Australian story of beating Covid 19

How Australia Beat COVID-1947

2021-04-29T06:08:00.006-07:00

How Australia Beat COVID-1947

Australia has been hailed across the world as a COVID-19 success story while the UK is still crippled by its grip. It’s because of a “serious mistake”.

Australia is a fortress of hope in a world conquered by COVID-19. But, even as vaccines raise the prospect of relief, the siege is growing stronger. And the cracks in our defences are growing.

All are being blamed across the world for overwhelmed health systems, stalled economies and soaring death rates.

Australia has dodged these bullets. So far.

A federal government accused of repeatedly ignoring expert advice before the devastating 2019 bushfires was suddenly eager to put epidemiologists at the heart of the public health emergency.

Go fast. Go hard. That’s the advice Australia – and its states – received and acted upon.

Australia’s tactic of going hard means life has been able to return to relative normal. Bondi Beach on Australia Day. Picture: Matrix Media GroupSource:Matrix

Meanwhile, the United States prevaricated. Great Britain hesitated.

Profit versus pandemic equations were being crunched around the world.

Now they’re paying the price.

Some 451,000 people have so far died in the US, and its economy contracted 3.5 per cent. The toll is about 108,000 in the UK. The economic contraction is about 9.7 per cent.

In Australia, 909 lives have been taken by this poorly understood disease.

And its economy, while wounded, remains in fighting form. Can it stay that way?

A DEFEATED WORLD

“Everything broke,” WHO health emergencies head Michael Ryan told the World Health Organisation’s Executive Board’s annual meeting last week.

International agreements. International law. International co-operation.

All went by the wayside in the face of COVID-19.

The board heard that – despite years of warnings – preparations for global pandemic were not adequate. That alert and response systems were outmoded. That warning signs were ignored.

This is why it took the WHO four weeks after the virus was identified to declare a “public health emergency of international concern”.

But the blame doesn’t only rest with the WHO.

“(Even then), too many countries failed to act quickly and decisively enough to apply necessary and recommended public health measures,” says pandemic preparedness head Helen Clark.

Even the testing needed to identify the pandemic’s spread failed, Mr Ryan says.

“It was not just a supply issue,” he explained. “There were manufacturing issues. There were raw material issues. There were distribution issues. There were error issues. There were competitive issues between member states.”

And there were societal issues – such as conspiracy theories and disinformation from trusted sources.

“A closer look at the international response to COVID-19 reveals two new developments that have exacerbated the impact of and response to the pandemic – politicisation and securitisation,” US Council on Foreign Relations global health senior fellow Yanzhong Huang wrote in Foreign Affairs.

“It did not have to be this bad. The inconsistency and incompetence of President Donald Trump’s administration compounded the toll of the pandemic, but so did larger forces partly beyond any one government’s control, from politics to protectionism to paranoia.”"If you'd asked me a year ago, can you imagine a circumstance where Australia was at zero cases but the world was at 630,000 cases in a day, I would have struggled to be so bold to have made that prediction, so our efforts are extraordinary,",

So when the Lowy Institute released its analysis of the countries with the most effective , some were surprised to see Australia scraping into the top 10 at number eight.

The think tank tracked six measures in 98 countries for 36 weeks after the country's 100th confirmed case. The Institute's Herve Lemahieu told the ABC that there wasn't one particular type of country that had stemmed the tide, but there seemed to be an advantage for smaller countries.

"One of the remarkable findings of this study is that there has been more or less a level playing field between developing and rich countries," he said.

Despite their success, the top 10 is a warning against complacency — with the New Zealand travel bubble suspended this week and Vietnam recording its worst single-day coronavirus outbreak so far.

So what lessons can we learn from the seven countries that trumped us?

Australians beat back the COVID pandemic to just a few cases across the entire country. August 2020 following a second wave of COVID-19 cases in the community. Member of the World Health Organization (WHO) advisory panel for Local leaders set an improbable goal in the face of that challenge.

"We need to sacrifice in the short-term to gain the long-term back. and to gain our lives. And it worked.” That's how the Australians beat back the COVID pandemic to just a few cases across the entire country. We discuss how Australia did it, and lessons for the U.S.

Refugee and Humanitarian Program

2017-11-14T03:44:00.000-08:00

Refugee and Humanitarian Program

In 2016-17, Australia’s Refugee and Humanitarian Program provided visas for 21,968 people(including 8,209 from the Syrian and Iraqi intake), representing an increase of 4,518 from the previous year. Australia’s Humanitarian Program is set to expand incrementally over the next three years, with the base rate from 2016-2017 increasing from 13,750 places to 16,250 in 2017-18 and 18,750 in 2018-19.

In 2016-17, the Department granted 12,059 visas for people overseas compared with 1,711 for those already in Australia (6,642 under the Refugee Category, 5407 under the Special Humanitarian Programme, and 1607 visas to vulnerable women, childr

In March 2017, the last of the 12,000 visas for those affected by the conflicts in Syria or Iraq were granted. In total, 22,398 places were granted for those from Syria o 1 July 2015, including those allocated places within the regular Refugee and Humanitarian Program. Most of these places were given to ‘persecuted minorities, wome

In 2016-17, the Community Support Program replaced the previous Community Proposal Pilot. The Pilot had granted a total of 608 visas through a strategy of engaging families, communities and business organisations to support resettlement pathways for refugees. The report provides little detail in terms of the scope of the new program, including the number of places available for humanitarian entrants.

The Department also established an independent Child Protection Panel to review and develop a comprehensive framework for the protection of children. The Department has accepted all 17 recommendations of that Panel. A review into the implementation of those recommendations was be made in October 2017.

Operation Sovereign Borders

The annual report emphasises Operation Sovereign Borders as the key mechanism to deter ‘illegal maritime migration’ to Australia. In 2016-2017, the three vessels were intercepted under Operation Sovereign Borders, containing

Offshore processing

As of October 2017, over two thousand people remain in Australia’s offshore processing centres in Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Of these, 902 are in PNG, and a further 1,129 are in Nauru (p.110). 362 people had been transferred to Australia for medical reasons or with accompanying family.

The Department reported that it had assisted in the ‘voluntary departure’ of 60 people during the year from Nauru or PNG. Australia also supported arrangements for Nauru to increase the validity of their visas from 10 to 20 years.

Detention and removals

Since December 2013, the Department has closed 15 immigration detention centres including, in 2016-2017, Perth Immigration Residential Housing and Wickham Point Detention Centre. The Department notes an increase in the percentage of high-risk detainees, including those with criminal histories or with links to criminal associations. This has led the Department to focus on enhancing screening arrangements to prevent the entry of contraband, as discussed in our report on constraints on visitors to detention.

The Department also reported that it had accepted all 43 recommendations made by an independent Detention Capability Report in January 2017. The report recommended ‘an improved risk-based approach that supports the appropriate placement and management of individuals while their status is being resolved’. As of 30 June 2017, 98.5% of detainees had their placement assessed within 14 days of entry into detention.

The Department removed 6,948 non-citizens from onshore detention in 2016-17, representing an increasing of 2,294 removals from the previous year.

‘Legacy caseload’ and fast tracking

The Department claims to have made progress in managing a large backlog of cases for people seeking protection between 2008 and 2014 (referred to as the ‘legacy caseload’). In 2016-17, the Department had made decisions on 41% of this caseload, reporting that it had made 7866 primary decisions and 8000 final decisions.

