond multiculturalism possibly to a policy of inter-cultural citizenship it is all the more imperative that national leaders rethink the way this country responds to people who seek refuge here.