Dreaming Australia: Exploring the asylum seeker dilemma.
Generative Topic
Exploring the asylum seeker dilemma.
Unit/Learning Sequence Overview
This unit explores values and human
rights’ issues associated with Australia’s
position on refugees, represented in
contemporary texts such as the novel
Dreaming Australia. This unit could be
studied within the broader context of the
Tasmanian Essential Learnings learning
sequences Whose values do you value?
and Why can’t I live where I like?
http://ltag.education.tas.gov.au/
Year Level/s
9 /10
Focus Essential
Social responsibility (valuing diversity)
Key element: Understands the
interdependence of our world, values its
diversity and acts for a more inclusive
society
5
Standard
Thinking (inquiry and reflective thinking)
Communicating (being literate)
Supporting Essentials
Unit-Long Understanding Goals
Students will understand
1. issues associated with Australia’s
position on refugees.
2. that language is not neutral and
texts are constructed to reflect
opinions and points of view.
Students should have prior knowledge and understanding of
Australia’s immigration policy. This can be developed
through selected performances from Why can’t I live where I
live?
http://www.ltag.education.tas.gov.au/planning/unitsamples/de
fault.htm#sample%20units
that meet the needs and interests of the students.
Introductory
Performances
To ensure prior knowledge, ask students to undertake a
jigsaw activity, accessing the following sites for information:
1. Australian Government Fact Sheet: Seeking Asylum
within Australia
http://www.immi.gov.au/facts/61asylum.htm
1,2
2. Children in detention: Human rights and Equal
Opportunities Commission
http://www.humanrights.gov.au/human_rights/children
_detention_report/education_resource/
3. The United Nations Refugee Agency
http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home
4. ‘Refugee Children’ magazine (United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees) – case studies
1
5. Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity
Commission: Asylum Seekers
http://www.humanrights.gov.au/human_rights/asylum
_seekers/index.html
Using the above sources, ask students to add information to
graffiti sheets, responding to the following questions:




