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Paul Keating said: 'Governments that wander along uncertain about where they are, looking over their shoulder, invariably get run over themselves.' If Labor doesn't stop looking over its shoulder on asylum seekers, it will miss another opportunity to stand up for what it says it believes in.
The reintroduction of the Complementary Protection Bill to Parliament this week ought be welcomed. Given the protests in Christmas Island, it is clear that the mandatory detention policy is also overdue for reform.
SIEV X survivor Amal Basry died of cancer in 2006. By then she had received her permanent visa and was able to return to see her children, grandchildren and father in the Middle East one more time. When she returned, she expressed a wish to be buried in Australian soil.
Let's hope Wednesday's tragic events are not exploited for political advantage. We remember those who died and offer prayers and condolences for their families. For the living, they need to be treated with dignity.
'Karim' is calling every second day now. His protection visa application was lodged six months ago and he was interviewed four months later. He was brutally tortured in his home country and has lived with debilitating trauma ever since. He now thinks his case will be refused because of the long delays in processing.
According to the Coalition, 'bad refugees' who come on boats take places that could otherwise go to 'good refugees' who wait patiently in camps. Labelling refugees as 'good' or 'bad' according to how they arrive in Australia reflects an insular opinion that does not reflect what is happening worldwide.
Every day, Australians face north and scan the horizon. Has another boat arrived? But if our politicians and journalists want to see asylum seekers living in poor conditions, they need to look closer to home.
The idea of a regional processing centre for asylum seekers requires a lot of detailed diplomatic work. If Gillard is elected Prime Minister, it could be Kevin Rudd's first test as Foreign Minister. Whoever is elected, and wherever such a centre is located, it will not be East Timor.
As the election lather on the asylum seeker issue continues, let's ask, 'Why is it right to treat the honest, unvisaed boat person more harshly than the visaed airplane passenger who fails to declare their intention to apply for asylum?'
The Coalition's new asylum seeker policy returns to the policy it put into practice under Mr Howard, adding new nasties. The Government's asylum seeker policy is bad; the Coalition's is worse. It is designed to appeal to human baseness, not to human generosity.
The Howard years made me feel ashamed to be Australian, and I felt about his electoral defeat the way East Germans felt about the Berlin Wall coming down: as a kind of cleansing. Rudd disappoints for a different reason.
181-192 out of 200 results.