Of those cases, the Department had referred only 1855 highly vulnerable people for government-funded application assistance under the Primary Application and Information Service (PAIS).

In 2016-2017, 15,181 people lodged applications under this process. The Department reported that, since it had started issuing ‘non-engagement letters’ to those who had not applied in December 2016, it had received another 1909 applications in response.

Citizenship

In 2016-17, the Department received 222,907 applications for citizenship, covering conferral, descent, adoption and the resumption of caseloads. The Government’s recently failed attempt to pass legislative changes to citizenship requirements in the Senate has affected upon both the number of applications and the pace with which these are approved. As the Department remarks, it is ‘working through an unprecedented number of citizenship applications’: this has meant that its target of deciding on citizenship conferral within service standards has failed to meet the target of 80%, with only 45% of applications being decided within its service standards

LET'S SEE IF I GOT THIS RIGHT! IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP WESTMINSTER!

2012-04-14T18:59:00.001-07:00

LET'S SEE IF I GOT THIS RIGHT!!!

IF YOU CROSS THE NORTH KOREAN BORDER, ILLEGALLY YOU GET 12 YEARS HARD LABOUR.

IF YOU CROSS THE IRANIAN BORDER, ILLEGALLY YOU ARE DETAINED INDEFINITELY..

IF YOU CROSS THE AFGHAN BORDER, ILLEGALLY, YOU GET SHOT.

IF YOU CROSS THE SAUDI ARABIAN BORDER, ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE JAILED.

IF YOU CROSS THE CHINESE BORDER, ILLEGALLY YOU MAY NEVER BE HEARD FROM AGAIN.

IF YOU CROSS THE VENEZUELAN BORDER, ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE BRANDED A SPY AND YOUR FATE WILL BE SEALED..

IF YOU CROSS THE CUBAN BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU WILL BE THROWN INTO POLITICAL PRISON TO ROT.

IF YOU CROSS THE Australian! BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET !!!

A DRIVERS LICENCE, A CAR. LOADS OF CASH,

SOCIAL SECURITY CARD, WELFARE,

FOOD PAID FOR, CREDIT CARDS,

FREE FURNISHED HOUSING,

FREE EDUCATION, FREE HEALTH CARE,

THE RIGHT TO CARRY YOUR COUNTRY'S FLAG WHILE YOU PROTEST.

PROTEST THAT YOU DON'T GET ENOUGH RESPECT.

AND, IN MANY INSTANCES, YOU CAN VOTE.

I JUST WANTED TO MAKE SURE I HAD A FIRM GRASP ON THE SITUATION !!!

IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP WESTMINSTER !!!!!!!!!!!!

The March to War, Iran and the Strategic Encirclement of Syria and Lebanon

2012-01-07T05:24:00.000-08:00

A New Strategy for Securing the Realm.

The encirclement of Syria and Lebanon has long been in the works. Since 2001, Washington and NATO have started the process of cordoning off Lebanon and Syria. The permanent NATO presence in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Syrian Accountability Act are part of this initiative. It appears that this roadmap is based on a 1996 Israeli document aimed at controlling Syria. The document’s name is A Clean Break.

The 1996 Israeli document, which included prominent U.S. policy figures as authors, calls for “rolling back Syria” in 2000 or afterward. The roadmap outlines pushing the Syrians out of Lebanon, diverting the attention of Damascus by using an anti-Syrian opposition in Lebanon, and then destabilizing Syria with the help of both Jordan and Turkey. This has all respectively occurred from 2005 to 2011. This is also why the anti-Syrian March 14 Alliance and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) were created in Lebanon.

As a first step towards all this the 1996 document even calls for the removal of President Saddam Hussein from power in Baghdad and even alludes to the balkanization of Iraq and forging a strategic regional alliance against Damascus that includes a Sunni Muslim Arab “Central Iraq.” The sectarian nature of this project is very obvious as are its ties to opposing a so-called “Shiite Crescent.” The roadmap seeks to foment sectarian divisions as a means of conquering Syria and creating a Shiite-Sunni rift that will oppose Iran and keep the Arab monarchs in power.

The U.S. has now initiated a naval build-up off the Syrian and Lebanese coasts. This is part of Washington’s standard scare tactics that it has used as a form of intimidation and psychological warfare against Iran, Syria, and the Resistance Bloc. While Washington is engaged in its naval build-up, the mainstream media networks controlled by the Saudis and Arab clients of the U.S. are focusing on the deployment of Russian naval vessels to Syria, which can be seen as a counter-move to NATO.

Al-Ramtha in Jordan is being used to launch attacks into Daraa and Syrian territory. The Jordanian Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications, Rakan Al-Majali, has even publicly admitted this and dismissed it as weapons smuggling. For years, Jordanian forces have successfully prevented weapons from reaching the Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank from Jordanian territory. In reality, Amman is sending weapons into Syria and working to destabilize Syria. Jordanian forces work as a frontline to protect Israel and the Jordanian intelligence services are an extension of the C.I.A. and Mossad.

According to the Turkish media, France has sent its military trainers into Turkey and Lebanon to prepare conscripts against Syria. The Lebanese media also suggests the same. The so-called Free Syrian Army and other NATO-GCC front organizations are also using Turkish and Jordanian territory to stage raids into Syria. Lebanon is also being used to smuggle weapon shipments into Syria. Many of these weapons were actually arms that the Pentagon had secretly re-directed into Lebanon from Anglo-American occupied Iraq during the George W. Bush Jr. presidency.

The French Foreign Minister, Alain Juppé, has promised the Syrian National Council, that a so-called “humanitarian corridor” will be imposed on Syria. Once again, the Syrian National Council is not an independent entity and therefore Juppé did not really make a promise; he really made a declaration.

While foreign companies like Suncor Energy were forced to leave Libya, they have not left Syria. The reason that these companies have stayed has been presented as being humanitarian, because they provide domestic local services in Syria. For example, Suncor Energy helped produce oil for export from Libya, but in Syria produces energy for local consumption. In reality, hostile governments are letting these companies stay, because they siphon money out of Syria. They want to prevent any money from going in, while they want to also drain the local economy as a catalyst to internal implosion in Syria.

Along with the U.S. and its NATO allies, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is imposing sanctions that include an end to all flights to Syria. The GCC states and Turkey have joined the foreign ministries of NATO states in asking their citizens to leave Syria. Since the U.N. Security Council is no longer a viable route against Syria, the GCC may also try to impose a no-fly zone over Syria through the Arab League.

Russia sends warship to Syria in support of Assad as UN claims his soldiers have killed 256 children.

2011-12-12T00:16:00.000-08:00

Russia is sending warships to Syria in an apparent show of strength in support of President Bashar al-Assad.

The move to defend Moscow’s interests in the strife-torn country came as a United Nations report revealed horrifying new details of children being tortured to death by Syrian government thugs.

Last night, the disturbing claims piled more international pressure on Assad to end the bloodshed that is believed to have claimed 3,500 lives.

Russia’s flotilla of warships will give pause to Western leaders pushing for the kind of military intervention in Syria that ultimately drove Muammar Gaddafi from power in Libya.

Russia, which has a major naval base in Syria and whose weapons trade with Damascus is worth millions of pounds a year, joined China last month to veto a Western-backed UN Security Council resolution condemning Assad’s government.