What is a migrant, a refugee, an asylum seeker?
Where have they come from?
How do they get to Australia?
What are their experiences when they reach Australia?
Share the graffiti sheet information and have students pose
further questions.
Have students research and develop a timeline entitled
‘Asylum in Australia’ tracing the history of the refugee influx
into Australia. Use a jigsaw activity, with groups of students
contributing to the timeline and presenting their findings to
the class.
Students review the graffiti sheets and add new relevant
information and findings.
2
1
Guided Inquiry
Performances
Use the teaching strategy Possible Sentences (Kath
Murdoch, 1998) to tune students in before viewing the video
Australia’s Refugee Dilemma (book at
http://www.education.tas.gov.au/delic/mediacat/)
Possible Sentences
Give students a list of words that are used in the video
(suggested words include: visa, religion, political, fled, brutal,
freedom, protection, documents, requirements, organized
criminals, temporary, smuggling).
Have students suggest a sentence that contains one of the
words and which, considering the title of the video and the
focus of the inquiry, might be included in the video.
Students can use think-pair-sharegl or can individually write
possible sentences in their learning logs and then share the
sentences with others. This strategy draws on prior learning
and encourages prediction and inference.
2
View the video
Have students view the video: Australia’s Refugee Dilemma,
2002 update (available from the Media Catalogue / State
Library, Tasmania).
Have them record notes from the video in their learning log.
Ask them to reflect on the predicted sentences – did their
responses reflect the context in which these words were
used in the video?
Group discussion
Have students participate in a group discussion. Ask:
“How and why has the Australian government changed
immigration laws to stop refugees from entering Australia
without approval from the government?”
(This activity is from the Learning Teaching and Assessment
Guide) http://www.ltag.education.tas.gov.au/
Have students look at the pictures and slides of Afghanistan
http://www.worldvision.com.au/resources/teachers/files/Afgha
nistan%20slideshow.ppt
as a tuning in activity for the novel. Have them discuss what
the pictures tell them about Afghanistan, why people have
become refugees and report back to the class.
Ask students to read the article Who are the Taliban? and
Islam (attached page 10)
and ask questions of a panel or complete the attached
crosswords:
Afghanistan and the Taliban and Islam (attached pages 12
&15)
3
Ask students to read the novel Dreaming Australia by Steve
Tolbert. Use the focus questions attached to promote group
discussion.
Have students write a diary entry for Soraya after Annie
returns her to Woomera, and for Annie after she returns
Soraya to Woomera. Arguments both for detaining asylum
seekers and for helping them should be included in the
students’ entries.
Provide opportunities for students to reflect upon values and
human rights by undertaking performances from Whose
Value do you value?
http://ltag.education.tas.gov.au/planning/unitsamples/default.
htm#sample%20units
Ask students to develop a concept map that reflects Soraya’s
values.
Read the extract from the Wayne Crawford article (THE
MERCURY, 25 December, 2004) attached.
Reproduced with permission from the Mercury.
Construct a Venn Diagram using terminology that describes
refugees in favourable, neutral and unfavourable terms from
the range of texts you have read plus others available from
the resource list.
Ask students to consider Steve Tolbert’s aim in writing the
novel and the purpose of Wayne Crawford’s article. Contrast
these views with the text materials they read from the
government website in an earlier activity.
Invite students to negotiate challenging culminating
performances that may include one of those listed.
1 Simulation
Culminating
Performances
Divide the class into four specialist groups and have them
respond to the focus questions.
 Specialist group 1 – Legal Considerations
 Specialist group 2 – Immigration considerations
 Specialist group 3 – Host population considerations
 Specialist group 4 – Psychological and social
considerations
Specialist group 1. Key question: Is Soraya a refugee?
You are lawyers working part-time at the Woomera Detention
Centre. Your job is to examine the relevant pieces of
international and Australian law to determine whether Soraya
can be considered a refugee, and whether the Australian
government should grant her protection.
4
Issues to consider:
1. Use the internet to read and study the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. Which articles in the
Declaration are relevant to refugees? What are
Australia’s responsibilities to refugees, given that we
are a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights?
2. Consider the definition of a refugee. What is the
difference between a refugee and a migrant?
3. Consider Australia’s stance on refugees. Should the
Australian government recognise Soraya as a
refugee? Why? If the Australian government offers
Soraya refugee status, what are its obligations to her
under international law?
Materials:
 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
 Article 1A of the Convention Relating to the Status of
Refugees
 Australia’s refugee policy
Group’s findings:
1.
2.
3.
Specialist group 2. Key question: Should people like Soraya
be allowed to enter Australia?
You are immigration officials in the Department of
Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. You must determine
what the government’s response to Soraya should be given
our current migration policy.
Issues to consider:
1. Consider the debate about Australia’s optimum
population. What are some of the constraints limiting
Australia’s migration intake? What are some of the
benefits from migration?
2. Consider Australia’s immigration policy. Who is
allowed to enter Australia and on what basis? Would
there be consequences on Australia’s overall
immigration program if people like Soraya were
allowed to stay?
3. Consider Australia’s response to other situations of
migration. How has Australia responded to some
recent migration situations (for example: Vietnamese,
Cambodian and Chinese boat people arrivals,
refugees from Kosovo and Sudan)?
5
Materials:
 Australia’s immigration history and current policy
 Collection of articles of recent migration situations
Group’s findings:
1.
2.
3.
Specialist group 3. Key question: Where do you
recommend the detention centre be located?
You are a group of local residents. You are concerned about
where the Woomera Detention Centre is located, and you’re
preparing a recommendation to the government about your
preferred detention centre site.
Issues to consider:
1. Consider the existing land use in the area. What are
possible concerns held by groups in the local
population?
2. Are there security considerations in determining
where to re-locate the detention centre?
3. Are there economic advantages from where the
Woomera Detention Centre is located? (for example –
Does it attract tourist / curiosity seekers?) Are there
disadvantages? How can these be maximised or
minimised?
4. Consider possible social tensions between the local
population and the asylum seeker detainees. How
might these be dealt with?
Materials:
 Collection of newspaper articles on Australia’s
detention centres and their social and economic
impacts on the local populations.
 Copy of UNHCR’s guidelines on asylum seekers’
rights
Group’s findings:
1.
2.
3.
Specialist group 4. Key question: What considerations need
to be made to accommodate asylum seeker detainees?
You are a group of social workers who will be working with
6
asylum seeker detainees like Soraya when they arrive at the
detention centre. Your job is to determine what their needs
will be and how best to assist them.
Issues to consider:
1. Consider some of the psychological effects of
becoming a detainee. Will the detainees require
special services to help them deal with these
psychological effects?
2. What are the potential consequences of living in a
detention centre for an extended period of time? How
can these be minimised?
3. Consider what the detainees will do while in a
detention centre. What services should be available
to them? What sort of educational facilities are
required? What sort of entertainment facilities are
required? Should they be allowed to work?
Materials:
 Copies of articles in Refugee magazines.
 Copy of articles about the importance of play for
children coping with trauma
 Copy of articles about psychological and social
problems faced by detainees in Australian detention
centres.
Findings:
1.
2.
3.
2 Write a letter to the Prime Minister either supporting or
opposing the use of detention centres to house asylum
seekers.
3 Debate the proposition that Placing asylum seekers in
detention centres is right.
4 Interview a refugee either face to face or online. Find out
why they came to Australia and ask them about their
experiences. Find out what their life was like before
becoming a refugee and what are their dreams today. Find
out what you have in common.
7
Resources
 For easily understood information on Islam
www.bbc.co.uk/world service/people/features/world_religions/islam_begin.shtml

