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Turnbull jumps the shark

Millionaire Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was asked, as he and his Kaminski-millinered wife Lucy served a few Xmas lunches to people doing it tough, about the death on Xmas eve of Faysal Ishak Ahmed, 26, a refugee held illegally on Manus Island by the Turnbull government.

Mr Ahmed had been ill for some time. According to his friend, Abdul Aziz Adam, he was repeatedly turned away from the IHMS clinic on Manus by nurses who accused him of “pretending” to be ill. After collapsing, Mr Ahmed was flown to the Royal Brisbane Hospital, where he subsequently died of his imaginary illnesses.

“The system is designed to kill us one by one,” Mr Adam said on learning of his friend’s death. This is an observation with which I entirely concur.

It is remarkable enough that the Turnbulls’ chose to exploit underprivileged citizens by using their Xmas day as a photo opportunity. It’s not as if the PM is particularly concerned about their fate, having slashed the very funding that holds at least the possibility of relief to homeless people, those whose lives are in chaos as a consequence of domestic violence, disabled people, pensioners, the unemployed and those of us unfortunate enough to struggle with illness. Actually, the only demographic the PM does look upon with tender concern is bankers, mine owners and the otherwise wealthy.

However, when the PM was asked at this occasion about the death of Mr Ahmed, an innocent man who had been declared by the UN to be a refugee, he defiantly replied that he stood by his government’s policy to protect our borders and stop deaths at sea.

Quite why refugees have to live miserable lives and die in their twenties in order to protect Australia’s borders remains a dark mystery to me.

Quite why it is entirely immoral to let people die at sea, but entirely moral to let them rot and die on land also remains one of life’s even darker mysteries.

The lie (let us not sugar-coat by using the term ‘post-truth’) the lie that asylum seekers and refugees who arrive here by boat have committed a crime, continues to be the foundation of and justification for successive Australian governments’ murderous policies. This lie is invoked at every turn to justify denial of medical treatment, detention in inhumane conditions, denial of human rights, and destruction of all hope. We do not do these things to convicted murderers and rapists. We strongly disapprove of those who do these things to animals, and when anyone is caught ill-treating animals there is an outcry, sometimes even by Liberals.

What Turnbull accomplished on Xmas day was a staggering performance of hypocrisy that I doubt he will be able to trump in the coming year. In one half hour, from the lofty heights of political position and personal wealth, Turnbull acted out a ghastly and perverted imitation of Christ’s publicly washing the feet of the poor as a lesson in humility to the arrogant.

Turnbull “humbly” served lunch to the very people he victimises. He then instructed the rest of us to “hug” them.

At the same time, he refused to acknowledge that his government’s policies have murdered yet another refugee, who came to us seeking sanctuary from murderers in his homeland.

I think Turnbull’s jumped the shark. Anything that follows can only be pale imitation and dull repetition.

This article was originally published on No Place For Sheep.

 

48 comments

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  1. Susan

    RIP Faysal Ishak Ahmed ?

  2. Terry2

    “He (Turnbull) defiantly replied that he stood by his government’s policy to protect our borders and stop deaths at sea”

    We must get beyond this political rhetoric and focus on the problem at hand and that is the fact that these people have been detained for over three years for purely ideological reasons and settling them in Australia would have no impact whatsoever on border security or deaths at sea : remember we have a ‘ring of steel’ ships and aircraft turning back boats that venture into our waters.

    The Manus situation is a disaster and has been found to be unconstitutional under PNG law and if there was an effective rule of law on Nauru, the situation would be the same there.

    We have been lied to constantly : Dutton has told us that these people are not in detention, that they can wander freely when the detention centre gates are open between dawn and dusk. The fact that they may be attacked and have rocks thrown at them he fails to mention. He has told us that they have been resettled – on Manus and Nauru – and that the problem is not ours, that we deflected the responsibility under the Rudd initiated memorandums of understanding – yes, Labor have been complicit in bringing about this disaster. He has spurned the offers made by New Zealand, to break the impasse and resettle some of these people, adopting the spurious argument that they may, in time, become New Zealand citizens, and seek their right to visit Australia as is the right of any New Zealand citizen. He has vindictively sought to have legislation passed that would never permit these people to visit Australia no matter what citizenship they ultimately take up.

    As a matter of principle and human decency we must resettle these people urgently – less than 2000 over the two island camps – and close these camps forever.

  3. metadatalata

    If Turnbull is defiantly standing by his government’s policy of inhuman treatment of refugees, then he should be held equally responsible for Faysal’s death. I look forward to justice being served on these biggoted racists that make these decisions to harm innocent people for no other reason than to teach the rest of us a lesson.

  4. Carol Taylor

    What sort of perversion is that? The death of Mr. Ahmed is “keeping our borders safe”. Is Turnbull suggesting that his government’s failure to provide adequate medical assistance which has resulted in deaths on both Manus and Nauru is deliberate? That it acts as “a deterrent” to “protect our borders” and “prevent deaths at sea”. If so, then this is nothing more than murder, cold and deliberate.

