Policy Process for the Australia's Mandatory Detention PolicySociology (Essay Sample)

Report On Policy Process
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The policy process is the procedure followed when making public policies by the government. It is usually the government's action in addressing issues brought forth to lawmakers in the form of law and regulations. Public policies are implemented to protect the citizens from encouraging social goals. For a policy to be fully functional, it has to go through some stages. They are problem emergence, setting the agenda, policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation (Birkland, 2019).
 The process is usually very chaotic and does not follow a definitive path which triggers the debate on whether the process of policy formulation and interpretation is a linear process characterized by practical, political, and socio-cultural forces that play a part in influencing the outcome of the process. In Australia's Mandatory Detention Policy was put in place to respond to a wave of immigrants coming there. This report aims to discuss the policy process with relation to Australia's mandatory detention policy and critically discuss how the policy was formulated and implemented and whether allowances have been made to accommodate the systematic evaluation of the same policy (Soule & King, 2006). I will also use this paper to explain and analyze if the Mandatory detention policy fulfills the objective of producing justice and equality in society.
The Australian mandatory detention is a legal requirement by the government of Australia that aimed at detaining all non-citizens without a valid visa, which was as a result of the aftermath of the Vietnam War of 1992 and was formulated to manage the number of refugees coming to Australia fleeing the aftermath of the war. The first arrivals by boat; were sympathized with and granted asylum and refugee status almost immediately (Bashford & Strange, 2002). However, as more ships with refugees landed on the shores, increasing concerns about rising public issues like unemployment and the impacts of people who labeled themselves refugees to gain entry to Australia. This policy was envisaged as a necessary measure to address people coming to Australia primarily by boats to give the government time to investigate and determine whether asylum could be granted or not. 
The enactment of this act introduced changes to the processing boat arrivals system and allowed police and the relevant authorities to arrest and detain anyone suspected of being an illegal migrant. It was not until 1991 that mandatory detention was enacted following the implementation of the compulsory detention act. Effective "administrative detention" was for all people entering the country lawfully and unlawfully. The second wave of boats arriving from Cambodia was met with this condition. Their validation process to gain Australian citizenship access took longer, and the immigrants remained at the detaining centers until the Australian government cleared them (Bashford & Strange, 2002).
One of the main factors that influenced the formulation of this policy was the arrival of boats carrying Indochinese asylum seekers and increasing compliance activity against other unlawful non-citizens-visa over stayers- who had initially arrived in the country by air. The incentive was in part due to the government's pressure to address the concern over the number of undocumented immigrants and over stayers in the community and the increasing movement of other immigrants to Australia. The Keating government, with bipartisan support, embarked on the formulation of a policy that would protect its people from unauthorized immigrants through the enactment of the Migration act 1992. The Australian government acknowledged that migration into the country and seamless integration in the society could not be achieved simply by arriving in the country. Still, due diligence had to be done to grant asylum to all unlawful citizens in Australia (McAdam, 2014).
The act made a new visa system that made it clear to define and distinguish between a lawful and unlawful non-citizen. The act helped in doing away with the excessive number of days people were being detained. Over stayers not considered a security threat or flight risk could now apply for a bridging visa that enabled them to stay and access services as they awaited verdict on their claims of being lawful non-citizens be granted asylum. Detainees became increasingly many for the government to facilitate and give basic needs and services to the detainees. The Bill set out more effective ways of regulating entry, detention, and removing people who did not meet the criteria to be Australian citizens and came into effect in 1994. It provided for uniformity in the regime in the detention and removal of persons in Australia. The act, however, was conflicting based on how over stayers and boat arrivals were treated (Pennington-Hill, 2014). Boat arrivals were all subject to mandatory detention by the government. Simultaneously, the over stayers could apply for bridging visas based on the argument that they had submitted themselves to a proper entry process offshore required by Australia's visa system.
Over time, existing governments have argued to retain mandatory detention to ensure effective control and manage the country's borders. Many reforms and changes have been introduced since the policy was implemented to accommodate and improve the government of Australia's stringent measures for the protection of its citizens. Successive regimes have pointed that mandatory detention has been vital in the highly developed visa and border control