The AEF’s Australian Educator, No. 44, Summer 2004 magazine has a very informative
article in its INSIGHT/REFUGEES section. The article, by freelance journalist Angela
Rossmanith, is entitled NEWS FRONT – Refugees and other difficult issues in the news
can be the catalyst to “teachable moments”.

The documentary Molly and Mobarak is about a young Afghan refugee who, unlike
Soraya, does manage to get a temporary protection visa and settles in Young, NSW. It is
available on video from Ronin films at: www.roninfilms.com.au

Australian Teachers of Media has produced a classroom study guide for the
documentary. It can be downloaded at their website – www.metromagazine.com.au

World Vision’s War and Refugees resource and Frontline Connection contains twenty
stories of children affected by conflict around the world. It can be found at:
www.worldvision.com.au/resources/

World Vision has a comprehensive War and Refugees package available for student
study. See - www.worldvision.com.au/resources/globaleducation

Children in detention: Human rights and Equal Opportunities Commission
http://www.humanrights.gov.au/human_rights/children_detention_report/education_resou
rce/
8
(adapted from Laura Hayes’ article – see
http://print.infoplease.com/spot/taliban.html)
Who Are the Taliban? Afghanistan’s ruling faction, 1996 –
2001
The Taliban (“Students of Islamic Knowledge Movement”) came to power
during Afghanistan’s long civil war. However, their policies – including their
treatment of women and support of terrorists – ostracized them from the world
community. They were ousted from power in December, 2001 by the
American military and Afghan opposition forces in response to the September
11, 2001 terrorist attack on the U. S.

The Taliban’s rise to power
The Taliban are one of the mujahideen (“Islamic fighters” or “holy warriors” or
“freedom fighters”) groups that formed during the war against the Soviet
Union’s occupation of Afghanistan from 1979 – 1989. After the withdrawal of
Soviet forces, the Soviet-backed government lost territory to the mujahideen.
In 1992 Kabul was captured and an alliance of mujahideen organised a new
government. However various factions were unable to cooperate and started
fighting each other. The fighting reduced Afghanistan to a collection of
territories held by competing warlords.
In late 1994, groups of well-trained Taliban took control of Kandahar, a major
city in the south. They then advanced north and in September, 1996, captured
the capital of Kabul.

