Julian Burnside
Comfort all who flee fear
Julian Burnside We do not need to be protected from asylum seekers: they need to be protected from their persecutors.
Being watched constantly is too high a price for safety
Julian Burnside The human instinct for privacy runs deep. All people have a need to be private, but privacy is not coherently protected in Australia, except in Victoria and the ACT.
Abbott ignorant on boat arrivals
Julian Burnside Tabloid readers might not realise the numbers are tiny, but the Liberal leader should.
Pacific Solution revival is un-Christian Mr Abbott
Julian Burnside The federal opposition is threatening to revive the Pacific Solution. Liberal leader Tony Abbott said last week that "the solution is to send a strong message that people who get here illegally...
Australians are xenophobic
Julian Burnside In The National Times, Paul Sheehan wrote an article titled "Migration: the true story", which was deceptively persuasive. The problem was that, at crucial points, he mis-stated the facts.
It's beginning to look a lot like Tampa
Julian Burnside The Government and the Opposition are both engaging in tough rhetoric about asylum seekers. It begins to look a bit like 2001 and the Tampa episode, although at least the Government is committed to...
Australia's ugly secret: we still warehouse asylum seekers
Julian Burnside The past week has seen a significant change in the treatment of asylum seekers in Australia. The grotesque practice of charging refugees for the daily cost of their imprisonment in our detention...
We need a charter of rights
Julian Burnside The National Consultation into a Charter of Rights sparked a debate about whether or not human rights are protected adequately in Australia.