  5. wam

    Outrageous when you consider what politicians did for these children
    May 6, 2016 – Toddler fights for life after being turned away from Sydney hospital .
    Little Malakai Matui Paraone aug 2016, THE grieving parents of a baby boy who died days after he was sent home from two Perth hospitals and a doctor’s surgery say they want answers over his death.
    woolongong Dec 12, 2016 – A TODDLER suffering a life-threatening condition was turned away from hospital
    perhaps the answer fits your descriptions of ‘mystery’?

  6. Deanna Jones

    That pic of TBull pretending to give a shit, the insipid grin, enough to make you want to hurl your mince pies. The audacity of the man. Has the length of his visit been reported? I bet he didn’t peel any prawns. Wayside should have sent him packing.

  7. Jaquix

    Spot on Jennifer. Turnbull’s “defiant” answer to the question is just another version of Abbott’s “Shit happens”. He should have then been asked by the journalist the question you posed “Quite why refugees have to live miserable lives and die in their twenties in order to protect Australia’s borders remains a dark mystery to me – can you explain this to Australians please?” The latest polls show an over 5% swing away from the Federal LNP in Queensland which would result in the loss of 8 seats. Depending of course on how Ms Hanson goes, and where her preferences go. I hope people realise that a vote for Hanson is going to go to the Liberals, she has already voted with them 83% of the time in this parliament.

  8. lawrencewinder

    …and given that most of this ruling rabble’s front bench is Catlic, one can only gape in wonder at the ethical and moral hypocrisy of these faux Xtians.

  9. judith bell

    I tried to donate, but I have no idea what my paypal account is and it will not accept my visa, but would still like to donate?

  10. SGB

    Two subjects here, each quite seperate.

    1. What hypocracy, that Turnbull felt he could display with impunity was absolutely gob smacking, particularly (if true?) it was reported that he, and his wife’s, hypocrisy was puncted by them leaving the task once the media left?
    My disgust, at him doing this, whilst cutting services to these unfortunate citizens, left me speachless.
    But the very real possibility that it was just a photo opportunity, has left me angry to the boiling point.

    2. As for the death of this poor refugee, cleared as a genuine refugee, I have to hope that the repeated seeking medical assistance and his death are in fact proven in court and this weakling, known as the Australian prime minister, is held accountable in the Hague.
    Unfortunately I have little hope that accountability will be forthcoming.

    Note:- ‘prime minister’ is deliberately used in lower case as a sign of my level of respect for Turnbull, as is the fact that I will never ever use the title of Mister in front of his surname.
    What a disgusting, weak, pathetic wafler we have as a pm.

  11. helvityni

    Excellent post, Jennifer, what Dutton and Turnbull allowed to happen ,is inhumane; they KNEW Ahmed was ill for months. Unforgivable.

  12. Florence nee Fedup

    PM told us the day before that he would be dropping down to the Wayside Chapel Christmas Day. How long did he stay?
    Rudd tur5ned up each year without no cameras. Big difference.
    Keating summed Turnbull up, when he said the man had no political nous. Doesn’t have any concept that words have reactions.

  13. Roswell

    Judith, if you email The AIMN admin someone should be able to help you with that matter. There’s a ‘Contact Us’ section up top through which you can email them.

  14. hforward22

    You are so right Jennifer. Respect for Turnbull couldn’t possibly drop any further than this. Disgusted and appalled.

  15. w ch

    Excellent article Jennifer. Incisive, cutting and not overly wordy. Good effort. Turnbull did use the under privileged as a photo opportunity.

  16. The AIM Network

    Thanks Roswell. You beat us to it.

  17. brickbob

    Abbott did the same thing with his fireman Sam routine,lights camera action,go Tony as he runs towards a pretend fire with his fire gear on,then once the camera stops it’s back into the com car and he’s gone.
    Turnbull,lights camera action””””””” hold plate for homeless person with a smile on your face,look genuine like you really care,show homeless person with a grateful look on their face,stop camera,wash hands just in case,back into com car with Lucy ready to lunch with family, fully catered of course at a cost of $10000, job done.

    ps Check photographs next day in paper,and television and radio stations as well for maximum advantage.”””””””””

  18. kerri

    Carol Taylor! Spot on! Why the MSM never questions the ludicrous responses to questions asked about offshore detention. As a retired teacher I would severely upbraid any student whose answer bears so little relevance to the question asked.
    Also the belief of these toffs is that, like royalty, their very presence will have an uplifting effect on the masses.
    Similar to their belief in their capabilities as a ruling class.
    Just them being in power should be enough to make the rabble happy and the country get along swimmingly.
    After all, they are the superior beings here.

  19. Michael Faulkner

    The LNP government 16 years ago declared war on asylum seekers, which makes those incarcerated for 3- 4 years now on Manus Island and Nauru, effectively, prisoners of war.