Russia is planning to send its flagship aircraft carrier, the ‘Admiral Kuznetsov’ along with a patrol ship, an anti-submarine craft and other vessels towards its base on the Syrian coast near Tartus.

Officially, the Russian Navy said the mission had nothing to do with the uprising.

But retired Russian Admiral Viktor Kravchenko said last night that Moscow was sending a message to the US and European leaders.

‘Having any military force apart from NATO is very beneficial for the region as it prevents the outbreak of armed conflict,’ he said.

Arab League Imposes Syrian Sanctions as Civil Conflict Grows

2011-11-27T23:23:00.000-08:00

The Arab League imposed unprecedented sanctions on Syria, including a freeze on financial assets in Arab countries and a travel ban on senior officials, after it failed to stop its crackdown on protesters.

The measures also will halt dealings with the Syrian central bank, Qatari Prime Minister told reporters yesterday in Cairo. The Arab League banned financial transactions and trade with the Syrian government, excluding basic commodities, he said.

President Bashar Al-Assad, 46, is under economic and political pressure to end an eight-month crackdown against demonstrators, inspired by popular movements that toppled leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. The violence has moved the country closer to a civil war as military personnel defect and take up arms against the government.

“Sanctions may put more pressure on Assad, but he will continue his current crackdown as is unless something really big happens,” Paul Sullivan, a political scientist specializing in Middle East security at Georgetown University in Washington, said in an e-mailed response to questions. “It has all the indications of a fall into civil war so far.”

The United Nations estimates that at least 3,500 people have been killed since the start of the protests in mid-March. Thirty-one people were killed by security forces yesterday, al- Jazeera television reported, citing activists.

The economic sanctions are the first the Arab League has imposed on a member state since its formation in 1945. In 1979, the league suspended Egypt’s membership after President Anwar Sadat signed a peace agreement with Israel, and reinstated the North African nation in 1989.

Syrian neighbors Iraq and Lebanon abstained from voting on yesterday’s decision. The sanctions were drafted to target Syrian officials and aren’t intended to hurt the Syrian people, Sheikh Hamad said.

The opposition Syrian National Council posted a statement on its Facebook page calling the sanctions “a defeat for the Syrian regime and an important step to isolate it and stop the supplies that feed its criminal war against peaceful protesters.”

U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague welcomed the Arab League’s “leadership” in seeking an end to the “horrific violence” in Syria, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

Assad, who inherited power from his father in 2000, has moved to ease Syria’s economic isolation and encourage foreign investment. He had encouraged private industry in Syria’s state- dominated economy to provide long-term financing for development and economic reforms.

“Syria is a trading nation and they are natural capitalists,” Andrew Tabler, a Syria analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said in response to e-mailed questions. “The businessmen in that country will never tolerate being cut off to such a degree. This move will get the business elite off the fence and against the regime.”

Syria’s $60 billion economy, which expanded 5.5 percent in 2010, may shrink 2 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. The government expects growth of 1 percent, Finance minister Mohammad Al-Jleilati said in September.

The Arab League suspended Syria, a founding member, for its handling of the unrest about two weeks ago. It was the boldest action by the organization since its condemnation of Muammar Qaddafi’s repression of protests paved the way for the United Nations resolution in March authorizing a North Atlantic Treaty Organization campaign that ended after Qaddafi’s death.

“The Arab League is now capable of taking actions against an antiquated Arab regime,” Theodore Karasik, director of research at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, said in a phone interview yesterday. “The vote illustrates the growing clout of the Arab League in Arab affairs.”

The sanctions on Syria were imposed after Assad’s government ignored an Arab League request to admit monitors, who would check whether the government was ending its violence against protesters. The league rejected Syrian requests to negotiate the terms of the deal, which was agreed on Nov. 2. The original deadline was Nov. 19.

“This is the Arab League trying to keep it an Arab issue,” Ausama Monajed, a member of the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group, said in an interview yesterday. “We expected a little bit more but this is an excellent start. They’ve never done anything like it.”

Syria buried 25 soldiers, including six pilots, who were killed by the “armed terrorist groups,” the Syrian Arab News Agency reported yesterday. Their deaths were “blatant proof of organized terrorism against Syria,” the news service said, citing Ghassan Abdelaal, the governor of Homs, a center of the uprising.

Ahead of the league’s decision, a mass rally against the organization was held in Latakia, according to the official Syrian news service.

Sectarian divisions in Syria, where the Alawite minority has ruled over a Sunni Muslim majority since the Assad dynasty took power in 1970, underlie political tensions in the country. In 1982, Assad’s father crushed a rebellion led by Sunni militants in the city of Hama, killing as many as 10,000 people according to estimates cited by Human Rights Watch.

“The Arab League also sees real trouble if Syria falls into a full civil war,” Sullivan said. “The closeness of Assad’s regime to Iran, and Iran’s support of them during this brutal time in Syria, worry and irritate many Sunni leaders in the region.”

Australia, Wake up Australia, Multiculturalism Is A Failure

2011-07-25T05:27:00.000-07:00

Wake up Australia, Multiculturalism Is A Failure...

Over an extraordinary nine months, the leaders of Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Norway, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Germany and France have declared that multiculturalism is a failure.

Countries in Europe are finding different ways to deal with the explosive issue of multiculturalism and assimilation.

The author of Immigrant Nations, Paul Scheffer is a professor of urban sociology at the University of Amsterdam. Scheffer supports ethnic diversity, but not multiculturalism.

Asked if Australia should abandon multiculturalism, Scheffer is clear in his position.

“Absolutely. I think it is the wrong the philosophy. It is the philosophy of avoidance.”

According to Scheffer "multiculturalism always talks about the discriminations of the majority, and they're there, in the discrimination of the labour market, and so on. But there is also plenty of prejudice within the minority communities."

For Scheffer, the problem with multiculturalism is that he feels it does not address the issue of practicality. "How are we going to live together? That's exactly the question multiculturalism doesn't ask, because multiculturalism is the anti-philosophy of avoidance, of living next to each other but not with each other."

On the other end of the spectrum is Greg Sheridan, a senior journalist at the Australian newspaper. Sheridan has visited Europe and written on multiculturalism, and says he supports large and diverse immigration.

"I think the word ‘multicultural’ has become divisive, useless, and more trouble than it's worth. Most of the reference we've had to multiculturalism now comes out of the European experience, which has been catastrophic."

British Prime Minister David Cameron has said that "under the doctrine of ‘state multiculturalism’, we've encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other, and apart from the mainstream."

England’s Prime Minister has joined the chorus of condemnation, alongside Germany’s Angela Merkel, French president Nicolas Sarkozy and Dutch leaders.

"The multicultural approach - living side by side, and being happy with each other - this approach has failed utterly," said Angela Merkel.

Among the options being considered and put in place are: tying welfare to language skills; making it tougher to bring out family members; restricting welfare entitlements; and points testing on culture and integration. France has also banned the Burqa, and Holland’s planned ban comes into force on January 1, 2013.

"It's hard to generalise about these measures, but a number of them I think are quite reasonable,” said Sheridan.

“I think the actions the French have taken are quite reasonable. I wouldn't remove benefits from someone because they can't speak the language, but I would encourage people to learn the language."

Alp Mehmet is a former diplomat, who was born in Cyprus and immigrated to England with his parents when he was eight years old. According to him "multiculturalism can't possibly be a device for integrating people. It has the opposite effect.

