The Australian Federal Government has lost the case before the Federal Court. North J has ruled that those aboard the Tampa were illegally detained and that they be brought to the mainland. The Commonwealth will appeal.
Ah crap.
Appeal, Appeal!!!
Well I guess this thread will be around for quite a while. So are the refugees stuck aboard the Manoora or do they get to get shipped on to Nauru and NZ?
Li
I haven’t seen a paper in a couple of days, or the news or even a radio. Been working too hard. Heh.
The Manoora is now not going to stop in Port Moresby. It will instead proceed straight to Nauru. The government has now announced it will appeal (and the ALP says it backs the government in its appeal).
For those intested, the judgement can be found here. The judgement is interesting. Liberty Victoria was arguing that the rescuees were lawfully detained under the Migration Act, but lost on this (and almost everything else, including standing).
North J found that they were unlawfully detained. The government is in a very tricky legal position, almost a Catch 22. They could not argue that they had exercised their “very broad powers” to detain, expel etc. because those powers also confer certain rights on illegal immigrants (to apply for protection visas and to be subject to due process). So the Commonwealth had to argue that the rescuees were not detained on the MV Tampa even after the ship was immobilised by the Captain and boarded by the SAS. North found that they were detained (IMHO duh) and that if the Commonwealth hadn’t been acting under the provisions of Migration Act then they were detaining the rescuees unlawfully.
[take this precis with a pillar of salt, IANAL]
The opinion was reversed on appeal.
Which I think was great!!!
Courts should not be making policy, that’s for our elected officials.
Well that is one mess sorted out.
Now we just have to deal with Ansett, the support we will be lending the US and what everyone should get me for a Christmas present. It isn’t too early to start shopping.
Li
Yes, the decision has been overturned on appeal to the Full Federal Court, with the Chief Justice dissenting. The next (and final) level of appeal would be to the High Court (like the US Supreme Court and the UK House of Lords). Civil liberties groups seem at present unlikely to appeal, partly because the government are coming after them for costs (I’m advised by my wife that I should only be a little bit worried about this).
A report can be found here and the summary delivered by the Court here.. The opinion of the majority was
whereas the Chief Justice found the Commonwealth trapped in the way I outlined in my earlier post:
To reply to
I agree of course, but I disagree that this was what this is all about. The question is whether the government acted lawfully. The executive may exercise powers granted to it by the legislature or under the Constitution. It is still my view that they did not have the power to act the way they did.
This story illustrates why Islam is not what it claims to be. First, Indonisia is a MOSLEM country-and the Afghans are muslim-why are they interested in entering a christian country? If mercy were really an attribute of Indonisia, then why didn’t their fellow muslims welcome them with open arms?These people (the “refugees”) are economic migrants. This is proven by the fact that they were able to afford the roughly $10,000 fare to get to Autralia. Isn’t it strange that orthodox Islam condemns the “degenerate” west, and scorns western culture-yet moslems invariably want to go to western countries! I would belive these people if they actually wanted to go to Algeria,or Saudi Arabia instead-they travel halfway around the world!
Maybe having fled one ethnically divided/sectarian country then another one even if less radically fundamental isn’t particularly attractive. And the notion that there aren’t profound differences between the various Islamic sects is patently wrong. For example the Sh’ite and Sunni (apologies if the spelling is wrong). Iran has been on the brink of war with the Taliban regime for some time.
As to their status as economic refugees, well I’m comfortable to wait the results of processing their applications before making any further judgements.
What I do know is that if I was in the position of having my family threatened by the ruling body in the manner occurring in Afghanistan, then I’d find the 10K somehow and get out as fast as possible, and as far away as possible and bugger the paperwork.
BTW picmr
What is your view on reports that some of the asylum seekers on the Manoora are refusing to disembark on Naru and pressuring others to do the same?
The story to which woolly refers can be found here. Other than that it’s not very surprising, I don’t have much to say about it. I do have confidence that the navy will deal with the situation as best they can, but these are pretty desperate people and might be expected to make things very trying on board the Manoora. The ructions with the Nauruan landholders and the subsequent withdrawal of the original accommodation is a worry too. That little speck of bird shit in the Sth Pacific is in plenty of turmoil already. I doubt their capacity to cope with this, even if we are footing the bill.
The Australian government is to pass, with support from the opposition, legislation that retrospectively declares their actions legal and makes court appeals illegal. I don’t have a link to the new Bill yet, but it is said to be considerably less offensive and more properly drafted than the one I previously linked to.The main civil liberties group is dropping its action (as it now appears fruitless), but one independent lawyer says he intends to proceed. don’t know how, but he is a brave man.
Some members of the government are following buddy1’s lead and whipping up hysteria about the rescuees, saying that y’know, wink wink, they’re Afghans…
On a brighter note, the first group has been greeted with garlands of flowers on Nauru.