ADELAIDE — KRIS HANNA is ALP member for the state seat of Mitchell and secretary of the Refugee Advocacy Service of South Australia. With a background in law, he has acted for many asylum seekers. In recent weeks, Hanna has criticised the South Australian Labor government's moves to introduce a new "anti-terrorism" police unit and has spoken out against any Australian involvement in a war against Iraq. Following Simon Crean's announcement of federal Labor's new refugee policy, Hanna described it as a more moderate version of the federal government's policies. LESLIE RICHMOND spoke to Hanna for Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly.
You've come out in clear opposition to Australia's involvement in a war on Iraq. That position is at odds with the federal Labor Party. What made you decide to take that stand?
The thing that incited me more than anything was the dishonesty of the US and Australian governments' use of the media. To confuse the planned war with issues like terrorism and refugees is just dishonest.
The war is so clearly a project of the US empire, one which will enrich a few already powerful Americans. I deplore the fact that the people of Australia, the US and Britain are being lied to. And when I think that there could be tens of thousands of innocent people, Iraqi folk who hate Saddam Hussein, who are going to be killed and injured for purely selfish reasons. That really disgusts me.
I think it's a vital issue. There are lives at stake. I can only encourage other people to join the anti-war movement. I've been impressed with the numbers of people that have attended rallies in Adelaide so far. And I know from experience that for every person who goes along and attends rallies, there are at least 10 who have the same sentiment. There is a fairly significant proportion of the community who would vote for peace instead of war, if they had that opportunity.
What's your response to Crean's new refugee policy?
I'm very disappointed that the federal Labor caucus has endorsed a very modest reform of the government's treatment of refugees. There are three issues where the Labor policy proposal falls down.
One is that it insists on mandatory detention. No-one should be in detention unless there are serious concerns because of their initial health and security assessment. And that should only take a number of days, even if you have hundreds of people arriving at once.
Second is the temporary protection visa issue. Even if people overcome the extraordinarily difficult hurdles necessary to qualify as refugees, they are not welcome in Australia, but are here under sufferance. That is what TPVs represent. TPV-holders cannot have access to a range of government services. They are discriminated against.
One of their greatest needs is psychological treatment. Many refugees have been exposed to extreme violence, many of them have lost family members. They've then been kept behind razor wire, in conditions of extreme deprivation for maybe a year or two, and then released into the community with very little support.
The third problem with Labor's new policy is that it has retained the absurdity of excising pieces of Australian territory so that, if a refugee lands on that bit of Australia, they are treated in an unprincipled way. I just can't see the logic in it, unless you account for it by political expediency.
Another disturbing aspect is federal Labor's policy proposal that a lot of refugee processing will take place on Christmas Island. It is hard for lawyers to visit Woomera, and the more remote detention centres in Port Hedland and Curtin hardly ever see lawyers, because you're asking people who are not getting paid for their services to take several days to see hundreds of potential clients.
If the processing takes place mainly on Christmas Island, there won't be that access at all. So whether it's intentional or not, this policy ensures that asylum seekers won't get adequate representation in our legal system. The intricacies of the migration act, and the procedures that have to be followed to assess whether people are refugees, mean that legal advice is essential if people are going to be treated fairly.
Do you think that the new policy has much support amongst the rank and file of the ALP?
There are some of the older and less-educated members of the ALP who initially agreed with Howard's hard-line stance against refugees, but the majority of the party's rank and file have a more humane view. Certainly, I've found with all members that they come around to supporting a more humane approach after talking to them about the realities of the detention centres and the legal processes.
That's a little pointer towards what the Labor Party should be doing. If they just give in and say. "Look, there's a lot of prejudice in the community, we'll come up with a policy that's a bit different to Howard's but not something that's going to scare people", then the ALP's not doing its job as a progressive party. The mission is to educate people to overcome prejudice.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, December 11, 2002.
Visit the