“If you're encouraging people to retain their own language, their own background, without actually becoming a part of a society that they've joined, of course you're keeping them separate to what is going on around them. And that's where the difficulty lies."

Alp Mehmet is now co-chairman of Migration Watch UK, a not-for-profit research group calling for Britain to slow down immigration before its economy stalls.

"Looking at it from a British point of view, of course it's a statement of fact that there are a lot of cultures and people from different ethnic backgrounds in this country. A lot of them have come here quite properly, legally, and they have a right to be here. No one's questioning that.

“What we're questioning is the rate and the numbers, the pace at which it's happening. That is what is a problem at the moment."

Why multiculturalism and why now? Critics say it's a diversion from the real, financial crisis that Europe is facing. After the second €100 billion bailout of Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland are all teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, and the Euro zone is in danger of collapse.

This has led Britons, like many Australians, to ask the questions:

- 'who are we?
And - ‘where do we draw the line?'

Australia, Wake Up!!! Facts, Every Australian Should Know About Refugees!!!

2011-03-20T15:23:00.000-07:00

Facts, Every Australian Should Know About Refugees!!!

Refugees are too "culturally different" to fit in with the Australian way of life. and Australia is being "invaded" or "flooded" by refugees.

Boat people are rich because they can afford to pay people smugglers, and Indonesia should accept Muslim refugees.

People who arrive unauthorised are not "genuine" refugees

Refugees will create unemployment and "steal" Australians’ entitlements.

Boat people are "queue jumpers", stealing the places of "genuine" refugees waiting patiently in camps.

The atrocity in New York shows that Australia must stop allowing people from Afghanistan to enter the country "holus bolus".

It is not safe to let asylum seekers into the community.

Australia is a "soft touch" because of its "generosity" to refugees.

Refugee detention centres are like holiday camps.

Refugees cost too much, detentions is very expensive, the high security and remote locations of the the centres adds considerably to the coast. At $104,00 a day per head.

Australia has to get tough with people smugglers.

The International Refugees Protection Facts

2011-02-19T01:48:00.000-08:00

Western Europe as well as USA and Australia Weakening Protections on Refugees
"European countries, as well as North America and Australia, have systematically diluted their responsibilities towards refugees over the past ten to fifteen years," said Rachael Reilly, Refugee Policy Director at Human Rights Watch. "These countries were the primary architects of the international refugee regime in the aftermath of the Second World War - but they are also primarily responsible for its demise."
The Western nations that established the international refugee protection system fifty years ago are the same ones weakening it today.
Marking the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Human Rights Watch charted the erosion of refugee protection throughout Western Europe, where punitive policies toward asylum-seekers have obstructed the right of individuals to seek and enjoy asylum.
Among the Western European policies that have obstructed the rights of refugees are:

v -instituting visa requirements for nationals from refugee-producing countries;

v -placing heavy fines on airlines that transport asylum seekers who do not have valid travel documents;

v -posting European immigration officials in refugees' countries of origin;

v -shifting responsibility for refugee protection onto neighbors in Central Europe, where refugees are less protected against forced return to their home countries;

v -and refusing asylum to people who have fled persecution by non-state actors - such as in Algeria - or who have fled situations of generalized civil conflict, such as in Colombia.

In an especially worrying development, European governments, such as Austria and more recently the United Kingdom, have proposed a major overhaul of the 1951 Refugee Convention, which they describe as outdated and ill-equipped to deal with modern day migration movements. In June 2000, UK Home Secretary Jack Straw proposed that individuals from countries that E.U. governments considered to be "safe" should be excluded from refugee protection.
"The asylum debate in Europe is taking place within an increasingly hostile and xenophobic environment," said Reilly. "European governments appear to be more concerned with protecting themselves than with protecting refugees." Reilly said European countries were setting a very negative example to countries elsewhere, particularly in the developing world, who continue to host the vast majority of the world's refugees.
Human Rights Watch said that in traditionally generous refugee-hosting countries, including Pakistan, Thailand, Tanzania, and Guinea, governments are increasingly closing their doors to refugees and adopting restrictive and xenophobic refugee policies. Hundreds of Sierra Leonean and Liberian refugees were injured, dozens of women raped - many of them gang raped - and thousands were arbitrarily detained in Guinea in September 2000, following inflammatory anti-refugee statements by President Lansana Conte.

The document acknowledges the increasingly precarious security situation within which many countries, such as Tanzania, Guinea, and Thailand, are hosting refugees, and the need for the international community to provide additional support to these countries to strengthen their security.
"The international community, especially Western countries, demonstrated their ability to respond with speed and generosity during the Kosovo refugee crisis," said Reilly. "Western governments should show an equal commitment to assisting refugees elsewhere in the world, particularly the forgotten refugee crises in Africa, where the needs of millions of refugees are sorely neglected."

The Facts of Australian Refugees Awareness

2011-01-16T04:16:00.000-08:00

The Six Facts, every refugee need to know when they seek refuge in Australia. These facts are based on the Regulations of the Department of Immigrations and according to Australian Refugees Policy and by Law.

Queensland Flood Disaster, 16 die in Qld floods, 60 missing

2011-01-14T03:35:00.000-08:00

The death toll from Queensland's devastating floods has climbed to 16, Premier Anna Bligh says.

"This morning the search and rescue teams located another woman who was found deceased near Grantham," she told reporters.

Ms Bligh told reporters in Brisbane there were 53 people unaccounted for, including 12 for whom police hold grave fears.

Some communities, such as Theodore in central Queensland, had been evacuated entirely.

The premier said 4436 people are currently living in 50 emergency evacuation centres.

A further 7502 people have registered as being out of their homes.

Ms Bligh said there are many thousands more who have not registered.

She said those people are "very dislocated at the end of this week".

Ms Bligh said Queensland had been overwhelmed by support from other parts of the country.

"It certainly helps to endure an event like this, to know we are not alone," she said.

The premier said the state had ended the week with a determination to begin the process of cleaning up, recovery and rebuilding.

"We are on the job out there right now putting plans in place across three-quarters of our state to recover from this event," she said.

The premier spent much of Friday in the Lockyer Valley town of Grantham, where lives were lost in flash floods.

"What I saw can only compare to a war zone or perhaps a cyclonic hurricane," she said.

"The way that the town has been literally picked up and turned around and deposited in fields and roads is going to be very difficult for people to come home from the evacuation centres and see."

Ms Bligh said the Macintyre River was steady in Goondiwindi, which was good news.

"We no longer hold the concerns for Goondiwindi that we held this morning," she said.

Ms Bligh said water authorities were confident treatment plants had not been affected and water quality could be maintained.

But she urged Brisbane residents to conserve water.

"Now is not the time for us to be using water unless we really need to be," she said.

She said she hoped the Bruce Highway at Rockhampton could be reopened within days to allow supplies through to central and north Queensland towns and cities.

The premier said they'd be a "comprehensive review" of the flood disaster at a later date, but did not go so far as to back Lord Mayor Campbell Newman's call for a judicial review.

It would be held in a "public, transparent way so people can participate and people can understand what has happened", she said.

"I am keen to find answers to some of the questions, particularly about the Toowoomba event, and to get a better understanding of this entire flood experience," she said.

the review would examine "what can we learn from it, what did we do very well, where did we make mistakes, what can we do better next time".

