ABC World Today interview with Paris Aristotle - one of the three members of the Huston Expert Panel on refugees makes it very clear that the strategy is nothing at all like the Coalition's "Pacific Solution". And yet we are hearing claim after claim from members of the LNP that is it.
And no refutation from the ALP. What is with that?
It's as if, once again, the Labor Party has no capacity to stand up and prosecute the most basic and straightforward argument.
Here's the details from the person involved in writing the report. Presumably he has a clue what's in it, even if the media and politicians can't or won't report the facts.
SABRA LANE: The Coalition has seized on this, saying that Nauru, Manus Island, that's a return to the policies they advocated - but you've said that you've negotiated extra protections here. What are those extra protections?PARIS ARISTOTLE: Well first of all we've recommended that an oversight monitoring group be established, an independent one that would have senior officials, experts from the non-government and civil society sectors, participation from UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) and IOM (International Organization for Migration) - that they would have a responsibility to monitor our adherence to our human rights obligations, to provide reports and feedback about how things are going and whether things needed to be adjusted or changed. That never existed before. We've made a recommendation that legal assistance be provided to people and a review mechanism be put in place over there. That never existed before. There would be a full suite of services - health services, educational services that we recommend be available to people. We're very clear that it can't be - people can't be detained. Now a number of people have said it's about opening detention centres in the Pacific. The report is very specific. Any transfer arrangement into a regional processing system cannot include arbitrary detention. So why people are saying it's recommending opening up detention centres is wrong and I suspect it is because they haven't read the report properly.
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So here's what has been stated very clearly...
No detention.
Proper oversight, monitoring and reporting,
Nauru and Manus Island locations are just a small part of an extensive Regional plan that is to be developed with neighbouring countries. .
These are ALL conditions that never existed under the Howard Government.
This has never been coalition policy.
The plan can be implemented only after the details that pertain to the opening of these locations is met.
Lots of work to do before they are suitable for use.
