One of a few awful shameful truths about modern Australia, along with our current federal governments attitude to same sex marriage, winding back meaningful action on climate change, and the ongoing inability to create generational change in the plight of our indigenous people. I have never been particularly patriotic, but nowadays I am decidedly ashamed of Australia.
But wasting money on cruelty curries favour with racist voters, so it is the preferred option.
What the? Is that a quote, Cory, or your own impression of how it works here in Australia?
Like most Australians I am ashamed of how āourā government treats refugees. To claim itās a result of currying favour with racist voters is akin to saying the same about the US and Guantanamo Bay. Which, by extrapolation, declares each country to be predominantly occupied by racists.
Whilst Australia has been treating asylum seekers worse than we treat our cattle for decades, with each election seeming to consist of a race to the bottom on the issue; the Abbott Government has been stooping to all new lows. Not only are they fighting to bring back some of the truly draconian measures introduced under our last Liberal* Prime Minister, theyāve shut down as many information sources, and potential leaks of information as possible since recently coming to power. This has included sacking the independent board that reports on asylum seeker health matters to the government; they claim this was introduced ābecause they were ineffectiveā but the truth is they donāt want media leaks about how truly terrible weāre treating people that come to our nation seeking refuge.
I truly hope Scott Morrisonās time in the role is short and that whoever replaces him actually holds a shred of decency. Alas, considering Iāve been attending protests about these issues for more than half my life, Iām not feeling to hopeful.
*The Australian Liberal Party is liberal in name only, theyāre the major conservative party in our political spectrum.
Itās not really a stretch, either in the case of Australiaās asylum policies, or in the case of Guantanamo, to infer that racism plays a key part in the level of support. Not that supporters would acknowledge that, of course, but can we really imagine that refugees would be subjected to the same treatment if they were British people fleeing for their lives?
Australia is not going to open its doors to everyone in exactly the same way that racist America maintains border control with Mexico.
Straw man? Different issues as one is asylum seekers, the other not.
As an Australian, to the rest of the world (& exp. to the detainees) I am so sorryā¦ I didnāt vote for this government nor would wish this kind of treatment upon any refugee. (Here in Australia, the government prefers to refer to them as āIllegal immigrantsā.
Iām Australian and Cory seems right on the money in my opinion. Anybody I know that supports these policies and the party behind them are usually closed minded racist bigots.
These tactics are clearly not meant to appeal to any right thinking people.
There is a big difference between āopening bordersā and filling our moral and legal obligations to asylum seekers. We could for example, allow asylum seekers to live in the community on a parole like basis. This is what most of the world does, and it is what Australia did until 1992. Even if the odd person that was found to not be a genuine refugee decided to try and escape the authorities and avoid deportation, the money required to track them down would be minuscule compared to the absurd amount we spend on treating mostly innocent and persecuted people like theyāre piles of shit.
The issue with that is exactly the same as with Mexican illegals in America, in both cases they are coming to a place with a better economic outlook than the one they left.
Ever since Tampa and the children overboard affair politicians have seen very clearly what the electorate thinks. The fact of the matter is no party that is weak on border protection is ever going to win an election now - so good luck trying to get a roll-back to pre-9/11 levels of brown person acceptance.
A very useful way to spend time over Christmas, especially when compared to just hanging our heads in shame.
If you want to do something else about this, please get behind the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.
Like I said above. Iām not hopeful, but it certainly doesnāt help when
people continue to sprout the same misinformation politicians and the
Murdoch press have used to paint the issue as one of economic opportunism.
When Pauline Hanson popped her stupid head up she alerted that arch-scumbag John Howard to the level of racist xenophobia that had persisted through the Whitlam/Hawke/Keating leadership effort in the other direction, and that was it.
Ever since, our scumbag pollies of either stripe have been playing to the bogans in Western Sydney (with Rupert fucking Murdoch fanning the flames of ignorant stupidity), because thatās the most crucial marginal electorate in the country.
Decencyās old hat.
Edit: canāt forget Whitlam.
The sooner that hideous old Lizard-fucker karks it, the better for the world as we know it. Definitely your worst export mate (and Iām including Fosters in that assessment).
An export? I thought that was a life-saving Murdochectomy.
Unfortunately, he seems to have metastasisedā¦
More like that hideous thing that eats crabās nervous systems than a cancer, only he does governments.
Yeesh, Iām not sure exactly what youāre referring to there, but Iām pretty sure I donāt want to know, as long as it sticks to crabs.
Itās not pretty. I mean, yadda, yadda, āterrifying Australian faunaā jokes and all, but no. You donāt. It also ruins perfectly delicious crabs, so it does impinge on humans somewhat.
