A New Approach: Breaking Australia's stalemate on refugees and asylum seekers

CPD is preparing to release a briefing paper which puts Australia's refugee and asylum seeker policies under the spotlight.

A New Approach will examine Australia's refugee and asylum seeker programs, past and present, within an international context – and outline options for real reform to break the current impasse which has slowed our nation's progress towards truly effective solutions.

This report promises practical alternatives for dealing with refugees and asylum seekers more fairly and cost-effectively, to shift this vexing public policy challenge from stalemate to success.

As part of the release of A New Approach, CPD will also publish an education manual in e-book and booklet formats, under a Creative Commons license, to help inform all Australians about the facts of Australia's immigration program, and to widen the circle of inclusion of public debate on this critical issue.

To stay up-to-date with commentary from the authors of A New Approach in the lead up to the report's release, email: refugee.policy@cpd.org.au

"If Malcolm Fraser had decided that he wouldn't take Indo-Chinese refugees until he'd consulted opinion polls or focus groups, Australia would never have taken Indo-Chinese refugees. But Malcolm Fraser didn't take polls. He decided leadership was essential, it was something that Australia had to do, morally justified, and would be of benefit to this country if we did so."

- John Menadue, Former Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship

About the authors

John Menadue

John is a Board Director of the Centre for Policy Development. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Immigration in the Fraser Government 1980 – 1983, when the Immigration Minister was Mr Ian McPhee. John was also previously Secretary of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Prime Ministers Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Ambassador to Japan, and CEO of QANTAS. More recently, John shared his insights into to the story of Australia's multicultural mix in the SBS documentary series Immigration Nation.

Kate Gauthier

Kate is on the academic staff of the Migration Law Program within the Legal Workshop at the Australian National University. Until recently, she was the National Director of refugee policy lobby group A Just Australia.  She is the chair of the community group ChilOut – Children Out of Immigration Detention and sits on the NSW Legal Aid Review Committee.

Formerly, Kate worked as the immigration and refugee policy adviser to Senator Andrew Bartlett and as the community liaison officer for Senator Aden Ridgeway.  She was a co-founder of the Refugee Assistance Project, a board member of Pol Min (Political Ministry Network) and has regularly visited remote detention centres for 10 years. Kate has sat on a variety of government and Ministerial advisory panels on asylum seeker issues.