Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Wednesday 05 October
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
The goalposts for Australian citizenship status have often shifted over the course of our history. Most recently, new laws passed by the Turnbull Government have given increased power to the executive in making decisions on individuals’ citizenship cases. What are the personal costs of this friction between issues of national security and human rights? And what happens when people who are Australian in all but name are denied the rights and protections guaranteed to citizens?
For this discussion, we’ll bring together two journalists who have undertaken investigations into these issues: Kristina Kukolja and Peter Mares. Kukolja’s documentary, Unwanted Australians, looks into the case of hundreds of post-war immigrants who were denied naturalisation for decades, with no official reason and no chance to appeal. Peter Mares’s book, Not Quite Australian, examines the growing phenomenon of temporary migration in Australia. Right now, there are more than one million temporary migrants living on our shores.
With host Santilla Chingaipe, the pair will discuss how the lack of – or loss of – citizenship affects the fabric of our nation.
(Illustration: First Dog on the Moon)
Featuring
Santilla Chingaipe
Santilla Chingaipe is a filmmaker, historian and author, whose work explores settler colonialism, slavery, and postcolonial migration in Australia. Chingaipe’s critically acclaimed and award-winning documentary Our African ...
Peter Mares
Peter Mares is lead moderator with The Cranlana Programme, an independent, not-for-profit organisation dedicated to developing the ethical decision-making skills of Australia’s leaders. Peter is also contributing editor at Inside Story magazine and adjunct fellow at Swinburne University’s Centre for Urban Transitions. He is a former ABC broadcaster and the author of three books, including No Place Like Home: Repairing Australia’s Housing Crisis (Text 2018).
Kristina Kukolja
Kristina Kukolja is a multi award-winning journalist with SBS World News, based in Melbourne. With fellow journalist Lindsey Arkley she is the co-author of Unwanted Australians, a special investigation revealing the scope of past Australian governments’ refusal of citizenship to migrants on political grounds for decades until the 1970s. The series of multimedia reports has also given voice to the first collective call for official acknowledgment by a group of those affected and their families.
In 2010 she received a Walkley Award for her work on Echoes of Srebrenica.
Kristina’s work over the years has particularly focussed on issues affecting Australia’s migrant, refugee and Indigenous communities. Her areas of interest include international law and transitional justice, and their application in an Australian context.
Kristina’s reporting has gained recognition at home and abroad — most recently in 2015 with a United Nations Association of Australia Media Peace Award for her coverage of Australia’s first ever extradition of one of its own citizens over war crimes.