Afghanistan under the Taliban
Many Afghans, weary of war, were relieved to see corrupt and often brutal
warlords replaced by the devout Taliban, who brought about order through the
implementation of a very strict interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law. But the
relief was short-lived. Public executions and punishments (such as floggings)
became regular events at Afghan soccer stadiums. Frivolous activities, like
9
kite-flying, were banned. In order to root out ‘evil western influences’,
television, music and the internet were banned as well. Men were required to
wear beards, and subject to beatings if they didn’t.
Most shocking to the West was the Taliban’s treatment of women. When the
Taliban – influenced by semi-literate religious leaders called mullahs – took
over Kabul, they immediately forbade girls to go to school. Moreover, women
were barred from working outside the home and leaving their home without a
burqa on and a male relative (a mahram) by their side. Those who did were
beaten, or even shot, by officers of the Ministry for the Protection of Virtue and
Prevention of Vice. Women who were caught wearing fingernail polish could
have their fingertips chopped off. All these measures, according to the
Taliban, were instigated to safeguard women and their honour.
Although the Taliban managed to re-unite Afghanistan up to the northern city
of Mazar e-Sharif, they were unable to end the civil war. Nor did they improve
the living conditions in the devastated cities, where access to food, clean
water and employment declined during their rule. A continuing drought and a
very harsh winter in 2000-2001 brought famine and increased the flow of
refugees over mountains to Pakistan, where huge numbers lived in camps on
the border.

The opposition
Afghanistan’s civil war continued on until the end of 2001. The Taliban’s
strongest opposition can from the Northern Alliance, which held the northeast
corner of the country (about 10% of Afghanistan). The Northern Alliance was
made up of numerous anti-Taliban factions, including Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks
and Turkmen.
Although the Taliban called for a negotiated end to the civil war, they
continued to mount new military offensives. In September, 2001, the leader of
the Northern Alliance, Commander Ahmad Sah Massoud, died from wounds
suffered in a suicide bombing, allegedly carried out by al-Qaeda, a terrorist
organisation with close ties to the Taliban.
10

The Taliban against the world
From 1994 to at least 2001, the Taliban allowed terrorist organisations to run
training
camps in their territory and provided refuge for Osama bin Laden and his alQaeda organisation. This led to the international world condemning the
Taliban government for its policies. By 2001, only Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and
the United Arab Emirates recognised the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate
government. After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the U. S.,
Saudia Arabia and the United Arab Emirates cut their diplomatic ties with the
Taliban.

The end of Taliban rule in Afghanistan
In September, 2001, the U. S placed significant pressure on the Taliban to
turn over bin Laden and members of al-Qaeda. After the Taliban refused to do
that, the U. S. began attacking Taliban military sites and aiding the Northern
Alliance. On November 21, the Taliban abandoned Kabul and by early
December they were completely routed.
The future of the Taliban is unclear. While many of its radical leaders and
supporters were killed, taken prisoner, or fled the country, many are still
fighting from mountain retreats along the Afghan-Pakistani border.
Now complete the Afghanistan and the Taliban crossword.
11
Afghanistan and the Taliban
Across
3. Islamic fighters
4. inexperienced leaders
5. where Moslems worship
8. terrorists
10. leader of AlQaeda
11. Afghanistan has many of these
12. men were required to grow them
13. a form of Taliban punishment
Down
1. strict Islamic law
2. had to wear burqas outside
3. city in northern Afghanistan
6. they control areas of Afghanistan
7. Afghanistan's capital
9. lived in camps on Pakistani border
12
13
ISLAM
Supreme Being

There is only one God called Allah.

