Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/18965

Title

Reassessing the Tampa

Author(s)

Mares, Peter

Abstract

Today, the Tampa affair is generally seen through two lenses. It is viewed as a key moment in political history---the masterstroke of Australia's wiliest Prime Minister to secure victory in the 2001 federal election---and it is regarded as a major blemish on our human rights record, a moment when Australia defied international opinion and betrayed its history as a liberal, tolerant nation. While neither view is entirely wrong, both can be misleading. When we view the Tampa through the first lens, as political history, it is easy to forget that the Prime Minister's stand was a high stakes gamble that nearly went awry. To see the Tampa affair through the second lens, as an event out of keeping with Australia's liberal traditions and good international standing overlooks the continuities with past approaches to asylum seekers and underplays the similarities between Australia's actions and the treatment of 'boat people' by other developed nations.

Publication type

Book chapter

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Life and Social Sciences. Institute for Social Research

Source

Yearning to breathe free: seeking asylum in Australia / Dean Lusher and Nick Haslam (eds), Part 2, chapter 4, pp. 52-63

Publication year

2007

Keyword(s)

Asylum;  Australia;  Government policy;  History;  Human rights;  Psychology

Publisher

The Federation Press

ISBN

9781862876569, 1862876568

Publisher URL

http://www.federationpress.com.au/bookstore/book.asp?isbn=9781862876569

Publisher URL

http://books.google.com/books?id=K0qnQyVGjEwC

Peer reviewed