2024-01-06
Labor should be ashamed of working in lockstep with Peter Dutton to whip up public safety fears as a result of the High Court decision to release asylum seekers from indefinite detention. It can rediscover its soul by listening to The Greens and the Teals and watching the latest Ken Loach film.
By Rob Delves, Green Issue Co-editor
A HEROIC COURT DECISION
On November 8th, the High Court considered the case of a stateless Rohingya man who had served his jail sentence for sexual assault, but on release had been transferred to immigration detention. The court ordered that he be released because there was “no real prospect of his removal from Australia practicable in the reasonably foreseeable future”. Acting on legal advice, the government released another 140+ asylum seekers who were held in immigration detention in what the media referred to as “broadly similar circumstances.”
The Greens welcomed this decision as a win for equality before the law and a more humane approach to refugees. It was also an important confirmation of the democratic principle of the Separation of Powers. The High Court’s decision was clear – only the courts have the power to deal out punishment. With this judgment, the court unanimously rejected the ability of the parliament to define its own limits for detention. In doing so, it brings Australia into line with international law and practice. No other country allows for, let alone requires, indefinite mandatory immigration detention.
A DECIDEDLY UNHEROIC RESPONSE
However, the media and political response to the High Court decision was something very different. Instead of celebrating this affirmation of common sense and decency, a large section of the media, along with Labor in lockstep with the Coalition, went into an overdrive of exaggerated fear-mongering based on the threats these released asylum seekers supposedly presented to community safety.
The blatant appeal to fear of “The Other” and the demonising of asylum seekers was led by Peter Dutton, screaming and tub thumping about how dozens of “hardened criminals” would soon be taking over the streets and threatening the safety of ordinary decent Australians. However, Labor was not to be undone, with Claire O’Neil declaring that if she had her way they would all remain in mandatory detention. Labor then worked closely with the Coalition to impose curfews and ankle-bracelet monitoring – a shameful contest to show who could be more cruel. And doing it even faster (and thus more recklessly) than the other.
In Parliament, The Greens, led by Nick McKim, and the Teals, led by Kylea Tink, called out the inhumanity and illegality of the Lib-Lab attack on these asylum seekers. Also the sheer lack of sense in terms of community safety: legislating to lock them all up again is not the way to make the community safe. Some reasonable supervision might be required for a few, but society’s best protection lies with generosity, support and encouraging the asylum seekers to get involved in community life.
THE WISDOM (AND RELEVANCE) OF KEN LOACH
The Old Oak is the
latest offering from veteran film maker Ken Loach, now 87. I would say it’s close to his best, up there with his1969 masterpiece Kes. Like all his films, it champions the everyday struggles of working-class people doing it tough in a society stacked against them. The year is 2016 and the central character is TJ Ballantyne. He tends his rundown pub (The Old Oak). It’s clearly struggling – like much else in this former mining town, where the wounds of the 1984 Miners’ Strike are still raw and divisive.
The drama begins when a busload of Syrian refugees are dumped into the town.
What ensues is a battle for the peoples’ hearts and minds between a Dutton-style response and a response driven by the better angels of our souls – a response based on an awareness of common humanity, the solidarity of ordinary people wherever they come from, the expression of kindness and love towards those who are also suffering.
Who wins this battle? It’s a close-run thing. We see the two responses almost immediately. The hate: a group of young thugs attack Yara, a young Syrian photographer, and her camera is broken in the scuffle. The kindness: TJ picks her up, and arranges to have her camera repaired. A friendship develops, as TJ meets her family and comes to appreciate what they’ve gone through – they’ve lost everything in the Syrian Civil War.
The battle between compassion and hate continues when TJ and his friend Laura help the refugees move onto vacant homes. But pub regulars snarl bitterly, blaming them for their problems. The film highlights the town’s deep-seated racism and xenophobia, expressed most stridently in the hideously ugly exchanges amongst the pub regulars. Their ideas are copied and acted upon by many of the older children in the town. However, the film also shows that the youngsters can still see the truth, and can become agents of change if adults lead by example.
The Old Oak offers more hope than Ken Loach’s two previous films. In I, Daniel Blake the main character is ground down by stark austerity and Sorry We Missed You is unrelenting in its chilling critique of the gig economy. In The Old Oak, some progress towards winning hearts and minds comes about when locals get to know “the feared and resented other.” The bond that TJ builds with Yara and her family is powerfully inspiring. They enlist some support, mainly from women, for their project of setting up a free lunch programme for poor families in the village.
However, the other key to a more humane solution is a theme that Ken Loach has championed throughout his long career. While racism and hatred should be called out, it is even more important to stand together in solidarity opposing the root of the problem ‒ working-class communities ravaged by neoliberalism. The film depicts a disenfranchised community, exploited by vulture property speculators and post-industrialisation – and it makes clear its belief that poverty and powerlessness translate into the scapegoating of refugees.
In one of the wealthiest nations on earth, many average people can barely afford to feed themselves. And when poor people are reduced to the verge of oblivion by a government and economic system that refuses to help them, the almost inevitable result is an escalation of fearful attitudes and actions.
AND THE WISDOM OF KEP ENDERBY
The current Labor government could learn a lot from Ken Loach. It should also dig into its past, where several heroes have stood up for social justice and peace against a barrage of right-wing appeals to hate and fear. One lesser-known hero, but one very relevant to this current issue, is Kep Enderby, former federal attorney-general, then for 10 years a judge of the NSW Supreme Court.
In 1999 Enderby had moved on to become the head of the NSW Serious Offenders Review Council, when the disgusting Daily Telegraph splashed across its front page the address where a recently released serial sex offender was living. In Dutton style, the paper whipped up hysterical public safety fears. A chorus of people responded as expected, threatening to harass the offender out of their suburb, for example by pouring water through the front door letterbox (and much worse).
Enderby was asked how he’d like to have the person living next door. This a favourite right-wing “gotcha tactic.” I’ve observed the media try it at a couple of schools where I’ve taught, whipping up fear and outrage about a recently-released sex offender living near the school. The advice usually given to the school principal is to say “No Comment.” Politically safe, and I get that it maybe helps defuse the dangerous hysteria. But I believe the response that Kep Enderby gave was much better – a strong statement of humane values, an appeal to the better angels of our nature. (Summarising the gist based on several short comments he made): “I hope that I would treat him like a neighbour, recognise that he has served his time in prison and requires encouragement and support to become a contributing member of a safer community.”
Memo to Albo and Clare O’Neil: look to your party’s proud history and seek to recover that lost soul. Oh yes, learn from The Greens and Teals as well! And go see The Old Oak.
Header photo: Syrian refugees. Credit: Mycause blog
[Opinions expressed are those of the author and not official policy of Greens WA]