The AEU has a proud history of supporting fairer and more humane treatment of asylum seekers and refugees in and by Australia.

Educators rightly condemned the Howard Government's incarceration of women and children in breach of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the United Nations Refugee Convention, and the 'Pacific Solution' where Australia avoided its international obligations through processing refugees off shore.

The AEU welcomed the Rudd Government's reforms to Australia's asylum policies, which brought them back into line with our international human rights obligations. These significant reforms went some way to redressing the enormous damage done to Australia's international reputation by the Howard Government's inhumane policies.

Recent events surrounding the small increase in people coming by boat to seek asylum in Australia, a very small percentage of those who arrive without political comment by plane, make us apprehensive of a return to the politics of fear, divisiveness and the opportunistic exploitation of the plight of desperate people for political gain.

The Rudd Government's actions in seeking an 'Indonesian Solution' may be tough, but they are not humane.

As educators we urge a focus on the facts rather than fear. We call on the Rudd Government to show principled and courageous leadership in the face of the Opposition's exploitative use of divisiveness and fear to undermine the Government's important asylum policy reforms.