LAUNCHING MONDAY | A New Approach: Breaking the Stalemate on Refugees & 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: Breaking the Stalemate on Refugees & Asylum Seekrs 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.

To stay up-to-date with commentary from the A New Approach authors in the lead up to the report's release, email: refugee.policy@cpd.org.au and be sure that you are signed up to our email list here.

"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

CPD MEDIA: Making ideas about refugees matter

John Menadue: Navigating the refugee fact free zone

John Menadue offers a roadmap for those seeking the facts amidst the the heated debate about refugees and asylum seekers in Australia. He wades through the misinformation, lies and unfonded opinions to get to what we need to know to start a useful conversation. Read more here.

John Menadue: Trampling on human rights is expensive

Asylum seekers continue to suffer because of poll driven policies and their fate remains an enormous political problem for Australia. John Menadue adds up how expensive trampling on human rights really is. They find that a new approach is not only urgently needed but that it but saves money too. Read more in our Budget InSight edition here.

John Menadue: Malaysia swap offers hope on 'toxic' debate

John Menadue, says the Malaysia refugee swap is needed to break a deadlock in a "toxic" asylum seeker debate and represents a way out of the "dreadfully dark" debate on asylum seekers. Read Kirsty Needham's article in The Sydney Morning Herald here.

John Menadue in conversation with BTalks Phil Dobbie: Our Dark Angels

In a recent talk at the St James Ethics Centre Menadue said "If Ben Chifley and Malcolm Fraser had appealed to our darker angels we would never have taken large numbers of Jewish and Indochinese refugees."

Phil Dobbie from BTalk asks Menadue isn't the debate today really about Islam? Why else would we concern ourselves with the small number of boat arrivals, predominantly refugees from the Middle East, and be less concerned about the larger number of asylum seekers who arrive by air, many of which come from China?

Menadue says our attitude on the issue seems to be a race to the bottom — and we are paying for it. The Nauru solution, for example, cost a billion dollars and deflected only 46 asylum seekers to other countries.

So why has the issue of asylum seekers become so divisive in Australian society and what can be done to appeal to our better angels?

LISTEN to John Menadue in conversation with BTalk's Phil Dobbie here.