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Boat People
In one of the stranger afternoon Christmas announcements by the Government (see above) late yesterday the office of Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor announced that cruise ships would now be able to visit Christmas Island.
That’s right, the destination for hundreds of asylum seekers can now be accessed in luxury aboard the Pacific Sun Cruise Ship.
Upon receiving this yesterday The Punch had to make sure that it wasn’t a joke. Check out some of these lines in the release:
Continue reading "Visit Christmas Island this Christmas says P&O" »
One of my all time favourite arguments against allowing asylum seekers into this country is ‘this is a Christian nation.’ To which I say, What Would Jesus Do my Christian friend?
As the full scope of Australia’s fear and loathing is on display after Indonesian authorities opened fire on a boat full of Afghan asylum seekers and Courier Mail readers responded with applause, I think it’s time we reflect on what was done to asylum seekers in our name in the years between 2000 and 2008.
I doubt this will have any effect whatsoever on those who cheer the shooting of Afghans who have fled the tyranny in their homelands, but that’s because there are two types of people in this world - those on the side of human rights and those who would pick up a gun against their fellow humans and carry out acts of cruelty.
Continue reading "Fear and loathing in the Land Down Under" »
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Lisa says:
This fear of asylum seeker is a perfect example of Australia’s racism. there is one world. There is one human race, the boundaries between countries are man-made and mean nothing. Anyone should be allowed to go anywhere they want on the earth. We all live here, and if someone needs… Read more »
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Sam says:
Rebecca, thanks for an excellent post! I totally agree. Read more »
Here are the eight inconvenient truths in the ongoing conversation on boat people over the last weeks and months in The Punch.
The first inconvenient truth relates to the claim that Australia can’t handle an influx of refugees, and we shouldn’t be forced to because we already take so many. In the face of the kind of suffering, and the numbers involved, in refugee camps around the world, and given the extent of our wealth, Australians could take many more – thousands more – refugees than we do. We would need far better integration programs, but we have the wealth that should allow us to provide these too. We could also afford a far more generous, even if better targeted, refugee aid program, especially with our South East Asian neighbours.
The defence of popular opposition to greater refugee intake in this regard is the morally unsustainable defence of a privileged country that refuses to take its own values, and what are arguably its international moral obligations, seriously.
Continue reading "The eight inconvenient truths on boat people" »
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Richard Ure says:
And better still not to reward politicians with high office for beating up a fear of people who arrive by boat rather than those who arrive with an entrance fee to a shonky school. Read more »
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bowie (Margareet Chaldecott) says:
One problem is placement - governments seem to think no one should live beyond the 2 or 3 large cities, and they make life difficult for people who would prefer to live ‘outside’ - train is removed, industries closed down, hospitals lack staff, schools don’t function - but these people… Read more »
Immigration has held a special place in the fears of many Australians but the figures tell a different story to that told by Liberal MP Kevin Andrews in his recent post on The Punch.
The data on asylum seekers and refugees in particular provides some much needed perspective on the current national debate.
When Mr Andrews informed Punch readers of the latest migration figures of 173,290 permanent migrants, he neglected to mention that in the last year of the Howard Government the number of permanent migrants to Australia reached 184,438.
Continue reading "Counterpunch: the figures on refugees tell the story" »
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Andrew Smith says:
Population figures are artifically high, and based on recent arrivals who may have applied for permanent, or temporary residency up to three years ago…..during boom times. Credible population projection for 2050 is 28 million from the Population Reference Group basedon ABS data. Raw population data includes long term WHV tourists… Read more »
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Craig says:
For those who advocate open borders. When do you say enough? - factoring in cultural impact upon host society (the Australia that exists now would be radically changed and along with that, institutions which keep our nation stable, our (your) way of life.), infrastructure, environment (water anyone? - carbon emissions?… Read more »
I missed the last week of Parliament during the ongoing debate concerning boat people.
I was in Uganda at a board meeting of my favorite charity Watoto, a charity that rescues abandoned children and babies and gives them hope and a future.
I’ve been going to Africa every year for many years working with some of the poorest people on earth.
Continue reading "Refugees are dying while they wait in the queue" »
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KW says:
Thanks DG, Appreciate that you took the time to read & respond. Even if we don’t quite see eye to eye! Read more »
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paul says:
@marley no mate, you are simplistic and naive. Do you know where the massive amounts of money came from to support an extended Tamil campaign came from? Australia is on the list -google it. Just as Aussies and Americans funded the IRA back in the day -google it too. And… Read more »
If Malcolm Turnbull doesn’t sit Wilson Tuckey down on his comments about terrorists aboard asylum seeker boats he’s effectively endorsing the increasingly maverick MP’s comments.
In a door stop just now the Opposition Leader opted out of criticisng the Member for O’Connor’s assertion this morning that people coming here on boats could actually be terrorists.
