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Sydney, January 1 (Dialogue) Every year, the National Archives of Australia releases 20-year-old Cabinet records, and this year’s batch was released today.
This press release from the 2002 Cabinet Records is in the context of two events from the previous year.
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The first occurred in August 2001, when Australian troops boarded the Norwegian vessel MV Tampa carrying more than 400 rescued asylum seekers.
The Howard government quickly introduced legislation to ban “unauthorized entrants” from landing on the Australian mainland.
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It also decided that those arriving by boat would be processed overseas.
The second event in 2001 was the September 11 al-Qaeda terrorist attack on American soil.
These attacks ushered in a new era of securitization in global and Australian politics that continues to this day.
They also led to two wars in which Australia participated.
The first took place in Afghanistan and lasted from 2001 to 2022.
The second time was the intervention of the “coalition of the willing” in Iraq launched in 2003 after Washington’s decision in 2002.
Two events in 2001, Tampa and 9/11, overwhelmed Labor’s campaign and contributed to the Coalition’s third consecutive victory in the federal election in November of that year.
The “Pacific Solution” and immigration
Much of the 2002 Cabinet records relate to the Howard government’s continuation of its “Pacific Solution”.
These include offshore processing in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, construction of a new immigration detention facility on Christmas Island, and revamping immigration centers on the mainland.
A meeting in Indonesia in February 2002 led to the “Bali Process”, an official international forum to facilitate discussion and information sharing on issues related to people smuggling.
Other documents deal with Australia’s regular immigration programme, which includes a “special humanitarian program” for refugees who do not arrive by boat.
Therefore, refugees trying to come by boat are excluded. But others who were lucky enough to be taken from refugee camps around the world prospered.
Four of the 2022 World Cup footballers were born in Africa and three are refugees who entered Australia under a special humanitarian programme. For example, defender Thomas Deng was born in Kenya to parents who fled Sudan in 2003 and emigrated to Australia.
National Security
Other highlights from the Cabinet paper relate to national security, foreign policy, defence, and counter-terrorism.
Australia ushered in a defining moment in 2002 on 12 October when the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist group detonated a bomb in the tourist area of ​​Bali.
More than 200 people were killed, including 88 Australians.
Two brief oral cabinet reports referred to the considerable work done by agencies, notably the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, on the Bali crisis.
Other documents deal with peacekeeping operations in troubled parts of the region, including East Timor, Bougainville and the Solomon Islands.
This last operation was a prelude to the Solomon Islands Regional Assistance Mission launched in 2003.
Defense Secretary Robert Hill has submitted numerous submissions on defense planning and acquisition.
This is the year in which Mr Scheer has launched his strongest official criticism to date of the “Defending Australia” strategy that has dominated Australia’s defense policy since the 1980s.
Heralding a new strategic direction, Hill said: “It probably never made sense to conceptualize our security interests as a series of diminishing concentric circles around our coastline, but it certainly doesn’t do so now.”
Twenty years later, the strategic debate Hill engaged in in 2002 continues.
climate change, environment and heritage
Issues related to climate change, the environment and heritage featured prominently in Howard’s cabinet in 2002, as they do today.
Crucially, the Cabinet under US President George W. Bush decided not to ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
The EU and Japan ratified the protocol in 2002. But the protocol did not enter into force until 2005, after Russia and Canada ratified it. The Australian cabinet accepted advice not to accept commitments not accepted by competitors and not to burden emissions-intensive, trade-related industries.
The 2002 decision to not ratify is emblematic of Australia’s failure to maintain a meaningful climate change regime until 2022.
Transport and Socioeconomic Policy
Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson made several submissions on transport and regional policy.
In it, Cabinet decided not to proceed with a proposal for a super-fast rail network between Brisbane and Melbourne for economic reasons. Now, 20 years on, the Albanese government has reversed that decision.
Communications Minister Richard Alston has won cabinet approval for a package of major media reforms with adverse consequences for media diversity in Australia.
However, these could not be implemented until 2004, when the Coalition gained control of the Senate.
Many other submissions relate to economic policy, including the first intergenerational report, welfare policy, health policy and agreements with states on issues such as housing.
Aboriginal policy
This press release includes important comments on Indigenous policy.
One approved a review of the functioning of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, a body formed under Mr Hawke and disbanded in 2005.
On the other hand, the government has decided not to implement the recommendations of the Aboriginal Reconciliation Commission, including the signing of treaties and the recognition of Aboriginal peoples in the new preamble to the Constitution.
In 2007, however, just before the defeat, Howard changed his mind, at least on constitutional issues.
It can be argued that Howard’s change of heart in 2007 was an important step in the ongoing process to provide Parliament with a constitutionally mandated Indigenous voice.
inclusion and omission
Not every topic makes it to Cabinet, some are only mentioned in brief minutes or oral presentations by ministers.
Howard, for example, has not submitted the finalization of the A$25 billion gas deal with China.
In this regard, Howard has taken an important step in the growing trade relationship with China.
But 20 years later, the Australian people are suffering from the failure of federal and state policies to build gas reserves on Australia’s east coast.
Likewise, Howard’s discussion with Bush in June 2002 was just a minute long, and too little to suggest what their subsequent intervention in Iraq might mean.
Cabinet records are only the top of the pyramid.
Individual institution records (which can be individually requested by individual researchers after 20 years) are just as important as historical records.
This makes it imperative that the National Archives have sufficient resources to fulfill its vital role as the custodian of the records of the Australian people.
To that end, ending the efficiency bonus for the National Archives and other struggling cultural institutions would be a welcome start. (dialogue)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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