It was former Prime Minister John Howard who once said during the launch his 2001 election campaign: “We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come”. It was in response to the Tampa crisis where Norwegian freighter MV Tampa rescued 438 refugees off a sinking fishing boat named the Palapa (Doherty, 2011). It was an event that ushered Australia into what is now more than a decade of constant failures to meet humanitarian conventions and international laws outlined by the United Nations and ratified by the Australian government.
Federal politicians will often exhort to the use of exclusionary, and often divisive language whenever asylum seekers or refugees are discussed, particularly in the public realm. The …show more content…
Mainstream media reporting on asylum seeker and refugees have been historically negative in Australia which has continually perpetuated and even reinforced negative perceptions and stereotypes in the Australian community (Cooper et al., 2016 p.1). The adopted stance by mainstream media outlets is one that instils fear into the community, and this is repeatedly done by the dominant negative framing of refugee issues.
This essay will critically analyse and discuss why the issue of so-called “boat people” was important politically during the period of 2011 to 2014. This essay will also reference ‘border protection measures’, the detention of asylum seekers, processing of refugee applications, and the situation of those granted ‘protection’. This essay will also argue how both the major political parties in Australia have failed, as well as the mainstream media on the issue of refugees and immigration …show more content…
It can be argued that most news outlets identified the ALP as weak in terms of its border protection policies thus laid out a narrative to attack the Rudd/Gillard Government. In response, the ALP shifted its asylum seeker policies closer to the Liberal/Nationals position on immigration, following the same deterrence-focused measures and policies and a reintroduction of third country offshore processing (Phillips, 2014). This also meant that the ALP effectively dispirited many of its core supporters in its attempt to garner traditional Liberal and National voters (Robinson, 2013). The media heavily influenced the public’s perception of the ALP and its ‘failed’ policies, so much so that the ALP felt that it was forced (yet again) to change its leader based on poor opinion polling (Robinson, 2013). Opinion polls in Australia are in most cases, conducted and published by mainstream news outlets and will often endorse a political party during an election
Federal politicians will often exhort to the use of exclusionary, and often divisive language whenever asylum seekers or refugees are discussed, particularly in the public realm. The …show more content…
Mainstream media reporting on asylum seeker and refugees have been historically negative in Australia which has continually perpetuated and even reinforced negative perceptions and stereotypes in the Australian community (Cooper et al., 2016 p.1). The adopted stance by mainstream media outlets is one that instils fear into the community, and this is repeatedly done by the dominant negative framing of refugee issues.
This essay will critically analyse and discuss why the issue of so-called “boat people” was important politically during the period of 2011 to 2014. This essay will also reference ‘border protection measures’, the detention of asylum seekers, processing of refugee applications, and the situation of those granted ‘protection’. This essay will also argue how both the major political parties in Australia have failed, as well as the mainstream media on the issue of refugees and immigration …show more content…
It can be argued that most news outlets identified the ALP as weak in terms of its border protection policies thus laid out a narrative to attack the Rudd/Gillard Government. In response, the ALP shifted its asylum seeker policies closer to the Liberal/Nationals position on immigration, following the same deterrence-focused measures and policies and a reintroduction of third country offshore processing (Phillips, 2014). This also meant that the ALP effectively dispirited many of its core supporters in its attempt to garner traditional Liberal and National voters (Robinson, 2013). The media heavily influenced the public’s perception of the ALP and its ‘failed’ policies, so much so that the ALP felt that it was forced (yet again) to change its leader based on poor opinion polling (Robinson, 2013). Opinion polls in Australia are in most cases, conducted and published by mainstream news outlets and will often endorse a political party during an election