The legacy of Australia's treatment of onshore asylum seekers

The Australian government's response to the 'unlawful' arrival of asylum seekers has been characterised by a host of draconian measures - most notably mandatory detention and a punitive 'temporary protection visa' with severely limited access to settlement services. This hard stance was seen as important in stemming the tide of 'illegal' asylum seekers - most of whom seek protection in Australia from their war-torn countries in the Middle East. However, the government's own statistics suggest that this strategy is not working, as the number of asylum seekers has not decreased since these tough measures were adopted in October 1999. Moreover, as this study [2] argues, the restricted access to social services and income support imposed on TPV holders is causing significant economic hardships and unnecessarily traumatic settlement experiences. Many non-government agencies (most notably community organizations and ethnic associations) are left with the daunting challenge of meeting both practical and special needs of traumatized refugees.

Variation in plasma leptin levels in response to fasting in Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella)

Plasma leptin levels were determined in 8 lactating female and 20 pup Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) during fasting periods of normal duration. Plasma leptin levels ranged from 1.35-3.19 ng·ml^-1 in lactating females and 1.79-4.80 ng·ml^-1 in pups and were not positively correlated with body mass or condition. A negative trend, however, was observed between plasma leptin levels and body condition in lactating females upon their arrival at the colony following a foraging trip (beginning of fast). In accordance with findings in other species, plasma leptin levels dropped significantly (P<0.02) in response to the 17-19% drop in body mass experienced by pups during fasting. In contrast, plasma leptin levels in lactating females increased during the first 24 h of fasting before decreasing throughout the remaining 48 h of the fast. This unexpected result could be due to the high level of energy expenditure by seals as they swim back to the colony (i.e. post-exercise response) or may be influenced by the intense suckling activity experienced by females during the onshore fasting periods. The results of this study support recent findings in other carnivore species which suggest the primary physiological role of leptin in these species may not necessarily be as a signal of the magnitude of body energy reserves.

The evolution of the temporary protection visa regime in Australia

While the Temporary Protection Visa (TPV) regime was formally introduced in October 1999 by the Howard Government, the concept of temporary protection was not totally alien to the Australian humanitarian landscape. Earlier examples reflected a standard use of temporary protection as a complementary or interim protection mechanism, offering short-term group-based protection where individual assessment under the 1951 Convention was both impractical and untimely. This paper focuses on the wider and more controversial changes in the use of temporary protection mechanisms that were to follow with the introduction of the TPV in 1999, which offered substitute protection for individually assessed Convention refugees who had arrived onshore without valid travel documents. It examines the history and evolution of the TPV policy regime from 1999 to the announcement of its abolition in 2008, arguing that the introduction and subsequent development of the policy may be understood as a product of a conservative, exclusionist political climate in Australia, following the unprecedented impact of the populist One Nation party in 1998, and later, the impact of September 11th. It also examines later amendments to the regime as a response to growing domestic disquiet about the impacts of the policy, and the abolition of the TPV policy under a new Australian government elected in late 2007.

Meteorological influences on coastal sea levels west of Port Phillip and their engineering significance

This report presents the results of an analysis of three years of tide and meteorological data aimed at delineating the influences of atmospheric pressure, waves, onshore winds and longshore winds on coastal sea levels West of Port Phillip Bay, Victoria« The data was used to develop predictive and hindcasting techniques for meteorological tides on the Otway Coast, using statistical methods, an empirical method and a mathematical model. The nature and magnitude of contributions of the various components of the meteorological tide, and the general variability of monthly and seasonal variations were also studied. It was found that meteorological tides on the Otway Coast can account for significant sea level changes, with the main factors being wind and atmospheric pressure. The wind component of the meteorological tide was found to be approximately twice the pressure component, and longshore winds were found to be more significant than onshore winds for wind setup on the Otway Coast. The meteorological tide models developed enable estimates of wind setup and atmospheric pressure setup on the Otway Coast to be readily computed using data from synoptic charts. The wave setup component could not be separated from the meteorological tide and is included in the wind setup component. The results of the investigation are relevant to the design and maintenance of coastal engineering works, and point to the need for the establishment and operation of coastal management schemes on the Otway Coast.

Australia's response to asylum seekers

Australia's asylum seeker policies are not widely understood. They are complex, and have changed many times, particularly since 2001. This chapter outlines Australia's policies towards asylum seekers and refugees. First, it highlights the fundamental tenets of the Refugee Convention, which forms the basis of Australia's obligations to refugees. It then explaines the different categories of intake, and the different procedures asylum seekers and refugees encounter to start a new life in Australia. We demonstrate that Australia's policies are based on a distinction between two groups of people needing protection: 'offshore' refugees and 'onshore' asylum seekers. The different reception of these two groups by the Australian government could not be greater. The result is a system of two classes of refugees - a distinction that contravenes our international obligations.

Record of the deep marine Clinocythereis australis Ayress and Swanson, 1991 (Ostracoda) from the upper Miocene Tambo River Formation, Gippsland Basin, Australia : Palaeo-oceanographic and biostratigraphic implications

Fossils of the deep marine ostracod, Clinocythereis australis Ayress & Swanson, 1991 occur within the Tambo River Formation, Gippsland Basin, southeastern Australia and record an approximately 6 Ma phase of late Miocene coastal ocean upwelling within this region. The presence of deep marine faunal elements within late Miocene Mitchellian strata is in contrast to the absence of such faunal elements in latest Miocene Cheltenhamian and younger marine strata of the Bass Strait hinterland. The absence of deep marine faunal elements in post-Mitchellian onshore strata is due to the Kosciusko Uplift, which transformed Bass Strait into a wholly shallow seaway placing adjacent coastal regions beyond the reach of ocean upwelling influences.

Deterrence policies and asylum seekers: the case of Australia

The basic tenets of the international refugee protection regime, set out in the UN's 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol, grant individuals the right to seek asylum, but do not provide for laws obliging signatory states to grant asylum. This inherent paradox allows signatory states ongoing manoeuvre to prevent would-be asylum seekers from accessing protection in their territories. To this end, countries of the global north have designed and implemented a range of measures aimed at deterring onshore asylum seekers - privileging border control over refugee protection. This paper examines the effectiveness of deterrence measures taken by Australia. It argues that deterrence measures and attendant political rhetoric are not only contrary to international humanitarian obligations, but obscure empirically grounded understandings of forced migration as a complex social phenomenon, and as such are problematic in terms of meeting their publicly stated objectives of stopping on-shore asylum seeking in the long term.

The embrace of border security: maritime jurisdiction, national sovereignty, and the geopolitics of operation sovereign borders

Border security has become one of the key means by which the sovereignty and security of powerful nation-states is projected. This paper offers a set of observations of the Australian Commonwealth’s descriptions and instructions for its embrace of border security. Border security is legible here as a geopolitics that transforms the rights and responsibilities of maritime jurisdictions into a space of security that projects national sovereignty through the interdiction of boat arrivals. Its intensification as Operation Sovereign Borders is read as a further variation within national sovereignty, one that elevates the decisionist prerogative into total deterrence. Operation Sovereign Borders pushes the limits of sovereignty’s existence in the state toward a total domination of space, perception and human life in Australia’s maritime jurisdictions, in the name of the nation. This necessitates the development, defence and reinforcement of a regionally engaged materiality that is embodied, extended, enacted, and distributed. The intended effect of this coordinated effort is to secure the nation’s sovereignty as a unity, but the broader effect has been to devalue offshore life to secure onshore interests, in a way that now necessitates indefinite offshore detention.