The Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands is an uninhabited external territory of Australia consisting of four low-lying tropical islands in two separate reefs, and the 12 nautical mile territorial sea generated by the islands. The territory is located in the Indian Ocean situated on the edge of the continental shelf, about 320 km (199 mi) off the northwest coast of Australia and 144 km (89 mi) south of the Indonesian island of Rote.
This article presents lists of literary events and publications in 2003.
Brennan is an Irish surname which is an Anglicised form of two different Irish language surnames—Ó Braonáin and Ó Branáin. Historically, one source of the surname was the prominent clan Ua Braonáin (O'Brennan) of Uí Duach (Idough) in Osraige who were a junior Dál Birn sept stemming from a younger son of Cerball mac Dúnlainge (d.888). Recent surname evaluations highlighted the geographic consistency of this lineage in the barony of Idough.
Federal elections were held in Australia on 10 November 2001. All 150 seats in the House of Representatives and 40 seats in the 76-member Senate were up for election. The incumbent Liberal Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia John Howard and coalition partner the National Party of Australia led by John Anderson defeated the opposition Australian Labor Party led by Kim Beazley.
In August 2001, the Howard Government of Australia refused permission for the Norwegian freighter MV Tampa, carrying 433 rescued refugees and 5 crew to enter Australian waters. This triggered an Australian political controversy in the lead up to the 2001 federal election, and a diplomatic dispute between Australia and Norway.
Sir Francis Gerard Brennan,, is an Australian lawyer and jurist who served as the 10th Chief Justice of Australia. Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser appointed Brennan to the Court in 1981.
The Woomera Immigration Reception and Processing Centre (IRPC) was an Australian immigration detention facility near the village of Woomera in South Australia. It was opened in November 1999 in response to an increase in unauthorised arrivals, which had exceeded the capacity of other detention facilities. It was originally intended to hold 400 people, however at its peak in April 2000 it had nearly 1,500 detainees. After ongoing public pressure in response to several well publicised riots from 2000, accusations of human rights abuses, and capacity issues, the centre closed in April 2003.
The Pacific Solution is the name given to the Government of Australia policy of transporting asylum seekers to detention centres on island nations in the Pacific Ocean, rather than allowing them to land on the Australian mainland. Implemented from 2001 to 2007, it had bipartisan support from the Coalition and Labor opposition at the time. The Pacific Solution consisted of three central strategies: thousands of islands were excised from Australia's migration zone or Australian territory, the Australian Defence Force commenced Operation Relex to intercept vessels carrying asylum seekers and the asylum seekers were removed to detention centres in Nauru and Papua New Guinea while their refugee status was determined.
The Nauru Regional Processing Centre is an offshore Australian immigration detention facility, located on the South Pacific island nation of Nauru. The centre is operated by Broadspectrum on behalf of the Department of Home Affairs, a department of the Government of Australia that is responsible for immigration, citizenship and border control. The use of immigration detention facilities is part of a policy of mandatory detention in Australia.
The following lists events that happened during 2001 in Australia.
John Wren was an Australian businessman and underworld figure. He has become a legendary figure thanks mainly to a fictionalised account of his life in Frank Hardy's novel Power Without Glory, which was also made into a television series.
Francis Tenison "Frank" Brennan SJ AO is an Australian Jesuit priest, human rights lawyer and academic. He is known for his 1998 involvement in the Wik debate when Paul Keating called him "the meddling priest" and the National Trust classified him as a Living National Treasure. Brennan has a longstanding reputation of advocacy in the areas of law, social justice, refugee protection, Aboriginal reconciliation and human rights activism.
Julian William Kennedy Burnside AO QC is an Australian barrister, human rights and refugee advocate, and author. He practises principally in commercial litigation, trade practices and administrative law. He is known for his staunch opposition to the mandatory detention of asylum seekers, and has provided legal counsel in a wide variety of high-profile cases. He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2009, "for service as a human rights advocate, particularly for refugees and asylum seekers, to the arts as a patron and fundraiser, and to the law."
Escape from Woomera is an unfinished point-and-click adventure video game, intended to criticise the treatment of mandatorily detained asylum seekers in Australia as well as the Australian government's attempt to impose a media blackout on the detention centres. In the game, the player assumes the role of Mustafa, an Iranian asylum seeker being held at Woomera Immigration Reception and Processing Centre. Mustafa's request for asylum has been denied, and, fearing that he will be killed by the Iranian government upon his repatriation to Iran, he decides to attempt to escape Woomera. Mustafa must explore Woomera and speak with other individuals at the centre to devise and execute an escape plan.
Ruddock v Vadarlis was an Australian court case decided in the Federal Court of Australia on 18 September 2001. It concerned the actions of the Government of Australia in preventing asylum seekers aboard the Norwegian cargo vessel MV Tampa from entering Australia in late August 2001. The Victorian Council for Civil Liberties, and solicitor Eric Vadarlis, were seeking a writ of habeas corpus. The case is significant because it is one of the few cases to consider the nature and scope of the prerogative power of the executive branch of Government in Australia.
Francis (Frank) Brennan was an Australian lawyer and Australian Labor Party politician.
Dark Victory is a 2003 Australian book by David Marr and Marian Wilkinson. The book was released eighteen months into the Howard Government's third term, and analyses the border control policy of the John Howard Liberal–National Government. The Tampa affair, the Pacific solution, the Children Overboard affair are discussed. The book investigates other countries' views of Australia and the role of the Australian Labor Party and One Nation party.
Refugee Action Collective (Victoria) or RAC, are a grassroots group of activists concerned with refugee rights operating in Melbourne, Australia. RAC has organised around issues they deem inhumane by the Australian Government in relation to asylum seekers, such as organising protests and vigils as well as being involved in more militant action such as breaking out and hiding detainees.
Asylum in Australia is governed by statutes and Government policies which seek to implement Australia's obligations under the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, to which Australia is a party. Thousands of refugees have sought asylum in Australia over the past decade, with the main forces driving movement being war, civil unrest and persecution. The annual refugee quota is currently 20,000 people. From 1945 to the early 1990s, more than half a million refugees and other displaced persons were accepted into Australia.
