By Mel O’Brien

I wanted to take an opportunity to give kudos to the current Australian government, led by Prime Minister Rudd. I was lucky enough to be in Australia when the elections were held in November, so I got to go to the polls and vote, and attend an election party with friends. We sat at the party, drinks in hand, hoping and wishing for a change that was so desperately needed. For far too long we were ruled by John Howard, a little man with internationally embarrassing policies. As an international lawyer, there have been many moments when I was mortified by the policies of the Howard government. For example, I remember taking refugee law for my LLM, and having an entire 2-hr lecture devoted to the Australian ‘Pacific Solution’ refugee policy (that being where refugees are shipped to a Pacific island and detained in an ‘off-shore detention centre’). The Howard government had so many people believing refugees were bad people- ‘queue jumpers’, who didn’t wait their turn to immigrate like all good people should. Howard refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, refused to apologise to the indigenous people of Australia, and sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan like the good little obedient US-servant he was. Happily, the change that we were all hoping so much for at that election party has happened! How the champagne flowed as we watched Rudd emerge to give his victory speech. Let’s just take a look at what the Rudd government has done in just over 6 months in power: – The very day he was sworn in, Rudd ratified the Kyoto Protocol. This action received a standing ovation at the climate change conference that was going on at the time in Asia. – Rudd publicly apologised to the indigenous population of Australia, with an apology that had been worded in consultation with prominent members of the indigenous peoples. The ceremony held at Parliament House in Canberra had many people weeping with relief at the recognition of past wrongs committed by the white Australian government, including the stolen generation- indigenous children that were taken from their families to be raised by white people, and so grew up never knowing their own family or their own culture. – In April 2008, the government proposed an overhaul of legislation that is discriminatory to lesbian, gay and transgender people. This follows a report with recommendations issued by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in mid-2007. – Rudd has committed to the withdrawal of Australian troops from Iraq. – Rudd has been very active internationally, including lecturing to Chinese students on human rights- in Mandarin. – The government will undertake an overhaul of industrial relations law, with a view to completely changing the WorkChoices law put in place by the Howard government- a law which, among many other restrictions, takes away pay for overtime work. A lot of changes in refugee policy: – The off-shore detention centre on Nauru has been closed. The Nauru detention centre was opened to house refugees from the MV Tampa, and went on to house refugees from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Many of those detained were children. – Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs) have been abolished. Temporary Protection Visas (TPV) granted legitimate refugees and asylum seekers only three years of protection before requiring them to reprove their refugee status. TPVs left many legitimate refugees in legal limbo and with limited rights, such as being denied the right to travel outside of Australia, to family reunion and to accessing services such as health care and English classes. The abolition of TPVs will benefit more than 1000 refugees in Australia. – A donation of $US1.4 million to UNHCR’s refugee program in Bangladesh. – Offering an additional 500 refugee places in 2008-09 for those affected by the conflict in Iraq, as well as 600 places for Iraqi employees and families who risked their lives to help the Australian Defence Force. Of course, there are still many issues to be addressed, such as the mandatory detention for refugees and the closure of the off-shore detention centre on Christmas Island. However, the actions of the Rudd government so far have actually restored my faith in the possibility of having a democratic government that really can do good things- and can do the things that were promised during the election! I was actually in shock when Rudd ratified Kyoto on his very first day in office, just as he had promised. And did I mention the deputy PM is a female (Julia Gillard)? When Rudd was elected, I received congratulatory emails from friends around the world, and I am now proud to have a national leader that I do not have to be embarrassed about. He has received record popularity ratings in polls (over 70%). I can only hope that this wave of change continues across the Pacific to the United States, and that we can see a similar change in political leadership over there- someone all Americans can be proud to call their head of state. It’s a good feeling.