The Howard Government's Propaganda Machine in Action

Chapter 4 Arrival: the Howard Government’s Propaganda Machine in Action

Introduction

The Kosovar refugees arrived in Australia on 7th May 1999 suffering from ex- periences of war, personal loss and state-sponsored atrocities. When the first refugee flight landed at Sydney airport the Kosovars encountered unprece- dented media interest as they were formally greeted by the Prime Minister. The Federal Government politicised the Kosovars’ arrival. Opportunistically, John Howard capitalised on a rare occasion to bolster his personal standing and “goodness” with the Australian public. The Government’s media unit positioned Howard deliberately – at first on the tarmac as the refugees exited the plane, and then high upon a dais where he welcomed the refugees with “open arms”, framed by a background comprising the Australian flag. This chapter explores the journey of the refugees aboard the initial flight to Australia. The Kosovars’ first experience of Australia entailed a sharp contrast between the cameras flashes at the airport and the barbed wire-fences of dis- used army barracks. While the evacuation may have been intended to assist refugees in desperate need of protection and shelter, the arrival ceremony was certainly about rewarding the Australian public for its generosity. Chapter 4 traces the experience of the first Kosovars to arrive at the East Hills Safe Haven. Significantly, there were a range of limitations imposed on the media by the Federal Government during this episode. The Gov- ernment tightly regulated access to the refugees which increased the im- portance of the media as a mediator between the general public and the Government. The arrival provided the news media with an opportunity to cel- ebrate and “parade” Australian national values. Media positioned the Howard Government as central to this parade. The newspaper media frequently por- trayed the Kosovars as relinquishing the lives they had known in Yugoslavia for a “new” and “better life” in Australia. The news media supported per- ceptions about the moral qualities of the Howard Government, its nation- alist platform and the appropriateness of the temporary Safe Haven Visa program.

This chapter again draws on news reports from The Daily Telegraph, Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian.1 This includes content analysis of news (general), features, opinion columns and editorials drawn from the first five days following the landing of the first plane of refugees in Sydney (7th to 11th May 1999).2 Media representations of the first plane landing – a highly co- ordinated and pre-planned media event – generated publicity for the Howard Government over the course of the week that followed. This chapter draws attention to images and letters to the editor that accompanied or responded to these articles. Newspaper reports assisted in the Government’s attempts at gaining consensus on the changes to refugee policy.

The Initial Plane Ride to a Safe Haven

The Howard Government embarked on Operation Safe Haven as a plan for temporary resettlement, responding to international obligations and growing pressure from within the Australian community. Despite having formally re- quested Australia’s assistance to evacuate refugees on 5th April 1999, the UN- HCR’s Humanitarian Evacuation Programme (HEP) stalled for several weeks. This was mainly due to the concerns of some of the organisation’s members over the legal rights of refugees being granted temporary protection in Con- vention countries around the world. Under pressure from the US, the UNHCR resumed the evacuation program despite being what Barutciski and Suhrke describe as a ‘hesitant participant’.3 The UNHCR formally renewed its request to the Australian Federal Govern- ment for assistance on 1st May 1999, asking for the evacuation of the refugees to commence. The first refugee flight to Australia departed on 5th May 1999, in which 414 exiled Kosovars were flown from Skopje to Rome, Bangkok and then

1 This included 13 in The Australian (including Weekend Australian), 17 in the Telegraph (including Sunday Telegraph) and 16 in the Herald (including Sun-Herald). 2 The dates beyond this were excluded from the content analysis due to the fact that the first group was transferred out of Sydney to Brighton barracks in Tasmania on 11th May. 3 M. Barutciski and A. Suhrke, ‘Lessons from the Kosovo Crisis: Innovations in Protection and Burden-sharing’, Journal of Refugee Studies, 14(2), 2001, p. 99. The Programme was halted on 10th April and resumed on 17th April 1999. Australia was not officially asked to evacuate the refugees it had selected for evacuation over the past month until 1st May 1999. It is noted here, quoting UNHCR, that the HEP was a ‘source of dissention among the protection staff’, that ‘Non-HEP protection staff question the compatibility of HEP with our core function to promote the right to seek asylum in a Convention signatory State.’