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Last Updated: Friday 20 December 2019
Not a 'Headline' as such, but a good article.
21 December 2019
The Canada Project - Editorial in the Saturday Paper
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The numbers are modest. After the United States resettlement deal it is likely there will be 250 refugees in Papua New Guinea and on Nauru, still unsettled and held in stasis.
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These are the people left behind. They are the last victims of an unbelievably cruel system, forgotten because our government has moved on and there is no longer political capital in their mistreatment.
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Often it feels as if there is nothing that can be done. In this case, however, there is.
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I'm happy, but I am also broken for those left behind': life after Manus and Nauru
17 December 2019
Resettlement in the US has allowed some long-persecuted people to flourish, but that doesn’t let Australia off the hook
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“To freedom.”
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Imran, a 25-year-old Rohingya refugee from Myanmar, raises a glass with a big smile. We are in a bustling restaurant on Chicago’s north side. This midwestern city seems a million miles from Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, or the tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru, yet it’s now home to several Rohingya men resettled under an agreement between Australia and the US.
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These new Chicagoans endured incredible hardships to find their freedom here. They fled ethnic cleansing and discrimination by the Myanmar government against the Rohingya Muslim minority, only to be sent to desolate Pacific island detention centres by the Australian government.
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Not a 'Headline' as such, but a good article.
14 December 2019
Australia should lead way on refugees
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Next week, the first United Nations Global Refugee Forum will take place, where member states will try to co-ordinate a response to the largest global refugee crisis since World War II. It is the first step towards a necessary international processing and resettlement agreement.
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Marise Payne, Australia’s foreign minister, has not committed to attending. Nor has the Morrison government made any public statement about what role Australia might play in the UN talks. This is unsurprising, given Australia’s approach to refugee policy: singularly focused on the domestic politics, consistently sidestepping broader engagement with the global challenge. We are a successful multicultural migrant nation with a history of welcoming refugees. Yet our potential to contribute to a global solution remains unrealised.
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Cormann and Dutton downplay chances of Australia accepting New Zealand refugee deal
8 December 2019
Mathias Cormann reiterates claim government made no deal with Jacqui Lambie for her support repealing medevac laws
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Senior Morrison government ministers have continued to downplay suggestions the government could accept the New Zealand offer to resettle refugees in offshore detention, amid ongoing speculation about the terms of an arrangement made with Senate crossbencher Jacqui Lambie.
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Mathias Cormann reiterated on Sunday that the government had made no deal with Lambie in exchange for her support in repealing the medevac laws earlier this week.
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Lambie said previously she chose to support the government after it agreed to an “outcome” following prolonged negotiations.
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To those stuck in offshore detention: we will keep fighting for you. The medevac repeal is not the end
6 December 2019
I have seen the best and the worst of political decision-making affecting healthcare provision
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Sometimes, the medical profession and governments are on the same page. Examples are public health initiatives like immunisation programs or bowel cancer and cervical screening programs, when medical expertise informs policy.
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This week we sadly saw the opposite, an ugly clash between medical ethics and political expedience.
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On one side, there were 13 medical colleges, the Australian Medical Association and thousands of doctors who were arguing passionately to keep the medevac process in place.
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On the other side, a government hell-bent on repealing a piece of legislation that gave doctors the ability to carry out our professional oath to do no harm, and to put the patient’s needs at the forefront of decisions about medical care.
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Jacinda Ardern tells Scott Morrison New Zealand remains open to resettling Nauru refugees
5 December 2019
New Zealand prime minister says the offer has not changed, but ‘the ball is obviously in Australia’s court’
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Jacinda Ardern has sent a public message to Scott Morrison, confirming New Zealand’s longstanding offer to resettle asylum seekers in offshore detention remains open.
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The day after the Senate repealed the medevac legislation, after the Tasmanian independent Jacqui Lambie was understood to have been given assurances about faster resettlement, and Scott Morrison left the door open to accepting the New Zealand offer, Ardern said what happened next was up to Australia.
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Ardern told Sky News New Zealand’s offer “has not changed, but the ball is obviously in Australia’s court”. The longstanding resettlement offer remained current but “ultimately the ball has sat domestically with Australia for quite some time”.
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‘Dark day for the Australian people’: Medevac supporters shattered over repeal of ‘life-saving’ laws
4 December 2019
Supporters of medevac laws have vented their anger and disappointment at the Federal government’s repealing of the medical transfer provisions.
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Medevac supporters have described the repealing of the refugee medical transfer laws as a “dark day” for the Australian Parliament and people.
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They’re calling for an alleged “secret deal” made between the Coalition and Independent Senator Jacqui Lambie to be made public after the crossbencher sided with the government.
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A vote to repeal the contentious laws passed the Senate on Wednesday with the Coalition securing her crucial support to dismantle the laws.
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Medevac repeal gives Morrison a political win, but prompts intense moral discomfort
4 December 2019
It is Australia’s shame that we can’t have proper medical evacuation procedures and, also, the prospect of ending indefinite detention
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As the debate over the future of medevac dragged on unresolved, Jacqui Lambie told colleagues she was looking past that particular issue to the fate of the people in long-term offshore detention. In simple terms, the Tasmanian independent was pursuing a bigger objective than repeal or no repeal: she wanted people off Manus Island and Nauru.
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Lambie told the Senate on Wednesday she put a “proposal” to the government. She did not call it a deal.
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In her telling, this proposal (details absent, sorry guys, national security) meant things would not go back to the way they had been before the medevac regime was legislated. After her conversations with Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton, Lambie told the chamber she was now “more than satisfied” that the conditions were in place to allow for repeal of the medevac procedures.
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