Reading this article and others on this topic takes my mind back to when I was at school. Specifically the 1950'2 and 60's. Back then special secretive bodies had been established to protect societies from hidden threats. They were effectively accountable to no one and eventually became a danger to society. I'm thinking here of the special branches that each of the state police forces had established.

ASIO is taking on all the halmarks of the worst excesses of the old special branches with their secrecy, accountability (not) and their "we know best" attitude but of course for your own protection we can't tell you.

I see this as the beginning of the end of ASIO or at least its secrecy and unaccountability. Unfortunately with organisations like this there is always much societal pain and suffering needed before the politicians listen to the people they supposedly represent and do something about it.

DKit

The war on terror was invented to make our Govts all powerful.This is part of the UN Agenda for a " New World Order".

Dear Arjay,

Do you bother to read the articles before you comment? The article dealt with the actions of the branch of the Australian government. The actions of that branch of the Australian government denied a person due process which may result in the unfair practice of indefinite detention. It has absolutely nothing to do with the UN, yet, somehow the UN is to blame according to you.

Arjay, suggest you try talking from a little higher up? I agree in broad principle with the Author and her argument. We do need an entirely independent review, by an entirely independent Authority, with the inherent power to entirely reverse any ASIO decision, without ever compromising national security or the provisions of the secrecy act!
That outcome could be seriously ameliorated with the use of non-invasive space age lie detecting technology, computer assisted facial recognition; thermal imaging and voice stress indicators, that could be calibrated via friendly pre examination chat.
The examination would simply ask relevant questions over tea and cake; and suitably empathetic enquiry, that allowed the respondent to feel both at ease and in the company of people interested in both basic human rights and justifiable outcomes!
We simply cannot should not accept, that the secret service/law enforcement agencies of other countries, will always be cooperative or provide entirely unbiased credible evidence; or indeed, factual accounts? What will resolve this and similar human rights issues, is the simple inviolate truth, testicular fortitude and truthful "tested" testament! Rhrosty

Frankly I don't give a toss how long ILLEGALS stay in detention - especially if a good part of the reason is they have destroyed identity documentation.

I do give a toss about the cost to our society and economy.

I am very concerned about the entry into our country via boat from Indonesia of criminals and highly undesirable types.

I do care about the enormous resources going into keeping, investigating and processing these people and then still paying and paying and paying for the queue jumpers that are accepted while many Australian citizens are homeless, waiting for medical procedures, living in unacceptable conditions and so on.

I also care when SCUM we are supporting to live in safety and comparative comfort riot, burn, destroy, harrass, assault and otherwise engage in completely unacceptable UNLAWFUL behaviour and are not immediately incarcerated pending deportation.

I don't care about the subject of the article being female, gravid, a wife, mother etc. - only that she has been properly and adequately assessed to be a proper and genuine person to have been admitted to this country.

I do care that the process may have been cocked up. On the other hand, in absence of any information about this case, it's possible the person in question has become involved in activity arousing ASIO scrutiny since her assessment and release into the community.

I will keep an open mind and wait for further developments to shed more light.

Meantime I pray for an early election to rid this country of the idiots who took a solution and turned it back into a problem.

I will also be watching ABC 4Corners tonight.

Smugglers' Paradise - Australia
www.abc.net.au

divine_msm

Wholeheartedly agree, with a couple of provisos and additions. E.G: “Children used to captain fishing boats loaded with refugees in order to avoid prosecution for people smuggling”.

A brainless mullet (child) has the capabilities of guiding a vessel in a straight line following GPS co-ordinates. My question is, who are the “counter intuitive brainless nitwits” that, by high court challenge to the Governments right to hold such in detention, have opened the gates wide to enable any vessel to be crewed by children alone, from here-on-in.

But sadly, in spite of the most of your intelligent dialog above, blow it all out of the water, by indicating a faith and trust in the Liberals and Tony Abbott to fix the mess…You must be joking!

But otherwise, a very intelligent and shared view.

Well the stupid 4 Corners program will be a lie and a crock. People who once helped other people come to Australia have been getting refugee status for a decade and it has been assessed over and over through the AAT that Arricle 1f of the refugee convention does not apply to those who simply help out others.

CATCHWORDS
IMMIGRATION - Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees of 1951 - Australia's obligations under the Convention - whether the Applicant is a person to whom Australia owes obligations under the Convention - whether the Applicant committed a serious non-political crime outside his country of refuge - people smuggling - examination of the events surrounding the conviction of the Applicant for "people smuggling" - found that the Applicant had a lesser role in the operation and did not initially know the purpose of the trip - held that the Applicant's conduct could not be considered as of such a serious nature to negate any protection obligations towards him - decision of the Respondent is set aside - Applicant is not excluded from the provisions of the Convention by reason of Article 1F(b) of the Convention.
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees 1951 Article 1F

And there are no people smugglers using any children to get around any law because there are no people smugglers.

I wonder how many children will be wrongly jailed and how many people will be killed before our braindead media read the conventions and protocols we have ratified and which I have written about for almost a decade now and understand that it is not people smuggling, no-one is being smuggled because it is a legal right to come here.

It's not rocket science.