Muhammad became his prophet or messenger.
Book

Qur’an (Koran). Includes the Psalms of David, the Torah and the
Gospels from the Old Testament.
When ? About 600 AD
Where? Saudi Arabia
Who ? The Prophet Muhammad
Beliefs

Islam is a complete way of life. The word ‘Islam’ means submission to
the will of Allah. Murmured in the ear of a newborn child and into the
ear of the dying is, “There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his
prophet.”

The Five Pillars of Islam: 1/ Faith in God; 2/ Praying five times daily; 3/
Giving of alms (money, goods or property) that amounts to two and a
half per cent of a Muslim’s annual income to the poor; 4/ Fasting
through the month of Ramadan; 5/ If you are well, to go on a pilgrimage
(or hajj mabruk – the blessed pilgrimage) to Mecca, Saudi Arabia at
least once in your life.

Allah is the one and only God and only Allah is to be worshipped.
Muhammad is the last in a line of God’s messengers beginning with
Adam and including Abraham, Noah, Moses and Jesus.

Muslims believe that angels take part in special missions. On the day
of Judgement, God will decide on how well you have lived your life and
you will go to heaven or hell.
14

Muslims believe that people of born free of sin. Sins can be forgiven.
All people are created equal in front of God.

Some food and drink – like pork, alcohol and drugs – are not permitted.
Place of Worship

A Mosque. The main part of the mosque is a prayer hall. There is no
furniture, only mats and carpets to pray on. On one wall there is a
platform which shows the direction of the Ka’aba, the ancient shrine in
Mecca. There are no pictures of Allah or Muhammad or even animals
in the mosque. Instead, the walls and ceilings are decorated with
beautiful patterns and writing.

How. Muslims can go to the mosque at any time, but midday on Friday
is the most important time. They show respect by dressing so that their
clothes cover their bodies from the neck to the ankles. Before going
into a mosque, take off your shoes, then wash carefully in a special
sequence.

