Speaker - Rhonda Evans GOVERNMENT

By using a combination of boat turn-backs, offshore detention and processing, and a refusal to ever accept refugees who have tried to reach its shores by boat, Australia has emerged as a world leader in deterrence. The staggering costs and ineffable human suffering inflicted by these policies have led critics to condemn them as “fiscally irresponsible, morally bankrupt, and increasingly unsustainable politically.” This lecture, however, will argue that Australia’s expensive and inhumane approach is politically self-sustaining. Dr. Rhonda Evans, J.D., directs the Clark Center for Australian and New Zealand Studies at UT-Austin and is a Senior Lecturer in the Government Department. She is a principal investigator for the Australian and New Zealand Policy Agendas Projects. Her research on courts and human rights appears in the Australian Journal of Political Science, Congress and the Presidency, Osgoode Hall Law Review, and Journal of Common Market Studies. She co-authored Legislating Equality published by Oxford University Press.