And again on Breakfast on ABC we have two journos interviewing each other and proving they don't read or listen to anything.

It was proved by the Sun Herald that 108 people drowned on their way here because WE as a nation refused to send help so our illegal spy was not exposed.

Then we dropped charges against the non-smuggler and had him sent home so he couldn't blow the whistle.

So who did Fran Kelly blame? They Afghan we had deported so he couldn't tell the truth.

then they have a babble about Malaysia as if letting people arrive here and then sending them to Malaysia will stop one person from coming here or save one life, it was us as a nation who drowned the 108 people in October 2009 and no-0ne else, then they covered it up and lied about it.

Just like with SIEVX.

Then Fran Kelly claims we have a family reunion program that we don't have at all. We have a non-legal special humanitarian program that is zero to do with actual refugees.

And she claims the problem is massive yet for the three months of this year logged already there have only been a few hundred Iraqis.

Aaah Marilyn. No people smugglers, just good honest folk helping others come to Australia out of the goodness of their hearts?

In fact working at 2 or 3 legitimate businesses here and overseas so they can fund their philanthropic work ....

I suppose since so much of their money is being diverted into this honourable cause, they need the public housing and other assistance less worthy Australians are missing out on ...

The fairies at the bottom of my garden just verified this so I believe everything you have written ... Yeah, I do ..

Nuff said.

There are no people smugglers for the very simple reason that people are not smuggled into Australia.

Why is it that Australia has to complicate the most basic of human rights - everyone has the right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution - with stories about smugglers and other nonsense.

Not one other country jails people for helping refugees, most countries think it is a good thing to allow refugees to escape death.

But in the last 12 years we have this delusion about it and we are too gutless to admit we just don't want the refugees.

As someone who spent significant time observing and 'rescuing' many of the illegal immigrants that came into Australia, via our northern shores in the late 1980's and early 1990's I can attest that our Government/s have an agenda and we do control our borders more than most would realise.

Quite often, whilst under surveillance, many 'refugee' boats would immediatley begin to sink once an Australian warship or chartered civilian vessel came into visual contact, almost a pre-ordained occurence.

Not withstanding the inferences made about the people in the article, security remains an issue when dealing with individuals who proclaim 'lost papers' etc etc.

I do not support indefinate detention, but do support the need to find a sensible, value-for-money solution to our current 'refugee' issue.

I recall an interesting period where the then Prime Minister, Paul Keating, called the then leader of Malaysia, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, a recalcitrant - shortly thereafter the AFP and the Royal Australian Navy provided a convenient and covert opportunity for a couple of Australian (? Malaysian) children, then known as Mrs Jacquieline Gillespie's kids, to travel, via means unknown by the general public, back to Malysia, to ensure that Australian/Malaysian trade would continue. Don't ever assume that what you see or read is what has actually happened.

I also recall incidents whereby Australian "Fisheries Officers" would make radio-telephone calls to the then "Dept of Foreign Affairs and Trade" and discuss whether or not to intercept vessels, depending on location, status and who or what was likely to be onboard the vessel.

I am sure things have not changed that much and our Commonwealth forces remain in a grey-cloud as to what is actually legal and illegal in terms of whom or by how someone comes to this country.

We do have a geo-political problem, and the article only scratches the surface on issues of illegal detention, resources and the political ramifications of binding ones allegiance to the current UN charter.

Geoff of Perth, you are flat out lying. No refugee boats arrived here in the late 70's and early 80's and certainly none sank.

Sorry Marilyn, How do you get that I am lying....I did not mention the late 70's and 80's, I was talking about the late 80's and the early 90's.

I recall standing on the bridge of HMAS ...when we encountered SIEV IX (that would be 'Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel number 9), perhaps you were onboard, although I don't recall frontline females in the navy at the time.

After tracking for approximately 2 days, we 'closed' the vessel, it was obvious it was going to take 4 days to reach Australia. As soon as we became visual it started to sink, further investigation revealed the 'crew' had opened both sea-cocks, small things that kept this Indonesian vessel afloat, never mind it was chronically overloaded, 70-80 people onboard. After a mild panic and response, everone was saved and no lives were lost. I don't recall you being there to lend assistance.

I recall numerous ventures to Ashmore Reef, Rowley Shoals and Scott Reef, to "rescue" these people, including one incident that we were late to attend, whereby the passengers, all Pakistani and Indian's were attempting to make landfall in the Buccaneer Archepelago in shirt, tie, slacks, dress shoes and in some instances jackets" remarkably the only thing in their suitcases were hundreds of thousands of Australian dollars (in cash) that was given in evidence to the Federal Police in Broome once we deposited them on the wharf on our arrival followng their arrest.

As to no "refugee boats" arrived in the 70's and 80's, well I have a good memory regarding the guys whom I worked with who claimed that it was not unusual to "run over" a boat or two with Vietnamese refugees in the 70's and 80's and I know for a fact that our RAN Patrol Boats also ran them over during the 'night watch' because they often ran no lights....I even recall doing this once, although only a lonley Indon fishing boat, it still sends shivers down my spine.

Lying, no of course not, I remember you being there and doing so much to help, get a grip!