Australia's Image in Asia

We also have a very high standard of living to offer to our citizens.
             HUMAN RIGHTS .
             Not all people in the world enjoy full human rights. Human rights are a luxury enjoyed by wealthy countries which have stable governments. In many Asian countries people are suffering due to corrupt governments, wars, discrimination, famine, disease and poverty. In some Asian countries human rights policies are violated every day and these prove to be a constant source of difficulty for our foreign affairs office as our objection to the lack of human rights in these countries often effects our relations with these countries. Massacres have been described in political terms as "incidents". Torture and jailing for lack of religious and political freedom have been described by our government as cultural differences. When Indonesia invaded East Timor the Australian government which had remained very complacent could not stand by any longer and sent our own troops to the region to support the United Nations peace-keeping presence and the East Timorese people. This however caused a major rift with our most densely populated neighbour Indonesia. .
             Even in Australia human rights are being violated. During 1999, 1700 illegal immigrants arrived and were held in detention centres in Northern Australia. Many were illegal immigrants who arrived by boat, mainly from Asia. However the illegal immigrants who came through airports or overstayed their visas, mostly from The United States or Britain, were not detained. Does the view of poorer, less attractive people influence the punishment we deal out. If these refugees were wealthy and attractive would or does our view change? The United church labels the automatic detention for "boat people" as racist. But John Howard rejects this assertion even though most people think it is unfair. In the "Children Overboard" incident the government knew that refugees were not throwing their children overboard but they tried to keep the lie going to ensure that their unfair, unpopular policy would not effect their chances in the upcoming elections.