RELEASED TODAY | A New Approach: Breaking the Stalemate on Refugees & Asylum Seekers

CPD has today released A New Approach: Breaking the Stalemate on Refugees & Asylum Seekers, a report which comprehensively critiques Australia's refugee and asylum policies and finds they are inhumane, ineffective and expensive.

Download the full report here.

Australia needs a circuit-breaker in our treatment of people seeking asylum from war and persecution. On the 10th anniversary of the Tampa, Australia's asylum and refugee policies are still sadly characterised by human tragedy, political opportunism, policy failure and great cost.

The authors of the report – John Menadue, Arja Keski-Nummi and Kate Gauthier – draw on their extensive policy experience to inject facts into a highly-politicised debate and put forward policies that ensure we treat people seeking asylum with fairness, assess their claims rigorously but with compassion, and develop policies that are in the interests of all Australians.

The report outlines 13 recommendations which all aim to ensure that Australia:

Adheres to all international conventions which we have voluntarily signed
Quickly and correctly identifies those who are refugees and grants them protection
consistent with UNHCR policies and guidelines
Protects Australians from any health or security concerns
Discourages dangerous journeys, but treats fairly those who have made those journeys
Affords all people in Australia their human rights, as well as access to the legal systems which deliver them, and
Rapidly returns home in safety and dignity those who are found not to be in need of
Australia's protection.

"The new approach to refugees and asylum seekers proposed by the Centre for Policy Development deserves widespread community support and should be given serious consideration across the political spectrum. With genuine political will there is no reason why Australia cannot move away from the corrosive and divisive state of the current debate and back to the bipartisan approach which served Australia so well for so long."

- Heather Ridout, Chief Executive of the Australian Industry Group

"This issue should be above and beyond politics, not one to be exploited in a mindless, short-term political race to the bottom, the "winner" being the toughest and most inhumane to those who are predominately desperate people fleeing war and persecution in search of a new life for themselves and their families."

- John Hewson, AM. Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia (1990 – 1994)

"The Centre for Policy Development's report A New Approach is exactly the fresh and comprehensive approach that is needed in this policy debate. This report is the circuit breaker refugee advocates and policy makers have been looking for."

- Samah Hadid, Human rights activist and former Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations.

"Australia's policies for the treatment of refugees are tired, cynical, populist and punitive. I wholeheartedly support the CPD's thoughtful, comprehensive and realistic proposals, in the belief they will enhance the contribution this country makes to the alleviation of a worldwide problem."

- Gideon Haigh, Journalist 

To stay up-to-date with commentary from the A New Approach authors make sure that you are signed up to our email list here.

ENDORSERS34 prominent Australians have endorsed the findings of CPD's A New Approach Report. You can read their their full statement of support here.

MEDIA Download your copy of the media release here. For all interview requests or media enquiries, please contact Amelia Robertson on 0421 773 930 or amelia.robertson(at)cpd.org.au or Antoinette Abboud on 0414 920 801 or antoinette.abboud(at)cpd.org.au

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.