"Wall certainly be giving thought over the coming days to the best mechanism to do that," Ms Bligh said.

"But right now we are still getting basic essentials - clean water, electricity and food - to people.

"Until that job is done that's going to be my number one focus."

Ms Bligh appealed for interstate residents to consider Queensland as a holiday destination.

"One of the best things you can do for us is bring your family to one of the great holiday destinations," she said.

Queensland Flood Disaster, 16 die in Qld floods, 60 missing

2011-01-11T02:34:00.000-08:00

The premier braced Queensland for a potentially dramatic rise in the death toll from flash flooding.

A four-year-old boy's death during an attempt to rescue his family has taken the Queensland floods death toll to 16, with 60 people still missing.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said the number of missing people had risen to 60 , with grave concerns held for 18 people.

The four-year-old boy was swept away in floodwaters at Marburg, west of Brisbane.

"The best advice we have at this stage is that this boy's life was lost during an attempt to rescue him and his family," Ms Bligh told reporters on Tuesday night.

Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale said the boy had fallen out of a boat.

"We've just found out a four-year-old-boy has fallen out of a boat and they've just found the body," Mr Pisasale told the ABC.

Ms Bligh said the number of missing people had risen from 59 to 78.

"Clearly as we get more information from families looking for their loved ones, these numbers are going to fluctuate."

She said there were now grave concerns for 18 people.

Authorities have thrown their resources at Brisbane and Ipswich.

"We have every available resource deployed to assist them over the next couple of days," Ms Bligh said.
"Our police, our fire and rescue, our emergency services have all temporarily ceased all non-essential duties and deployed people directly onto the front lines."

The Brisbane River is expected to peak on Thursday, with Ms Bligh saying it would likely remain that high through to Saturday.

"When the river in Brisbane does peak it is likely to stay at and around that peak until Saturday ...," Ms Bligh said.

"Many roads will be cut off, clearly many people won't be able to get to work or access the shops."

Refugees Awareness

2011-01-09T17:01:00.000-08:00

Refugees Awareness:

Australia is home to a considerable refugee community that is misunderstood and whose needs are oftentimes overlooked. The media, our own pre-existing misconceptions as well as limited interaction with the members of this community have all contributed to a situation where little knowledge regarding the issues, problems and horrific experiences facing this community is known in the general public.

Settling successfully into a new country with a completely different culture is intimidating and it understandably takes time to adapt. Furthermore, the pre-arrival experiences of many refugees and asylum seekers mean that they have very specific settlement needs which can be inadequately addressed by government-provided services. Oftentimes it is left up to the community to aid in the successful settlement of refugees in the long term.

Our Australian refugees awareness group (ARA) has organised a series of events focusing on bringing students more information on this issue as well as a range of opportunities to volunteer in a number of community organisations working with the refugee community, and it all starts off with the Refugee Awareness events! Getting involved doesn’t have to be a complicated and uncertain task. this events will bring together a range of community organisations who offer a number of skills-based volunteer opportunities that aid the transition of many refugees into ‘settled’ everyday life. So whether you have a background in accounting, law, psychology, science or just want to volunteer your time come along!

The events is not only a way to highlight the pressing needs of refugees in trying to settle successfully, but it is also a celebration of what they can contribute to our existing community. Music, food and a number of performances by members of the refugee community in Australia will be taking place at the event, so grab some lunch and come along if you’re interested in getting involved, or if you just want to learn more!

The events is taking place on the 20th June (TUESDAY) from 1pm – 3pm at Union Lawn, The University of Sydney.

This events are focused on refugee and asylum seeker rights for this year. Look out for more information on our Get Involved! Workshop and our upcoming ARA Campus Challenge!

If you would like more information on the refugee community in Australia and the refugee situation worldwide there are a number of online resources which may be of use:

Australia’s Humanitarian/Refugee Program
http://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/arp/faqs.html
http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/60refugee.htm

Settlement services provided to refugees:
http://www.apo.org.au/research/australias-settlement-services-migrants-and-refugees-2009
http://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/current/settlement.html

http://www.cmy.net.au/Assets/305/2/SettingIn.pdf

Myths surrounding Asylum-seekers and Refugees:
http://www.erc.org.au/index.php?module=documents&JAS_DocumentManager_op=viewDocument&JAS_Document_id=246

Global refugee issues
http://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/current/international.html

http://www.oofras.com/International-Refugee-Issues-pg3946.html

More specific global refugee issues

http://blogfordarfur.org/

http://www.refintl.org/where-we-work/africa/dr-congo

http://www.refugeesinternational.org/where-we-work/asia/afghanistan

http://www.burmeserefugee.org/burmese_refugees.php

Floods in Australia, Natural disaster

2011-01-09T13:03:00.000-08:00

Floods: Some parts of Queensland are on standby for flash flooding as more torrential rain disrupts recovery attempts in areas where raging rivers have begun to subside.
The focus of attention has shifted southwards from central to southeast Queensland which is being battered by heavy local falls.
Authorities have warned that the ground is so waterlogged that sudden downpours can quickly cause flash flooding.

Emergency Management Queensland (EMIT) Acting Deputy Chief Officer Warren Bridson on Sunday warned Queenslanders that they can't presume what increased rainfall will do.
"This year, with all of the catchments primed (and) the rivers already flooding, that 200mm of rain will mean something very different," he said.
"It could mean the difference between a minor flood and a major flood."
He advised people experiencing high rainfall to tune in to local weather warnings.

The Refugees Conventions

2011-01-09T00:37:00.001-08:00

The Refugees Convention

Australia is one of 146 signatory countries to the United Nations 1951 Convention and/or 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees.

The Convention defines refugees as people who:

are outside their country of nationality or their usual country of residence
are unable or unwilling to return or to seek the protection of that country due to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion
are not war criminals or people who have committed serious non-political crimes.

The Convention does not oblige signatory countries to provide protection to people who do not fear persecution and have left their country of nationality or residence on the basis of war, famine, environmental collapse or in order to seek a better life for themselves or their family.

Protection obligations may also not be owed to a person who already has effective protection in another country, through citizenship or some other right to enter and remain safe in that country.

International law recognises that people at risk of persecution have a right to flee their country and seek refuge elsewhere, but does not give them a right to enter a country of which they are not a national. Nor do refugees have a right to choose their preferred country of protection.

It’s always good to get a new perspective on an old problem, particularly one debated with such sound and fury as refugees. .

2011-01-08T14:56:00.000-08:00

Khalid Koser is associate dean at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy and co-editor of the Journal of Refugee Studies. A paper he has just written as non-resident fellow at the Lowy Institute conveys the outsider's sense of wonderment about our reaction to boatpeople.

"Australia is not undergoing an asylum crisis of the sort that warrants such attention," he writes. "To be sure, asylum and immigration are near the top of the political agenda in many other industrialised countries, especially in Europe and political leaders there have ramped up their rhetoric against asylum-seekers, especially during national elections.

"But in a period of global downturn, no other government has translated rhetoric into policy in the way that the Australian government has."
He marvels at the resources we are prepared to devote to the problem, including $654 million over four years to combat people smuggling and hundreds of millions on expanded detention centres.

"It is very unlikely indeed that any other country in the world currently spends as much on asylum-seekers in terms of the ratio of costs to individuals involved as Australia," he says.

