The Compassion Deficit: The New War Against Asylum
Tracey Barnett
What is the going price for Australia to pay traffickers to turn a boatload of refugees around and ferry them away from their waters? Allegedly $32,000 USD.
In what country can medical professionals now be given two years in prison for speaking out about conditions at offshore refugee detention sites?
Why would a country that has never had a boatload of asylum arrivals in modern history suddenly legislate for mass detention?
While the Western press turns its eyes to headlines in Europe, the policies in our own back garden often slide under the radar. With our ranking as 90th in the world for the total number of refugees we host per capita, and our tiny refugee quota stuck for almost three decades, columnist and author Tracey Barnett asks—is New Zealand really the compassionate player on the world stage we imagine ourselves to be for refugees?
Drawing from her refugee camp reportage along the Thai-Myanmar border and Sydney’s Villawood detention centre, journalist Tracey Barnett will examine this rapidly emerging new war on asylum—and New Zealand’s response to it.
Tracey Barnett is the author of The Quiet War on Asylum, published by Bridget Williams Books, and is the creator of WagePeaceNZ, an initiative to keep New Zealanders up to date on refugee issues.
Stolen Identities, Stolen Opportunities: The Psychological Impact of Stereotypes on Indigenous Peoples
Associate Professor Stephanie Fryberg
University of Washington
University of Auckland and Te Rūnanga-ā-Iwi o Ngāti Kahu