Manipulative silences and the politics of representation of boat children in Australian print media There is substantial literature on media representations of asylum seeker policy in Australia from a number of theoretical standpoints, namely moral panic theory, whiteness studies and belonging and citizenship. While many of these studies use discourse analysis of textual media as a methodology there is scant attention to the contribution of textual silences in media representations of asylum seeker children. Using Huckin's (2002) idea of manipulative silences, we demonstrate how media representations may steer public attention towards asylum seeker children in two dominant ways: (i) in discourses of deviancy by association with adults and (ii) the rights of boat children in association with immigration detention. Both generate confusion between rights, compassion and deviancy and, by shifting public attention, they serve to silence more essential concerns for the children. We seek to analyses these manipulative silences in the context of Australian asylum seeker policies of the Abbott government. In elucidating the use of textual silences to manipulate discourse, it is possible to see how Australian media representations may be skewing dialogue in the public sphere away from core political, legal and humanitarian issues that are imperative for the wellbeing of asylum seeker children.

Introduction and Aims Treatment of opioid dependence through opioid replacement therapy is widely recognised as effective. Nonetheless, while there has been a community‐based program in the state of Victoria for over two decades, consumer experiences have received little attention. This study aimed to describe the experiences of opioid replacement therapy consumers living in rural and regional areas of the state. Design and Methods A qualitative design employed an interpretative phenomenological approach. Sixteen consumers were interviewed. Thematic analysis was conducted by the researchers to examine the phenomena of consumers′ experiences and findings were verified by a stakeholder group. Results Findings centred on themes of consumers′ experience of becoming recipients; consumer perceptions of pharmacists and pharmacy settings and psychosocial impacts on consumers. A majority of participants believed opioid replacement therapy brought increased normality to their life, however systemic and psychosocial barriers impacted on well‐being. The pharmacy setting itself as a public dosing space commonly provoked feelings of stigma and discrimination among consumers. Other barriers prominently reported were restrictions on number of takeaways, cost of dispensing and lack of access to medical practitioners and allied supports. Discussion and Conclusions There were psychosocial impacts on opioid replacement therapy consumers relating to financial and social burdens, stigma and discrimination. Access to medical care and a choice of pharmacy appeared to be restricted in rural regions. The findings suggest a need to address, in particular, the financial and dispensing point burdens experienced by consumers to facilitate program retention.

Australian media invests considerable attention in asylum seekers and their children, especially those arriving by boat. In this paper, we provide an analysis of Australian newsprint media published during the term of Australia’s Gillard’s government (2010–2013). This period is critical as it coincides with rising numbers of boat arrivals to Australian shores, fear towards Muslims, and growing Islamophobia. At the time, there were government promises to move children from offshore immigration detention into community-based detention, that would involve living among mainstream Australian society. A data set of 46 articles from major Australian newspapers articles was subject to a discourse analysis of representations of children in both the written texts and in silences. Manipulative tactics of ‘risk framing’ and ‘dispersed intentionality’ were identified as discursive acts aimed to confuse compassion and deviancy with respect to asylum seeker children presumed to be from Islamic backgrounds. We argue that this was achieved through binary characterizations in which Muslim parents and people smugglers were constructed as deviant alongside intentional silences, that may have otherwise elicited compassion for asylum seeker children. We propose that this period of media reporting is foundational to understanding the rise of Islamophobic discourses and the implication of Muslim children in Australia.

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