And all this for measures he believes may not even succeed in their narrow aim of reducing boat arrivals, let alone addressing the root causes of refugee flows.

Koser notes that, though asylum applications in Australia have increased, they still were only 2 per cent of the total for industrialised countries in 2009.

While over the past decade between 70 and 97 per cent of Australian boat arrivals have been assessed as refugees, for those who come by plane the figure is only 20 per cent.

"Arguably Australia is worrying about the wrong asylum-seekers," he says, particularly since the number of plane arrivals has been increasing as well, a fact that has received very little attention.

Immigration department figures confirm this point: asylum-seekers who came by air totalled 5074 in 2008-09, 5978 in 2009-10 and 1559 in the first three months of this financial year. However, boat people have increased faster: 1033 in 2008-09, 5609 in 2009-10 and 3053 in the (almost) first six months of 2010-11.

Koser's study is analytical and rational. But Gillard is unlikely to spend much time poring over it. She has a political problem based on the perception that she is weak on "illegal" arrivals. So far, no amount of explanation to correct false impressions has made much difference; not the argument that the numbers are tiny beside our annual immigration intake; neither that, under the refugee convention, which even Tony Abbott has not advocated abrogating, people are not acting illegally by coming to Australia and asking for asylum; nor that the real illegal arrivals are the 50,000 or more who stay in Australia, often for years, after their visas run out.

The government looks to be floundering on this issue. It is trying to buy time, hoping that the number of boat arrivals start falling, if not because of improved conditions in Sri Lanka and, perhaps, in Afghanistan, then because of the deterrent effect of the increase in the applications from boatpeople it is rejecting.

If it receives a year or so of breathing space then it may pull off some kind of international agreement to process asylum-seekers in East Timor or elsewhere in the region. But these seem like long shots.
Either the government has to change the terms of the debate, in which case Gillard had better get on with it and make the arguments, such as those above, in speech after speech and media appearance after media appearance, or she will be drawn further down the path of harsh measures, even at the cost of a rift with the Greens. Such a step would have nothing to do with good policy-making, as Koser makes clear.
Despite the opposition's success in convincing most Australians that it is Labor's softening of policy that has caused the increase in the number of boats, he points to a clear "push" factor: an increase of 45 per cent in asylum applications from Afghanistan to developed countries between 2008 and 2009. These, he says, are "clearly related to deterioration in the security and human rights situation there".
The civil war in Sri Lanka is the other main reason for the increase in boat arrivals in recent years and the war's end is the main reason they stopped.
According to the latest guidelines on Afghanistan released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees a week ago, the situation has only got worse in parts of the country, with 5978 civilians killed and injured in 2009, the highest since the fall of the Taliban in 2001 and 3268 in the first six months of 2010.
The country guidance note issued by immigration to help determine refugee applications acknowledges that Taliban attacks have increased. But it relies on reports of a relatively stable situation in parts of the country populated by the ethnic minority Hazara, who comprise most of the Afghans who apply for asylum in Australia, to justify an increase in the rejection rate for Afghans from close to 100 per cent to as low as 23 per cent at one point this year.
After appeals, about 50 per cent have been accepted as refugees in recent times.
The integrity of the refugee process relies on rejecting claims that do not meet the convention criteria of people with a well-founded fear of persecution or death. But according to refugee experts, the government has swung from giving too many Hazara the benefit of the doubt to rejecting claims that probably are genuine. The immigration department report refers to incidents this year such as the Taliban capturing Hazara as alleged spies and beheading others.
Stopping the boats is a good idea, reinforced by last week's Christmas Island tragedy, but not at any cost. A sufficiently harsh detention regime may do so, for a period, but at the cost of irreparably damaging the lives of innocent people, as the legacy of the Howard government's policies amply demonstrates and as the Gillard government's approach increasingly threatens to do.
Koser says that restrictions on asylum in Europe had the unintended consequence of pushing more asylum-seekers into the hands of people smugglers. That also has been the experience here. The temporary protection visas introduced by the Howard government and which an Abbott government would re-introduce, included bans on family reunions, leading to an increase in women and children coming by boat.
Earlier this year, the government quietly increased the intake of refugees processed by the UNHCR in Indonesia from the recent average of 80 a year to 500. The logic was sound - giving people an alternative to coming by boat - but, as so often has been the case with this government, the execution has been poor.

The UNHCR long ago submitted 500 names to Australia but most are still waiting for the outcome of security checks by an overstretched ASIO. Some have lost patience and taken their chances with people smugglers. Over the past 12-18 months, an estimated 170 to 190 people throughout Southeast Asia assessed as refugees by UNHCR have taken a boat to Australia, rather than keep waiting.

Another reason that more are coming by boat may be the increasing resources Australia has put into screening at overseas airports, targeting those nationalities most likely to apply for asylum. The same logic that says boatpeople should wait their turn behind more needy people languishing in camps should apply to those who come by air. Yet it is a point that is never made by those demanding action to stop the boats.

We have to keep reminding ourselves that, as a nation, we have chosen to take refugees, with all the political inconvenience that can cause.

We should face up to our obligations, including to those who land on our doorstep.

I still call Australia home and Refuge, Natural disasters in Australia, Cyclones

2011-01-08T05:08:00.000-08:00

Cyclones: Australia experiences a range of 'natural disasters' including bushfires, floods, severe storms, earthquakes and landslides. These events cause great financial hardship for individuals and communities, and can result in loss of life, which has become part of Australian folklore.

However, these events are also considered both part of the natural cycle of weather patterns in Australia as well as being affected by human factors such as overstocking, vegetation loss, dams, groundwater and irrigation schemes. These patterns are recognised by terms such as a 100-year drought - a drought of severity that is only seen once in a hundred years. Fire can often follow drought, and drought can be followed by flood. Severe fires followed by drought can also contribute to soil erosion.

The experience of natural disaster has come to be seen as part of the Australian national character as described in the poem 'My Country' by Dorothea McKellar (1904).

I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons, I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror - the wide brown land for me!

Cyclones

A cyclone is an area of low pressure around which the winds flow clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. If the sustained winds around the centre reach 119 km/h (with wind gusts in excess of 170 km/h), then the system is called a severe tropical cyclone. In other countries severe tropical cyclones are called hurricanes or typhoons. The Tropical Cyclone Season in Australia extends from November to April. Some of the most destructive cyclones which have hit the Australian mainland include:

Cyclone Mahina, 1899

In March 1899 in Cape York, Queensland, Cyclone Mahina resulted in the greatest death toll of any natural disaster in Australia's recorded history. Over 400 people died, including the crews of around 100 pearling fleet vessels, and an estimated 100 local Aborigines.

Cyclone Ada, 1970

Tropical Cyclone Ada caused severe damage to resorts on the Whitsunday Islands, Queensland, in January 1970. Its path of destruction included the islands of Daydream, South Molle and Hayman. The damage bill was estimated at $A390 million and 14 people were killed.

The devastation inflicted on Darwin by Cyclone Tracy in December 1974. Photo by Australian Information Services. Image courtesy of the Bureau of Meteorology.

Cyclone Tracy, 1974

On Christmas Eve 1974, Cyclone Tracy struck the city of Darwin in the Northern Territory. One hundred and ninety-five millimetres of rain fell in less than nine hours, and winds of around 250 km per hour flattened the city. In terms of damage to a community, Cyclone Tracy remains Australia's most destructive for property damage. 71 people were killed, and many thousands injured. Of a population of 43,000, 25,000 were left homeless. One result was the priority given to the development of cyclone-proof buildings.