``If you wanted to get into Australia and you have bad intentions, what do you do?’’ Mr Tuckey asked reporters in Canberra. “You insert yourself in a crowd of 100 for which there is great sympathy for the other 99. You go on a system where nobody brings their papers, you have no identity, you have no address.’‘
Mr Turnbull’s response: “Well he’s not the Prime Minister of Australia.”
Continue reading "Is Tuckey just Turnbull’s dog whistle on boat people?" »
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Paul Prentice says:
By pass that disgusting ideology “POLITICAL CORRECTNESS” and Wilson Tuckey is right in what he says, its easy to see what politicians are working for Australia’s interests now, and see who is licking the backside of that communist regime the United Nations Read more »
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Mike J says:
Tory, you look a lot older than twelve. Put the lid back on what can of worms? Precious Rudd-lovers like you try to distort everything in Rudd’s favour. How does pointing out there could be 1 terrorist among 100 illegals mean they could (or are) ALL be terrorists? You’ll be… Read more »
It is with some alarm that I have seen the national political debate turn towards border protection in recent days. Like the debates that have preceded this one – myth appears to transcend the deep human dimension that is missed in the daily headlines.
There is no doubt that the current policies may need to be reviewed but this does not abdicate our responsibility as a state and nation to look after those who have come from circumstances that we cannot begin to comprehend.
In my community I spent a bit of time getting to know an “asylum seeker” who left Sierra Leone in the hope that he could make a better life for his family.
Continue reading "This inhumane response belittles us as a nation" »
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Peter of Adelaide says:
I have read most of the posts here and some have made good points, and some have mad bad points. We turn away people because they are an unknown, all could be seeking asylum for whatever reason, or as Wilson Tucky inferred there *might* be a terrorist among them, we… Read more »
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paulh says:
these asylum seekers,tear up their paperwork and illegaly pay to come here by boat.We already allow in more people than most through the correct channels,this bunch should go through the correct channels.A migrant from the uk has to prove he can financially support himself and his family,these ilegal immigrants get… Read more »
What would you do if you had fled halfway across the world to save your life, and ended up in a hot, urine-smelling demountable prison building, surrounded by security guards?
What if you didn’t speak the language and your jailers couldn’t be bothered organising an interpreter, leaving you effectively mute?For a Somalian woman at Christmas Island, this isn’t a hypothetical. This is real life.
On my recent trip to the island I met this woman, wandering around the Construction Camp – where women and families are housed - in a daze, clearly distressed, with no way of talking to authorities and no way of understanding what was happening to her.
Continue reading "Mr Rudd, asylum seekers are real people" »
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Barbara Johnstone says:
On of the comments here is why not stay in one of the countries that they passed through to get here. Also, my children (15&18;) say to me that they are worried that there are too many refugees here and what is going to happen to them in the years… Read more »
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Danny says:
Dan, it’s the carrying capacity of the _planet_ that matters for humans as a species. And accepting refugees doesn’t change the population of the planet. Read more »
There’s nothing like the perceived threat of invasion to stir up Australians’ fears.
In many ways, it’s an irrational fear when you consider that historically Australia has been relatively untouched by war or major conflict on home soil and its ocean-swathed borders offer a higher degree of protection unlike land-locked countries such as Afghanistan and many of Africa’s trouble spots.
No, in Australia’s case, it’s not war but the asylum seeker peril that drives our terror of foreign incursion.
Continue reading "Boat people debate has lost no heat from Tampa days" »
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Paul says:
What is now several thousand is no longer just a tiny fraction. We are simply sending the wrong message. Come by boat we will take you. Blow up your boat, we will take you. Deliberately sink your boat and phone in an SOS, we will take you. If these people… Read more »
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davido says:
I have a lot of sympathy for the argument that genuine (i.e. non-economic refugees) will flee to the nearest country. Why arent those Tamil refugees going to Tamil nadu in India? Same language, same culture - - - so what is the real issue here? At the same time, we… Read more »
Many a battle has been lost because generals were caught fighting the last war in the new one.
Perhaps this goes some way to explaining Labor’s rhetorical bluster on border protection.
In just one interview in Adelaide this week, Kevin Rudd used the terms “tough’’ and “hard-line’’ over and over again and repeatedly declared the Government made ``no apology’’ for its hairy chested approach to boat people.
Continue reading "My name is Kevin Rudd, and I’m just like John Howard" »
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Karen says:
their are 85 thousand homeless people in Australia thanks to kevin rudd and his way or the highway approch . of bringing in four thousand immigrants a week no wonder thir is no beds in hospitals. no places left for four year old kindergarden shortage of housing thousands… Read more »
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BC says:
Howard - principles and achievement. Rudd - no principles and no achievement. Similar, I don’t think so. Read more »
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