In the wake of a High Court break-through concerning Operation Sovereign Borders, AUSTRALIANS ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS to refugee specialists, Dr Joyce Chia and Dr Lucy Fiske, live at Politics in the Pub. Joyce Chia works at the Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW, and Lucy Fiske is a Chancellor’s Post Doctoral Fellow at UTS.

In this highly candid Q and A session, we hear heart-breaking accounts and questions raised about children in detention; how Australia’s actions may influence those of other countries, and importantly, what federal Labor should be doing to oppose the Abbott Government’s appalling treatment of asylum-seekers and refugees.

Australians are becoming increasingly skeptical about the Government’s claim to be “Saving Lives at Sea”, given that two asylum seekers have died on Manus Island, and that self-harm has become commonplace, even among children. In February this year, asylum seeker Reza Barati was allegedly murdered by detention centre staff, two Papua New Guinean Nationals who worked with the Salvation Army, and G4S Security respectively.

This month, vigils were held Australia-wide for another Manus Island detainee, Hamid Kehazaei, who died of blood poisoning from a cut foot…

With countless reports of neglect and unsanitary conditions, and the torture of seemingly endless detainment, one might well ask what quality of life the Australian Government is offering as an alternative to drowning at sea? Refugees are after all, the people Australia pledged to keep safe – not drive to the depths of despair, criminally neglect or murder.

Read Dr Joyce Chia’s article in the Guardian – ‘High court verdict spells the end for Australian immigration detention as we know it’ – to see what kind of changes the High Court is likely to impose, so as to insure that ‘protection’ is what Australia is really giving.

Starring the questions of the audience - Politics in the Pub - Q&A on Refugees

After learning that the very legality of ‘Operation Sovereign Borders’ is on the line, we wait with fond anticipation the outcome of a refugee case currently before the High Court, and the upcoming challenge to the Australian Government, concerning the refoulement of Tamils to Sri Lanka.

If Julian Burnside QC is correct, Australians can look forward in the longer term, to seeing Scott Morrison and Tony Abbott in the dock, in the Hague. We’ll soon see if the High Court deems Operation Sovereign Borders to be illegal. Then comes the case of the Tamils…

Sister Susan Connelly delivered a moving and instructive speech yesterday to 4000 rain-drenched Sydney-siders, who had come to the Palm Sunday rally to show their support for Australia’s refugees. Susan is one of the five Sisters of St Joseph, who have taken up Saint Mary MacKillop’s East Timor Mission to bring basic education to the children of East Timor.

Australians have become distraught at the harsh treatment of its refugees, and are coming out increasing numbers to tell their Government to free these people from their seemingly endless incarceration in Detention Centres. Fourteen church congregations and school-children have now joined the protest, following the brutal attack on detainees by locals and G4S contractors on Manus Island, resulting in over 70 people being injured, and the death of Reza Barati. Many of the protestors were outside Villawood Detention Centre last week, as numerous buses took the refugees away to the remotest areas of the continent.

The official spiel is that Villawood is to be refurbished, but the simultaneous emptying of the Maribyrnong Facility in Victoria, and recent sightings of baby cots arriving at the offshore Camp on Nauru – there are no babies, yet – suggests a general move. One can only guess, since the Abbott Government has made its mission Top Secret. Department staffers have been warned that they may neither speak about “operational matters” nor criticise the Government; and that they should report anyone who disobeys the order.

Queensland Senator Larissa Waters recently complained that access to off-shore facilities has even been denied to the UN and our own human rights commissioner, Gillian Triggs.

Out of sight, Mr Abbott, but certainly NOT out of mind…

Sister Susan Connelly speaks out for Australian Refugees

Carlo Sands is a sharp, well-informed political comedian who crafts laughter from the absurdities of Left and Right

Rod Quantock

You can hear more from Carlo Sands in ‘Carlo’s Corner’ of Green Left Weekly and at comedy events around Sydney. Through his act, Carlo is able to bring a more poignantly moral dimension to the facts, and some comic relief to the gravitas of the day…

Music: “Pot Screama” by TISM