Cyclone Larry, 2006

The Far North Queensland coast was declared a natural disaster zone after the severe impact of tropical Cyclone Larry on 20 March 2006. The category five cyclone registered winds of up to 290 km/h. Major damage was caused to homes, other buildings and agricultural crops, but no loss of life occurred. $A1.5 billion was the estimated total damage bill for the affected regions.

I still call Australia home and refuge, Natural disasters in Australia, Floods

2011-01-08T05:06:00.000-08:00

Floods: Australia experiences a range of 'natural disasters' including bushfires, floods, severe storms, earthquakes and landslides. These events cause great financial hardship for individuals and communities, and can result in loss of life, which has become part of Australian folklore.

The experience of natural disaster has come to be seen as part of the Australian national character as described in the poem 'My Country' by Dorothea McKellar (1904).

Floods

Floods occur when water covers land which is normally dry. Floods in Australia range from localised flash flooding as a result of thunderstorms, to more widespread flooding following heavy rain over the catchment areas of river systems. Flooding is also a regular seasonal phenomenon in Northern Australia. Australian towns were built on floodplains despite warnings from local Aborigines. Nyngan (meaning flood in its local Aboriginal language) was severely flooded on 23 April 1990.

Gundagai was rebuilt on a new site after a flood in 1852 wiped out 71 buildings, and 89 of the town's 250 inhabitants died. More people would have perished were it not for the heroism of local Aborigine Yarri of the Wiradjuri people and his mate Jackie, who saved more than 40 people using a simple bark canoe.

Recently, town councils and shires have started mapping the 100-year flood areas so that the extent of the flood plain can be mapped for town planning, building regulations and zoning for land use to avoid building on flood-prone areas. Regional flood mitigation programs have been initiated by the Australian Government to work with state and territory governments.

Northern Tasmania, 1929

In April 1929, 22 people died when heavy rain caused severe flooding in the north east of Tasmania. In addition, 14 people died when the Briseis Dam on the Cascade River gave way, inundating the town of Derby. A further eight people (six from one family) were drowned near Ulverstone when a truck crashed into a flooded river.

South-eastern Australia, 1952

In June 1952, torrential rain fell over south-eastern Australia where the ground was already saturated from good autumn rains. Major flooding occurred on every river in the Gippsland area of Victoria and adjacent southern coastal New South Wales. Further severe flooding occurred in October and November 1952 in south-eastern Australia.

Brisbane, Queensland, 1974

The town of Charleville inundated by the April 1990 floods. Image courtesy of the Bureau of Meteorology.

In January 1974, the weakening Cyclone Wanda brought heavy rainfall to Brisbane and many parts of south-eastern Queensland and northern New South Wales. One third of Brisbane's city centre and 17 suburbs were severely flooded. Fourteen people died and over 300 were injured. Fifty-six homes were washed away and 1,600 were submerged.

Queensland and New South Wales, 1990

Over one million square kilometres of Queensland and New South Wales (and a smaller area of Victoria) were flooded in April 1990. The towns of Nyngan and Charleville were the worst affected with around 2,000 homes inundated. Six people were killed and around 60 were injured

I still call Australia home and refuge, Natural disasters in Australi, Fire

2011-01-08T05:04:00.000-08:00

Fire: Australia experiences a range of 'natural disasters' including bushfires, floods, severe storms, earthquakes and landslides. These events cause great financial hardship for individuals and communities, and can result in loss of life, which has become part of Australian folklore.

The experience of natural disaster has come to be seen as part of the Australian national character as described in the poem 'My Country' by Dorothea McKellar (1904).

Fire

Bushfires are different from controlled burning. Indigenous communities have used fire as a hunting and farming tool to assist with regeneration. Indigenous Australians used controlled burning and fire management to encourage the growth of new plants and to prevent the growth of long grass which contributes to the tinder or fuel for bushfires.

Fire management also allowed animals to escape, although some were lost to hunters. Eucalypts, for example, require occasional burns to regenerate. Fire stick farming used over tens of thousands of years created the fertile grazing plains west of the Blue Mountains. Long periods of dry, hot weather and natural vegetation that burns easily makes Australia particularly vulnerable to bushfire.

Australian bushfires can be particularly severe as eucalyptus trees contain large amounts of oil which can burn very fast and very hot. Other human management factors which have contributed to the severity of bushfires include high fuel loads, a change from fire prevention to fire fighting measures and not building adequate buffer zones to protect built assets (Nairn Inquiry, 2003). As Australians learn to understand more about bushfires, bushfire prevention strategies are being adopted.

The 1967 Tasmanian fires

In 1967 southern Australian was experiencing drought conditions. On 7 February, 264,270 hectares were burnt in southern Tasmania in just five hours. Of the 110 fires burning that morning, the worst was the Hobart fire. The fire made its way over Mt Wellington and encroached on the city's western suburbs. Sixty-two people died, and 1,400 homes and other buildings were destroyed. At the time, it was the largest loss of life and property in Australia from fire on any single day in Australia's history.

The Ash Wednesday bushfires, 1983

In the summer of 1983, conditions in Victoria and South Australia contributed to extremely high ignition levels. Drought conditions with a heatwave with temperatures of 43 degrees Celsius meant that forests were highly combustible. On Wednesday 16 February (now known as 'Ash Wednesday'), around 180 bushfires were burning across both states, the largest of them starting in Victoria. Of significance was that out of the Ash Wednesday fires Victorian rescue teams were reorganised to better fight future fires, through improved radio networks, single command centres and linkages between established rural and city firefighters.

Volunteer crew of MLO 10 from the ACT Bushfire Service patrolling the Mount Franklin containment line, Brindabella Ranges, on the night of 11/12 January 2003. Photo by David Tunbridge. Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia.

Canberra, 2003

In mid-January 2003, extreme weather conditions led to multiple outbreaks of fire in Namadgi National Park to the south of Canberra. Strong winds pushed the fires into forested areas adjoining Canberra and on the afternoon of Saturday 18 January, firestorms fanned by high winds hit Canberra suburbs. Thousands of hectares of forest and park lands were burnt out.

I still call Australia home and refuge, Natural disasters in Australia, Drought

2011-01-08T05:01:00.000-08:00

Drought: Australia experiences a range of 'natural disasters' including bushfires, floods, severe storms, earthquakes and landslides. These events cause great financial hardship for individuals and communities, and can result in loss of life, which has become part of Australian folklore.

The experience of natural disaster has come to be seen as part of the Australian national character as described in the poem 'My Country' by Dorothea McKellar (1904).

Drought:A drought is a prolonged, abnormally dry period when there is not enough water for users' normal needs. Drought is not simply low rainfall; if it was, much of inland Australia would be in almost perpetual drought. Because people use water in so many different ways, there is no universal definition of drought.
Australia has experienced two significant '100-year droughts' in the last 100 or so years as well as others not described here. These major droughts have resulted in financial losses, personal hardship and environmental damage. In Western New South Wales and west Darling areas, the 1895 Federation Drought was exacerbated by heavy overstocking, and the arrival of rabbits which crossed the Murray River into western New South Wales in 1881 and reached plague proportions. Overstocking caused widespread severe erosion and increased the effects of the drought.