Prayer. Muslims pray five times a day. In cities, speakers carry the call
to prayer from the mosques. Muslims kneel, face towards the Ka’aba in
Mecca and pray. There are ten different praying positions. Men and
women pray separately.
Now complete the Islam crossword.
15
Islam
Across
4. an early prophet
6. Allah's messenger on earth
8. five times a day
9. or hell
10. prohibited
Down
1. a place of worship
2. fasting time
3. the Islamic bible
5. country where Islam started
7. the place where Islamic pilgrims go
16
FOCUS QUESTIONS – DREAMING AUSTRALIA
Chapter 1 – Read the Who are the Taliban? section in your introductory
material. In this chapter we learn a lot about restrictions in Taliban-controlled
Afghanistan: for example, the requirement that women must be accompanied
by a ‘mahram’ if they leave the house. What other Taliban laws and
restrictions are mentioned in this chapter? It’s obvious that one law is being
broken right from the start. Which law is it?
Chapter 2 – What do you think a ‘sky demon’ is? Whose sky demons would
they be?
Chapter 3 – Describe Soraya’s relationship with her father, brother and
auntie.
Chapter 4 – We learn a lot about the sad state of Afghanistan in this chapter.
What hardships are people having to endure in the country?
Chapter 5 & 6 – We meet Muhammed here. He will have a major role in
Soraya’s life. What do we learn about him? You may like to draw a
comparison between him and the Taliban. In your opinion, why does Soraya
become hysterical when she witnesses the helicopter attack on a village?
Chapter 7 – For the first time, Soraya allows herself to daydream about life in
Australia. Is she being realistic, or are her daydreams filled with fantasy?
Why?
Chapter 8 – Muhammed and Zahir have certain things in common. What are
they?
Chapter 9 – [definition of jihad – a religious war between Muslims and nonbelievers] How did people in the refugee camp respond to the call for jihad?
What do we learn about Hazaras in Afghanistan?
Chapter 10 – Describe Pervez Lateef. What do you think Muhammed might
mean when he says, ‘Towards God is the journeying, Soraya’.
Chapter 11 – List a few words that would describe Soraya’s mood in this
chapter.
Chapter 12 – Elham and Salar sharply contrast Rasoul Khan. Explain.
Chapter 13 – Boat people coming into Australia have always had to face great
danger and discomfort. Give some specific examples from this chapter.
17
Chapter 14 – This is the most controversial chapter in the story. It attempts to
show what life is like for some detainees in the Woomera Detention Centre.
But does the Australian government have any other option but to put people
who illegally enter this country into detention centres?
Chapter 15 – Should the Adelaide University students have done what they
did? Why or why not?
Chapter 16 – Strangely, despite her physical suffering, Soraya feels that the
time she spends wandering in the desert are her best days in Australia. Why
does she feel way?
Chapter 17 – What conflicts does Soraya feel in the back seat of the car?
Chapter 18 – From what Annie from Marree had read in the newspapers, why
could it be argued that she did the right thing in transporting Soraya back to
the Woomera Detention Centre?
Chapter 19 – What conflicts might Mike the lawyer be feeling in his meeting
with Soraya?
Chapter 20 – In your opinion, what does Soraya mean in the last line of the
story?
18
The Mercury, Edition 1 SAT 25 DEC 2004, Page 011
Screened off by tortured words
By: WAYNE CRAWFORD
IT'S surprising that the Federal Government, even with its twisted sense of timing,
should choose the week before Christmas to send its Immigration Department heavies in to
hustle the hapless Bakhtiyari family out of their warm beds and off to a detention centre in
South Australia.
One of the Adelaide priests who had befriended the family noted that, like the
Bakhtiyaris, the central figures in the Christmas story -- Joseph, Mary and Jesus -- were a
refugee family on the run from authorities.
Especially at Christmastide, one might expect compassion from a Government which
takes pride in its Christian principles -- but not so.
The fact is that under the present policy, if Jesus had come to Australia in a leaky
boat, he would have been either turned away by a naval gunboat or -- if he'd managed to
make it through the migration zone -- locked away in the desert behind razor wire.
The Government message is that we should not have any sympathy for the
Bakhtiyaris and their ilk who are ``illegals'' and that they had a cheek seeking refuge here in
the first place.
Ali and Roqia Bakhtiyari and their six children face deportation to Pakistan after failing
in four years of legal attempts to gain refugee status. When Ali Bakhtiyari arrived in Australia
in January 1999 he was granted a visa as a Hazara Afghan refugee -- but after his wife and
children turned up a year later the visa was cancelled, the Government claiming the family
were really from Pakistan.
The Bakhtiyari case has been high-profile since two of the boys (now aged 15 and
13) escaped from the Woomera Detention Centre in 2002 and sought asylum at the British
consulate in Melbourne, claiming they had been treated inhumanely by Australian migration
authorities. That got them nowhere and, until last weekend, the mother and children had been
living in a Centacare home in Adelaide (and settling in to the local community with the kids
attending school) while the father was held in South Australia's Baxter Detention Centre -that was until 7am last Saturday when the mother and children were removed suddenly and
