It was the end of a three-week television shoot in some of the most deprived places of the world that - for good reason - are the epicentres of the global refugee crisis.

We were back on the almost-Australian soil of Christmas Island and after what we'd put them through across Afghanistan, Somalia, Ethiopia and Indonesia, the six prominent Australians taking part in the second of the SBS documentary series Go Back to Where You Came From were looking anything but prominent.

As they settled in at the island's small airport to await our flight home, I wondered if any of the locals even realised that the tall chap now flat on his back on the terminal floor, snoring quietly under his hat, was once among the most powerful and controversial politicians in our nation - the former defence minister, Peter Reith. If they had, perhaps they too would have asked the question that has echoed around Go Back - 2 ever since Reith's involvement was confirmed: why on earth would he do it?

At 62, and a decade on from the rigours of political life, that Reith, below, would emerge from semi-retirement to take on the physical demands of the program was a big call in itself. But given his political record - architect of Nauru and the Pacific Solution, ordering the boarding of the Tampa and central to the ''children overboard'' affair - his participation in a program about the plight of refugees and asylum seekers seemed so unlikely, when it was first revealed people largely dismissed it as an April Fool's Day prank. The truth is, Reith was the first participant to sign up. And the reason is simple. His conscience is completely clear.

Throughout the shoot, he referred to the events of the Tampa and ''children overboard'' as so long ago and of such little significance that the public barely remembered them. The 2001 ''children overboard'' incident, in particular, he regards as a ''distraction''. Government ministers telling the nation that asylum seekers had thrown their children into the sea and then discovering the reports were false, just another media storm to be weathered.

''The worst you can say is, it was a stuff-up. It certainly wasn't, as some people believe, a conspiracy,'' he says.

Episode 1 just aired and you can watch it here, assuming it's not geoblocked: http://www.sbs.com.au/goback/videos

Last year's series scored huge ratings but if anything, Australia's policy on asylum seekers has only gotten worse. The current Labor government was proposing to send "boat people" to Malaysia(!) before basically reinstating the previous Liberal government's policy of sending them to Nauru.


When the Nauru refugee centres were closed in 2008, UNHCR had this to say:

Many bona fide refugees caught by the policy spent long periods of isolation, mental hardship, uncertainty and prolonged separation from their families.
The prompt decision by the new government to close the Nauru centre and bring the refugees to Australia is very welcome and shows Australia as a humane society in keeping with its international obligations.

Ironicwarcriminal posted:

Maybe indonesia should cop a bit more flak about this issue too

Hooroo cobber. Too right mate. Dingo