Help turn the tide of lies - Your Support Counts! 
By Phillip Adams 
from The Australian 23 Feb 02

I LOVE Australia but I don't like it. And many people reading this column feel the same way. I know this because many thousands of you have written to me over the past seven months, saying "I feel ashamed to be an Australian".

This shame derives from the fact that before the President of the US declared his "war against terrorism", the Prime Minister of Australia declared war upon asylum-seekers. Upon refugees fleeing the wars, the horrors, the terrors of Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. Howard's war has been waged ceaselessly, pitilessly, dishonourably, in our name, against some of the most vulnerable people on earth.

It's said, and well said, that in a war the first casualty is truth. Long before the ludicrous lie about the asylum-seekers tossing their children overboard, we were told lies about the numbers heading our way ? the exaggeration of a few thousand into a human tsunami that would flood our cities and destroy us all. We were lied to about "proper channels", about "queue-jumping" and about the refugees not being refugees but, rather, wealthy predators. 

And, after September 11, when John Howard gave George Bush Australia's blank cheque, Bush gave Howard a licence to up the ante on these unfortunates ? permitting even bigger lies. For example, among those sad and sorry boatloads of men, women and children were stowaway terrorists. 

It was bad enough that our Government lied and lied to us. It was even worse that we lied to each other. For the mass of Australians were complicit in the deceit. They believed the lies because, clearly, they wanted to believe them. They needed the lies to rationalise their hard-hearted response to the unfolding saga. They needed the lies to justify the continuing existence of the concentration camps (let's call things by their proper name) and the obscene handling of the Tampa crisis. 

Australians welcomed the lies because they allowed them to slam the door in people's faces ? and to treat those who weren't drowned at sea as criminals. Most of all, the lies allowed us to justify our wilful ignorance of the truth. The result was as shameful a time in this nation's history as any of us can remember.

(Yes, the events of September 11 were appalling. But I must admit to being as appalled by this nation's response to the drowning of several hundred asylum-seekers en route to Australia, which occurred right in the middle of the election campaign. I thought surely it would change everything. But it didn't. If anything, it made us even more eager to consume the toxic sludge that poured from the Government, the shockjocks and the conservative columnists. If anything, those deaths made Australians angrier and more callous. And the Labor Party? Its idea of opposition was surrender. Its idea of leadership was to retreat.)

Not everybody accepted the lies. Many who didn't wrote to me, agreeing to sign a civil disobedience register ? to risk the 10 years in jail threatened by Philip Ruddock to anyone "harbouring an escapee from a detention centre". Thousands of readers, having discussed the matter with their families, were willing to risk a longer sentence than that given to people convicted of murder.

And although this particular issue was overwhelmed with the Tampa, the so-called Pacific solution, by September 11 and the unconscionable conduct of the Federal election, people are still adding their names to the list. And writing, "I feel ashamed to be an Australian."

A marvellous group of lawyers worked pro bono at the Woomera detention centre while colleagues took the Government to court on the Tampa issue. Swelling throngs of people marched and demonstrated with a passion we haven't seen since we signed up for an earlier war. Yes, that one in Vietnam. For here was an issue that united as much as it divided, bringing together people from across the spectrum. Now a group of us, including Chris Sidoti, Tim Costello, Bill Crews, Carillo Gantner, Ian McPhee, Malcolm Fraser and Bill Kelty have formed an over-arching organisation, Australians for Just Refugee Programs (Inc).

In AJRP, my civil disobedience registrants join with an extraordinary range of individuals and organisations, including the Human Rights Council of Australia, the Coalition for the Reform of Refugee Policy and the UN Association of Australia. Our purpose is to co-ordinate the activities of all those concerned with the war being waged in Australia's name.

Here's the charter statement: "We believe that Australia's policies towards refugees and asylum-seekers should at all times reflect respect, decency and traditional Australian generosity to those in need, while advancing Australia's international standing and national interests. We aim to achieve just and compassionate treatment of refugees, consistent with the human rights standards which Australia has developed and endorsed."

Action groups have sprung up, not only in cities but in rural towns, among the professions, in the universities, across religious groups and denominations. AJRP wants to help people like Jeremy Moore, who's leading the pro bono team of lawyers at Woomera. But we also want to help those active at Port Hedland, in Papua New Guinea, in Nauru. 

It's not enough to have 100 different protest groups. We're up against a Government that uses huge resources to conduct its co-ordinated campaign of fear, deception and self-justification. We must bring together the most experienced people to share information and co-ordinate strategies.

The new organisation desperately needs your financial support to foster and lobby for alternative policy models. To promote informed and constructive debate. To turn the tide of lies. Australians can do better than this. Australians are better than this.

I ask you, now, to send a donation to Australians for Just Refugee Programs Inc, Phillip Adams, Elmswood, Gundy, NSW 2337. Or you can email Phillip Adams at: philadams@ozemail.com.au