The 'Federation Drought', 1895-1902

In the five years leading up to Federation in January 1901, there were intermittent dry spells throughout Australia. By spring 1901, very dry conditions were being experienced across all of eastern Australia. Rivers in western Queensland dried up and the Darling River almost ran dry at Bourke in New South Wales. Murray River towns such as Mildura, Balranald and Deniliquin, which depended on the river for transport, suffered badly.

During this drought there was extended use of stock routes in Western New South Wales and the opening up of new stock routes to take advantage of 'native wells' with consequent evaporation of the wells. Together with engineering of irrigation schemes along the Murray-Darling River, the consequences were salinity problems and a rabbit plague (Bobbie Hardy, Lament for the Barkindji, Rigby Press, 1976).

1982-83

In 1982-83, large areas of central and eastern - particularly south-eastern - Australia experienced unprecedented low rainfall levels. This was the culmination of the four-year drought that had begun in 1979. It is estimated that the total cost to the economy was around $A7 billion. Agricultural losses, such as the death of livestock, resulted in massive job losses in rural areas. The effects of the drought contributed to the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires across Victoria and South Australia (see below).

1991-95

This drought in north-eastern New South Wales and much of Queensland, was the result of the lowest rainfall levels on record. A number of major water reservoirs went dry and many others fell to critically low levels. Average rural production fell by over 10 per cent and rural unemployment rose. Loss to the economy is estimated at around $A5 billion.

2002-06

Eastern and southern Australia is once again experiencing widespread drought, with agricultural income in 2006-07 expected to be at the lowest level since 1994-95.

Heavy floods hit Queensland, Australia

2011-01-08T02:35:00.000-08:00

THE recovery effort from the floods that have devastated Queensland will now be hampered by the return of rain until early next week.

Heavy thunderstorms hit Rockhampton yesterday morning, just two days after the floodwater peaked in the city, and the weather bureau warned last night that damaging winds, very heavy rain, flash flooding and large hailstones were due to hit the region again.

There were hailstorms yesterday in the other flooded area, at St George in southern Queensland, where authorities are now expecting the Balonne River to peak on the weekend rather than early next week and at a lower level than previously predicted.

The cost of the floods continues to mount and Julia Gillard said yesterday these costs could lead to cuts in government spending if the government were to achieve its aim of balancing the budget in 2012-13.

Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten yesterday announced the Australian Taxation Office would give flood-affected individuals and businesses extra time to lodge their returns and activity statements or pay their tax debts, without penalties or interest charges.

The ATO also would help those whose tax paperwork had been destroyed by the floods to reconstruct their records or make estimates, and provide other relief for people in hardship.

Estimates of the total cost have varied between $5 billion and $9bn, but with flooding set to continue, the final tally might not be known for some time.

It will be several weeks before Queensland's big coal industry returns to normal, with 40 mines shut and the key port of Dalrymple Bay running at 60 per cent capacity due to supply constraints.

The Prime Minister said yesterday the financial situation facing the government demanded tough choices, but that she was determined to bring the budget back into surplus.

"That does mean that we're going to have to make some tough choices, and we will, to bring the budget back to surplus as well as meeting the needs of Queensland as they recover from this crisis," she said.

The nation's peak business group, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the floods were now a national issue. Its chief executive, Peter Anderson, said the agriculture and mining sectors would be hit hard.

The floods continued to attract international attention, with the UN joining the European Community in sending its sympathy to flood victims. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was concerned at "the danger to life and the destruction of property following the ongoing floods."

In central Queensland, heavy rain continued to hamper the rescue effort and delaying the proposed return of residents to the evacuated town of Theodore. The town's business owners attempted to return in a small bus yesterday but were forced to turn back.

Self-harm in detention centres on rise

2011-01-08T02:08:00.000-08:00

Self-harmin detention centres on rise:

The story said: A recent study commissioned by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, and carried out by the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, has found that incidents of self-harm and violence are on the rise within Australia’s immigration detention centres.

Did you know? When Amnesty International visited Christmas Island in December 2009, we warned that the remote location of the island and lack of access to mental health services were among the factors leading to extreme detention conditions.
By October 2010, when Amnesty International went back to Christmas Island, conditions had deteriorated sharply. We met men who were reduced to tears within minutes of speaking to us, and other who showed us scars from where they had tried to harm themselves.
Many of the men and women currently in remote detention are survivors of torture and trauma. Long periods of detention are proven to have a particularly negative impact on these vulnerable people.

27 confirmed dead after asylum boat sinking

2011-01-08T02:02:00.000-08:00

27 confirmed dead after asylum boat sinking

The story said: Authorities have recovered the bodies of 27 asylum seekers who died after their boat smashed into cliffs and sank off Christmas Island. Up to 80 asylum seekers including women and children were onboard a wooden Indonesian fishing boat when it crashed near Flying Fish Cove… The asylum seekers are believed to be from Iran and Iraq.

Did you know: This tragic incident is a reminder of the very real risks that asylum seekers take in their search for safety. The decision to get on a boat to seek asylum is never taken lightly, and it should be remembered that asylum seekers who come to Australia are human beings asking for our help.
In the vast majority of cases, asylum seekers who come to Australia by boat are found to be genuine refugees fleeing violence and persecution. This event is a distressing reminder of the heavy price that these people sometimes pay in their search for protection. While the exact details of this incident are still emerging, it is a reminder of the fact that human beings are at the heart of the debate around asylum seekers.

Strategies

2010-12-18T08:22:00.000-08:00

Australia for United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is one of the leading agency when it comes to deal with Refugees issues in Australia, When crisis strikes, UNHCR’s Emergency reponses Team is on the ground within 72 hours. they respond and save lives Of refugees around the world. and raising funds for UNHCR’s Emergency Response Team By signing up monthly donors to the program.

The Australian Refugees Group will work at a grassroots level, engaging and establishing local community groups in order to raise awareness on refugee issues. We will compile and produce targeted research to assist mainstream society in understanding the plights of refugees both in Australia and in their homelands.

The Australian Refugees Group will lobby local members of parliaments, in major and marginal seats, counsellors, (local governments – listed and non listed refugee welcoming Zones), as well as addressing the general public through public meetings and community gatherings. We will also develop a school specific program targeting both primary and secondary students, working in schools to help young people understand and embrace the refugee communities within their schools as well as local areas.

Executive Summary

2010-12-18T08:13:00.000-08:00

The Australian Refugees Group was developed by a number of Australian and former refugees from around the world, in response to a growing need in Australia to bridge the gaps in understanding between former refugees /Asylum Seekers and Australians. The plight and untold stories of refugees and people fleeing violent conflicts, civil wars, and persecution from oppressive regimes are most often ignored or not heard at all. The experiences of refugees might include torture, sexual assault, witnessing violence, sudden arrests and disappearances of friends and relatives, forced conscription into armies or militias, deprivations of food, safe water and medical attention, dangerous journeys to safety, and dangerous stays in refugee camps and detention. In most cases people flee not on their own volition but are forced to flee.

All refugees would have experienced significant loss – from the loss of home, culture and identity, to the more profound loss of parents, siblings and significant others through death, or forced displacement and separation. The effects of hostility and discrimination, disrupted education, malnutrition and neglect of health problems compound these challenges. Ongoing conflict in their country of origin may have a continuing impact on the lives of refugees.