APSNet Semi-Weekly Bulletin, April 13, 2006

Recommended Citation

"APSNet Semi-Weekly Bulletin, April 13, 2006", APSNet Semi-Weekly Bulletin, April 13, 2006, https://nautilus.org/apsnet/apsnet-for-20060413/

APSNet for 20060413

Austral Peace and Security Network (APSNet)

Bi-weekly report from the Nautilus Institute at RMIT, Australia.

Thursday 13 April 2006

  1. Prime Minister Slams Door on Boatpeople
  2. Border Patrols to Deter Papuans
  3. Military Prepares Country Bunker, New Joint Operations Command
  4. Australia Named as Extinction ‘Hotspot’
  5. China’s Emergence: Implications for Australia
  6. Precarious State: Afghanistan and the International and Australian Response
  7. Special Report: East Timor Military Turmoil
  1. Prime Minister Slams Door on Boatpeople, Patrick Walters and David Nason, Australian, 2006-04-13

    Asylum-seekers who land on the Australian mainland will face deportation to offshore processing centres under tough new rules. The new rules, signed off by cabinet’s National Security Committee, mean that any claim for asylum will be processed as if the applicant were in an overseas UN refugee camp. The move is designed to stem the flow of asylum-seekers from Papua and mend relations with Jakarta.

     

  2. Border Patrols to Deter Papuans, Patrick Walters and Stephen Fitzpatrick, Australian, 2006-04-12

    A new border security operation is expected to be approved by cabinet’s National Security Committee. In the most sustained surveillance effort in 5 years, there will be extra navy and Coastwatch patrols and more overflights of the Torres Strait by RAAF AP3 Orions. The operation also aims to stem the massive increase in illegal fishing in Australia’s northern waters, by hundreds of small Indonesian fishing craft.

  3. Military Prepares Country Bunker, Chris Jenkins, Australian, 2006-04-11

    The Defence Department’s $300 million nerve centre near Canberra will be the command hub of the network-centric warfare vision, the new Headquarters Joint Operations Command, to be at Bungendore, 26km northeast of Queanbeyan in NSW. It will bring together military command functions now spread across NSW, Victoria and the ACT.

     

  4. Australia Named as Extinction ‘Hotspot’, Alister Doyle, Australian, 2006-04-11

    The southwest of Australia has been named as one of 25 hotspots for future species extinction because of global warming, according to the study in the journal Conservation Biology. Scientists said their study broadly backed the findings of a 2004 report in the journal Nature that suggested global warming could commit a quarter of the world’s species to extinction by 2050.

     

  5. China’s Emergence: Implications for Australia, Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee, March 2006 (from Australian Policy Online) [PDF]

    Brendan Nelson apparently wants to supplement the competitive tendering process by developing clear guidance on which industrial capabilities must be retained in Australia and which can be imported. This will be a significant challenge for Defence, which has a long history of resisting ministerial policies it does not care for.

     

  6. Precarious State: Afghanistan and the International and Australian Response, Elsina Wainwright, ASPI*, 2006-03-28

    This paper examines the current situation in Afghanistan, including international security and reconstruction efforts. It analyses NATO’s expansion into the south of Afghanistan and in particular the 200-strong Australian Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) deployment to the province of Oruzgan, which is due in late July.
    * Subscription required.

     

  7. Briefing note: East Timor Military Turmoil

    East Timor remains in political tension more than two months after the February 8 decision by some 350 members of Timorese Defence Forces (FDTL) to abandon their posts. The soldiers were protesting against poor conditions for military personnel and more importantly regional discrimination within the FDTL. F-FDTL Commander Brigadier-General Taur Matan Ruak subsequently dismissed 591 soldiers. Tension was further heightened by a speech by President Xanana Gusmao to the effect that he disapproved of the dismissals, but believed he could not and should not intervene.

Subscriptions

Austral Peace and Security Network is issued late on Mondays and Thursdays (AEST) by the Nautilus Institute at RMIT, Melbourne, Australia.

To subscribe to the free APSNet service, just visit: https://nautilus.org/mailman/listinfo/apsnet. If you have any trouble, please contact the editor, Jane Mullett: austral@rmit.edu.au

APSNet is a sister publication to:

  • SEAPSNet: Southeast Asia Peace and Security Network (SEAPSNet) News is a twice weekly news summary by the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. It focuses on peace and security issues particularly those related to terrorism and regional cooperation.
    Information about SEAPSNet and SEAPSNet subscriptions.

  • NAPSNet: The Northeast Asia Peace and Security Network (NAPSNet) Daily Report provides summaries peace and security issues in the Northeast Asia region.
    Information about NAPSNet and NAPSNet subscriptions.

  • AESNet: The Nautilus Institute Asian Energy Security Network (AESNet) delivers useful and new information on Energy Security issues in Asia in a bi-weekly list-serv.
    Information about AESNet and AESNet subscriptions.