Go Back: Viewers target Reith over asylum policy

29 Aug 2012, 5:00 pm   -   Source: Rhiannon Elston, SBS
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Comments from former Howard government minister Peter Reith (second from left) stirred fierce online debate as Go Back to Where You Came From aired in Australia.

Comments from former Howard government minister Peter Reith (second from left) stirred fierce online debate as Go Back to Where You Came From aired in Australia.

Last night, Go Back participant and former Howard government Peter Reith was one of the most talked about topics on Twitter, according to the site’s official metrics.

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The series return of award winning SBS refugee documentary Go Back to Where You Came From attracted more than 1.5 million viewers nationally and sparked fierce debate online over Australia’s asylum seeker policies.

Last night, show participant and former Howard government minister Peter Reith was one of the most talked about topics on Twitter, according to the site’s official metrics. Mr Reith was one of the architects of the Pacific Solution, a policy that led to asylum seekers being processed offshore.

The Go Back episode featured Mr Reith travelling with Catherine Deveny and Angry Anderson to meet with several members of the ethnic minority Hazara, who make up almost half of all refugees who have arrived in Australia by boat over the past four years.

“I so hope that we go to [visit] Afghanis, so that Peter Reith can meet these people that he left on the Tampa, and ended up sending to Nauru,” Ms Deveny said during the show.

The team did travel to Afghanistan, where Mr Reith faced a tense showdown with a man forced to return home as a direct result of Howard-government introduced asylum policy. 

Resai, a Hazara man who was aboard the Tampa, was taken to an offshore processing site for 14 months before being deported.

“We moved to the worst island, the name of Nauru Island,” he said.

“There was not any facilities, and a lot of people become sick. There was not any lawyer to support us and our cases.”

Of the 312 refugees who were returned to Afghanistan with Resai, at least 11 have since been killed, he told Go Back participants.

Mr Reith offered limited commentary on the experience. “He was bitterly disappointed that he didn’t make it to Australia, but we just don’t know the full situation.”  

“You can understand that when you have a lot of people going through the system, mistakes are made,” Mr Reith said. “That’s not great, but these things happen.”

The show’s official hashtag #GoBackSBS was still trending on the social networking site this morning.

Go Back to Where You Came From continues tonight and Thursday at 8.30pm on SBSONE. Catch up on missed episodes here. 

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Fact!

True Blue ozzie - from Gladstone Q, 9 months ago

Good on Peter! Fact- Australia is in no position to help 45 million refugee's! It's a global problem and every country signed to the UNHCR should do more if the problem has any chance of being addressed.I have no pitty for the ones on Christmas Island, who make threaths and demarnds, and expect to get their own way! They have good shelter, food and services, more perks than our 1000,000 homeless, yet vandalise the tax payeers property when they do'nt get their way! The ungreatfull GO BACK!

SBS did not change my mind!

True Blue Ozzie - from Gladstone Q, 9 months ago

Peter Reith like my self, did'nt get sucked in by the narrow highly emotive view, that the show portrayed! Australia has to have a fair balance between looking after it's own people and refugee numbers,a fact! Are the "do gooders" happy to send Australia broke, just so they can have their way? It's the big Government hand outs, that make many of us speak out against these people! For those of us who have worked very hard paid our taxes it's an insult that we live on less than these refugee's!

Which part of the law don't rednecks understand????

Annihilating Angel - from Hackett, 9 months ago

This is the fundamental point that people like Abbott, Gillard and co FORGET! Australia has LEGALLY BINDING treaty obligations that cannot be outsourced and must be performed in good faith. International law TRUMPS Australian domestic law. Care to argue the point? Then be prepared for appearances by skip pollies at the ICC for crimes against humanity. So Gary bloody Anderson...which part of the LAW don't you understand??? Get your facts straight before behaving like a f**king narc Anderson. FOAD

Boat People

Trisha Dalton - from Helensburgh, 9 months ago

What I would like to know is 1. Why does it take so long to process these people in the refugee camps? 2. Why did the government stop African adoptions? 3.Why does the media report so inaccurately about the boat people. In the seventies both the liberal & labor parties had a bipartisan agreement with the boat people coming from the Vietnam. 4. Unless you are a full blooded aboriginal we are all descendants of boat people who either came for a better life or were force to come as convicts.

Ms

Winthrop - from Sunshine Coast, 9 months ago

Offshore processing is necessary to screen out the undesirables and potential terrorists. The boat people should not be given preference over those in camps who have no access to boats. I'm sure everyone of those camp people would think they were in heaven at Christmas Island or Nauru, where they would have 3 meals a day, a bed to sleep in water and above all safety. The squalor they are living in now is intolerable. Yet for every boat person that we take one of them gets shoved back in the queu

WHO ARE THEY ???

An Aussie - from Toowoomba, 9 months ago

They pay for the boat trip....SO they have the money to come in the FRONT door...Other wise keep them in the camps...Look after the people HERE first..

Mrs

Claudia Schwarz - from Lilydale, 9 months ago

Aboriginal issues and the refugee issue are completely separate. They both need & deserve our attention but it is ignorant to believe that the government hasn't poured in millions of dollars to this cause. The Aboriginal plp are one of the most funded plp groups in the world. Clearly the answer is not financial. However, the refugees that are desperate for food, shelter& a desire to feel safe can be met. This is a human issue & we can make a difference without fear of loosing our lifestyle.

Adoption

Andrew Kitchen - from Annandale Sydney, 9 months ago

Now there's an avenue that could really help.. Adoption came up. Australia manages just 200 inter-country adoptions per year. Talk about making a positive impact on the life of an orphaned child in a refugee camp... give them a family and a home.

Go back to..

oncewas - from bribie island, 9 months ago

A recent blurb on this show referred to the participants as " stars". Peter R a star? Isn't he the former Howard government minister who could not understand the mobile phone rules? A star?

Still

Moha Adam - from Dadaab Refugee Camp Kenya, 9 months ago

I think that the Australian people have just understood the fact of being a refugee, How about if you are forced to leave your own country, family, home, farm and part of your family or friends killed. Where would you go what would you do?

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