Editorial:

Wake up Labor

The Labor Party's Federal Parliamentary leadership has failed to respond 
to the massive criticism of the mandatory detention of refugees and alter 
its support for the main aspects of the Howard Government's policies.

The ALP is sticking to mandatory sentencing and the imprisonment of 
refugees in various concentration camps around Australia as well as the so-
called "Pacific solution" — the virtual banishment of refugees to similar 
camps in Nauru and New Guinea.

Opposition to the Howard Government's inhumane treatment of refugees 
continues to snowball. Trade unions, refugee support organisations, 
churches, lawyers and now, former Liberal leader Malcolm Fraser have all 
vehemently voiced their disapproval.

Australia's international image also continues to plummet. The latest 
indication of this is the request of UN Human Rights Commission, Mary 
Robinson, for a UN representative to pay an investigative visit to the 
Woomera detention centre.

It appears that the position taken by the ALP leadership is driven by the 
fear that, because of the anti-refugee sentiments whipped up by the Liberal 
Party leadership and the media, the Labor Party would lose votes if it 
adopted a different policy. The reality is the opposite. Beazley lost the 
election because the ALP failed to denounce the Howard Government's 
policies.

But there is more to it than just a question of votes. The Howard 
Government's position is also motivated by racism and anti-Muslim 
sentiments which fit into the present "anti-terrorism" campaign of the US. 
Nearly all of the countries being targeted by the Bush administration have 
a mainly Muslim population.

Would the same treatment be meted out if the refugees were white farmers 
fleeing alleged persecution in Zimbabwe or the anti-apartheid revolution in 
South Africa?

The refugee issue provided an opportunity for the Labor Party to oppose 
racism and to uphold the international responsibility of all countries to 
extend a helping hand to refugees, irrespective of national origin, 
religion or skin colour. It has dismally failed to do so.

Right-wing Labor bears the main responsibility but others, as Carmen 
Lawrence has pointed out, failed to speak out earlier when they should have 
done so. The Government's policies are poisoning Australian society with 
what Carmen Lawrence has described as "divisive and hateful sentiments".

Will Carmen Lawrence, Duncan Kerr and others be now silenced by the 
imposition of "Cabinet solidarity" or other measures for which the Labor 
Party Right is notorious? We hope not.

It appears that some in the Labor Party are attempting to find some half-
way house which can be marketed as being humane while retaining the main 
elements of the Howard Government's line.

The proposal of Simon Crean that the children of refugees should be 
separated from their parents in the camps is one such attempt. In fact, it 
creates more problems and objections than it solves. It leaves the main 
elements of the Government's policy intact.

Right-winger Kevin Rudd (the ALP Shadow Foreign Minister) believes that a 
more compassionate policy could be found which retains mandatory detention. 
But it is the mandatory detention of refugees, in some cases for years, 
that is inhumane and at the core of the protests.

Continuing his anti-refugee and racist stereotyping, NSW Premier Carr, 
claims that refugees would "melt" into the community without detention 
centres. Wouldn't it be a good thing for refugees from other countries, 
with different religions and having different national origins to be 
accepted and "melt" into the rest of the community. That is what 
multiculturalism is all about.

When hundreds of thousands of migrants came to Australia in the years 
following World War II, they were housed in migrant centres in main capital 
cities. They lived in these centres for some time before finding jobs and 
moving into the community. None of these migrant centres were surrounded by 
razor wire or had what amount to prison guards enforcing their detention.

Sooner or later the present policy will collapse under the weight of its 
own evil and unacceptability. The sooner the Labor Party leadership wakes 
up to this the better.