taken by Immigration officials to housing at Port Augusta, ostensibly so they were closer to
their father (but more likely, it seems, to prepare them for deportation).
The desperate argument and court hearings have gone on for years, with Mr
Bakhtiyari trying to draw a map from memory to show where their remote village is and Mrs
Bakhtiyari trying to identify tribal food recipes to demonstrate her Afghan background. Without
birth certificates or passports it's all a bit difficult to prove one way or the other and the
Government refuses to give them the benefit of the doubt -- even though the Afghan embassy
in Canberra joined the debate this week, producing fresh evidence about their links with a
local community in Afghanistan.
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone is adamant, however, the Bakhtiyaris have
been given a ``fair go'' in Australia -- a peculiar way to describe 32 months behind razor wire - but are not really refugees. The implication is that it's time for them to just accept their fate
and go back to Pakistan or Afghanistan or . . . wherever they come from.
It's paradoxical at a time when God and religion have been playing such a prominent
role in politics that clearly desperate people -- who have broken no law and done nothing
wrong except sell up everything and risk a perilous and terrifying journey to what they had
thought was a better, kinder and more humane country -- are treated like criminals at the
behest of politicians who claim to take their faith and religion so seriously.
Prime Minister John Howard even formed a close alliance with the church-based
Family First party during the last election campaign, because it seemed at the time the party
might win the balance of power in the Senate.
When interviewed about his beliefs on the ABC Television religious program
Compass this year, Howard expressed his ``very strong belief'' in the country's JudeoChristian ethic and in the ``centrality of the family''.
Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson, who proclaims himself a staunch Christian,
said on the same program he prayed ``regularly, especially when I know there's something
troublesome or difficult or dangerous coming up'' and described the Christian message as
having an ``incredible ring of truth about it''; and Treasurer and Deputy Liberal Leader Peter
Costello, addressing the big Sydney evangelical church Hillsong, declared: ``We need a
return to faith and the values which made our country strong.''
19
IT'S a mystery how these professed strong beliefs in the teachings of the founder of
the Christian church -- which urge that strangers be loved, welcomed, taken in and treated as
if they were our brothers and sisters -- can justify the sort of treatment which has been meted
out to people like the Bakhtiyaris.
The years behind razor wire; the detention, without trial and for no crime, for indefinite
and interminable periods with no promise of release, ever; the degrading treatment in which
detainees are dehumanised and identified by numbers, rather than by name.
It is never explained how this can possibly be in accord with Jesus's teachings of
love, care and concern for one's neighbour. If Australia is, as politicians constantly remind us,
the luckiest country on Earth, do we not have an obligation, according to Christian teachings,
to generously share our good fortune, rather than selfishly treat our neighbours with
suspicion.
Political leaders have made a career of justifying their actions by rationalising them
with jargon and double-speak.
In his new book Word Watching: Field notes from an amateur philologist (Scribe
Publishing), Julian Burnside, a Queen's Counsel, human rights advocate and outspoken critic
of the Government's treatment of asylum seekers, says the Government's use of words like
``illegals'' has a deliberate purpose -- ``No doubt it seems less offensive to lock up `illegals'
than to lock up innocent traumatised human beings''.
``They are disparaged as `queue-jumpers': a neat device that falsely suggests two
things. First, that there is a queue and, second, that it is in some way appropriate to stand in
line when your life is at risk,'' he writes.
The double-speak does not end there. The electric fences behind which they are
locked are ``energised fences''; the alarming procedure of forcible deportation of the
``detainee'' (double-speak for prisoner), usually in the dead of night, is sanitised as ``an
extraction''; and if detainees are driven to desperate extremes of suicide or self-harm, it is
disparaged as ``inappropriate behaviour'', which Attorney-General and former immigration
minister Philip Ruddock has often claimed is designed to ``manipulate the Government'' or
``achieve a particular outcome''.
Thus, Burnside writes: ``By that double-speak, the victim becomes the offender.''
Once a politician, even a devoutly religious one, is able to define troublesome
individuals as offenders, it becomes easier to justify the means used to achieve the objective
of removing them to protect the nation from those regarded as ``others'' and as different from
us . . . to keep out the sort of people we don't want here.
By this skilful use of double-speak, political leaders manage to keep a clear
conscience while developing a far stronger and more sincere belief in their own propaganda
than in the teachings of the one whose birth we celebrate today.
waynecrawford@msn.com.au
Caption:
1) FACING DEPORTATION: Ali Bakhtiyari holds photographs of
his children. 2) AMANDA VANSTONE: The Bakhtiyaris have been given a fair go
20