Australia's Secrecy on Nauru: 'On-Water Matters' Meets Erasure
The Albanese government's decision to suppress the Nauruan President's remarks for a decade, alongside a new deal costing $400M to offload 'non-citizens with criminal histories', isn't just about 'secrecy,' as the Guardian notes. This isn't an isolated incident; it's a feature, not a bug, of Australia's approach to human rights when it comes to refugees and asylum seekers. The term 'on-water
matters' (courtesy of former PM Scott Morrison) normalized obfuscation, preventing scrutiny of indefinite detention, questionable transfers, and the systematic erosion of due process. One might wonder if the translation needs a decade to be 'perfected,' or if it simply allows enough time for public outrage to dissipate. When millions are spent to ship people out of sight and out of mind, and the
details are then sealed for ten years, it appears less like a policy decision and more like a deliberate act of historical erasure. What, exactly, needs hiding for a full decade if all parties are acting ethically? The silence speaks volumes.