Public statement Reject Australia's racist laws on refugees In 1997 Australia became infamous around the world because of the rapid rise of the overtly racist Pauline Hanson's One Nation party. Following a wave of anti-racist protests, One Nation went into decline but Hansonism is far from dead in Australia... We, the undersigned, strongly oppose the new laws and regulations being introduced by the Howard Liberal-National government. They are racist and an affront to basic human solidarity, and it is utterly despicable of the Labor opposition to support such measures. In particular we condemn: 1. Regulations recently made by Minister of Immigration Philip Ruddock that will only offer approved refugees three year temporary visas, instead of permanent residence. This racist proposal was first advocated by Pauline Hanson's One Nation party. 2. The Border Protection Bill which toughens the already inhumane rules on the treatment of "boat people", removes refugee decisions from rule of law, criminalises refugees and gives the government the powers to evade its international responsibilities to refugees under international conventions by intercepting suspected "boat people" in international waters. We also demand the end of mandatory detention of "boat people" introduced by the former Labor federal government in 1992. This law, which has been condemned by the Uniting Church as racist, has kept hundreds of families seeking asylum locked up in remote detention camps, sometimes for several years while their applications for asylum are being processed. These detained asylum seekers are overwhelmingly from countries in the Third World and have fled severe political persecution, war and economic crisis. There is no mandatory detention of other "illegal migrants", most of whom come from Britain, the USA and other wealthy countries. We urge all anti-racists to fight this latest wave of racism. Lisa Macdonald, Editor, Green Left Weekly Max Lane, Asia Pacific Institute for Democracy and Development Wendy Robertson, National Coordinator, Resistance John Percy, National Secretary, Democratic Socialist Party Pip Hinman, National Secretary, Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor To add your name phone 02-9690 1230, fax 02-9690 1381, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Democratic Socialist Party National Office PO Box 515 Broadway NSW 2007 Australia Tel: 61 (0)2 9690 1230 Fax: 61 (0)2 9690 1381 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.dsp.org.au/ -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
