Systems of Exclusion: The Rudd Government and the ‘End’ of the Pacific Solution

Abstract

The closure of the immigration detention facility on Nauru by Australia's new Labor government marked the end of one of the most abusive symbols of the Howard government's ‘Pacific Solution’. However, this decision did not mark the end of the institutional exclusion of unauthorised migrants by the Australian state. The Rudd government is committed to maintaining the purpose built detention centre on Christmas Island; the excision of key landfalls such as Christmas Island from Australia's migration zone; the off-shore processing of asylum applications and the mandatory detention of ‘unauthorised non-citizens’. This comment briefly examines each of these dimensions of the Labor government's border control policies and highlights their role in sustaining the alienation, criminalisation and abuse of unauthorised migrants.