And whilst we’re on the topic of boats..
This morning I read a rather insightful and emotive article on Australia’s new and highly controversial position on asylum seekers. And when I say Australia’s, I mean Kevin Rudd’s. The article is written by one of The Age’s senior writer/editors, Warwick McFadyen, and was retweeted by our surprisingly tech-savvy former PM, Malcolm Fraser, which was how I stumbled upon it.
https://twitter.com/MalcolmFraser12/status/361264818239455233
It highlights the abhorrent lack of empathy the current government seems to foster when they all sit down in caucus to discuss their next vote-swaying policy approach to asylum seekers.
McFadyen accurately pinpoints a common line of inference in government advertisement:
We now spend our time trying to slay this monster, conveniently ignoring the fact that while we merge enemy and monster into the one object of condemnation, we diminish ourselves. Those who risk their lives and the lives of their children by becoming hostages of fortune on the capricious seas and in leaky boats are not the enemy. Yet we put ourselves on war footing against their invasion.
I do not disagree with the hypothesis that this policy will theoretically deter people smugglers, and slowly stem the influx of leaky boats braving Australia’s unforgiving northern coastlines. I can see the logic behind it, and I can appreciate the lengths that Prime Minister Rudd is going to in order to spare these people a seemingly guaranteed death at sea.
I am also not suggesting that Prime Minister Rudd has no concern for the lives of these asylum seekers when formulating ALP policies, nor that he is an emotionally-devoid, vote-obsessed excuse for a human being, like some of the media would have you believe.
I do not agree, however, with the fact that under this policy, none of these people will ever be settled within Australia’s borders. It seems a very hardline approach to a growing faction of vulnerable and desperate people who simply seek the shelter of a safe harbour after being displaced by the endless conflict and bloodshed of their home states.
Have these people not suffered enough?
Surely Mr Fraser’s proposal of an Australian offshore processing facility in Indonesia, maintained with United Nations’ oversight, is a much more humane and forgiving alternative?
