Australia elections politicize boatpeople

Two polls say the elections are too close to tell, but the Morgan poll says the Kim Beazley-led Labor party will win.

By Grant Holloway
CNN

CANBERRA, Australia (CNN) - The Australian government's uncompromising attitude on asylum seekers has sustained a barrage of high profile criticism as the nation heads into the final three days of election campaigning.

The attacks come as Indonesia's ambassador to Australia warns the government to stop politicizing the asylum seeker issue and as three leading academics suggest the nation's Asia-Pacific relations are at their lowest ebb in decades.

Indonesian ambassador Sudjadnan Parnohadiningrat Wednesday accused both the conservative Coalition government and the Labor party opposition of using the boatpeople to further their election ambitions.

Sudjadnan said many senior figures in Jakarta were annoyed at the diplomacy-by-media in Australia.

"We see that there is an intention on each of the leadership to exploit issues for their future in the election," Australian Associated Press reported Sudjadnan as saying.

"A different approach (is needed) by a new government, a less noisy diplomacy," he said.

Relations deteriorate

Australia's tough stance towards asylum seekers has been strongly critized in the run up to the elections.

Deteriorating Australia-Indonesia relations are also at the core of the attack by international relations experts Ross Garnaut, Peter Drysdale and Stuart Harris, all from the Australian National University.

"Australia's official relations with the Asia Pacific region are currently more fragile and less productive than at any time for several decades," the trio said in a joint statement released to media.

"This has jeopardized Australia's national security. It also threatens the prosperity that has accompanied productive economic relations with countries in our neighborhood over the past decade," they said.

"The problems are most acute with, but not confined to, Indonesia."

The academics said the failure of the relationship with Indonesia was now well known internationally, and the damage has occurred when difficulties in the relationship "are addressed with a view to domestic political advantage rather than the national interest".

Australia's role in leading an international peacekeeping force to the former Indonesian province of East Timor, the illegal immigration dilemma and Indonesia's response to the September 11 terror attacks were all cited as examples of Australia mishandling the relationship.

The past week has seen a torrent of criticism levelled at Prime Minister John Howard's government over the approach to the asylum seekers, some of it from unexpected sources.

Australia has taken a tough stance on asylum seekers following an international incident in August this year, where a Norwegian freighter which had rescued a boatload of asylum seekers was denied permission to land the human cargo in Australia.

The Howard government has also tightened its border protection laws since August, making it nearly impossible for any asylum seeker landing in the remote island outposts of Australia to claim refugee status.

Instead, the would-be refugees are either turned back to Indonesia waters or transported to detention centers on Pacific nations such as Nauru or Papua New Guinea.

But Immigration Department figures released Tuesday suggest the policy has not yet stemmed the flow of illegal immigrants.

Recent critics of the government's approach include former conservative prime minister Malcolm Fraser, fellow Liberal party heavyweights, former senior immigration officials and even naval officers charged with the task of turning back the boatpeople.

The asylum seekers issue continues to command headlines in Australia as the election date of November 10 draws near and the gap between the two main political rivals narrows.

Two of the three main polling organizations are saying the final out is now too close to call, while a third, the Morgan poll, is proclaiming a comfortable victory to the Kim Beazley-led Labor opposition party.