    However these same persecuted people on these islands are also political prisoners, as the Australian Government, locked into its brutal ideology. The government’s narrative is such that it needs to have some asylum seekers incarcerated in these gulags, for local political consumption as it stokes fear in Australians, as well as presumptively being a ‘ deterrent ‘ to the millions of asylum seekers breathlessly waiting to clamber on to boats to come to this country.

    Perhaps we need to start referring to the detained asylum seekers as ‘ political prisoners’, for that is precisely what they are.

    Thus when Turnbull states that he stands by the policy designed to protect borders and stop deaths at sea, he is effectively saying deaths at Manus and Nauru are just periodic incidental collateral damage, an unfortunate by-product to the strength and righteousness of LNP policies, events out-sourced to the corporations running these centres and for which the ‘arms-length’ government takes no responsibility.

    When almost $500,000 dollars is spent on incarcerating each off-shore asylum seeker annually, and within this budget, grossly inadequate health care is provided to the extent that people die, we begin to understand the true persecutory nature of the torture that the detainees endure.

    I agree with your sentiments entirely Jennifer. Turnbull demonstrates a breathtaking level of hypocrisy.

  20. Florence nee Fedup

    The real arrogance is Dutton saying they won’t be answering anymore questions. Real copper rection. Answers will be governed by need to know.

    Sorry Dutton, you don’t have that luxury. You are no longer a copper but a MP answerable to the voter. We decide what the questions are. You answer. You will be held accountable.

    Dutton when did you decide it wasn’t your duty to notify the family. PNG is not responsible for the death, you are.

  21. Steve Laing - makeourvoiceheard.com

    Until these politicians understand that they might be called to account for their actions (or inactions) for the people who are under their care, nothing will change. Like Pilate, Malcolm has simply washed his hands over Dutton’s inaction.

    But will any other politician from either Coalition or Labor condemn it? Unfortunately I doubt it. Another life wasted on an issue truly blown up out of all proportion as a means of wedging the other side. And that is the real tragedy.

  22. Keitha Granville

    now we can see the reason behind giving the refugee centres to a private company – they can be blamed for the deaths, and government hands are clean. Sounds like Pontius Pilate washing the blood of Jesus off his hands – it wasn’t my fault.

  23. Jennifer Wilson

    Thanks for your comments everyone. The other matter that hardly gets a mention is the 30,000 + refugees who arrived by boat, currently in Australia on all manner of restrictive visas, who have no idea what their future will be.

  24. jamess

    There will be a federal election in 2017 and the idiot supposedly in charge will resign.

  25. David1

    A disgusting act of opportunism by Turnbull merely to try and resuscitate his dead reputation. Failed again, merely added to the contempt in which he and his Mrs are held. I find it so difficult to comprehend how they continue to put their personal ambition and need for adoration, over and above the welfare of the countries middle and low income earners, the sick, the children, those seeking our protection from war torn countries.
    The cloak of phonyism will never disguise his true intent

  26. Möbius Ecko

    According to the latest polls Turnbull has managed something no other Liberal leader has, he’s alienated senior voters.

    Like rural voters in an anomaly I have never understood, seniors vote L-NP against their best interests, but it seems for the first time this is changing. The last group the Liberals can afford to enlighten about their duplicity against them is an ageing voter base, yet this is what Turnbull has done.

    By the way, the week before Xmas I got an automated phone call from Turnbull assuring me my future pension was safe and the change he was implementing only affected a tiny fraction of pensioners. He told me the stories of his government taking away from pensioners were false. This was obviously an attempt to circumvent what happened with Labor’s justifiable attacks on his Medicare policy, which he continues to destroy by whittling away bits at a time. Exactly what Labor said he would do.

    So why should pensioners now believe what he says when he’s already whittled away one bit of their pension, just as he’s whittled away at Medicare when he promised it would not be touched.

  27. totaram

    “He (Turnbull) defiantly replied that he stood by his government’s policy to protect our borders and stop deaths at sea”

    1. This chap was clearly not at sea.

    2. He had not died at sea, so what was the benefit he died a while later?

    Why do people just accept his answer and not ask the next question?

  28. nurses1968

    Möbius Ecko
    As I mentioned on an earlier comment the poll indicates more oldies are beginnng to dislike Malcolm but the worrying part of the same poll is

    ” The government, however, has posted a 1.6 point gain among voters aged 18 to 34 and held its position among voters aged from 35 to 49.”

  29. Max Gross

    “…from the lofty heights of political position and personal wealth, Turnbull acted out a ghastly and perverted imitation of Christ’s publicly washing the feet of the poor as a lesson in humility to the arrogant.” Brilliant! And nauseating.

  30. Michael

    SGB – your 2.

    2(a) I would have thought that all those in Faysal Ishak Ahmed’s duty-of-care-loop, from the ground up, would value his life above a neo human-construct surrender-of-decency and accountability scheme – I for one would donate to a legal fund to defend one or all in the loop if they took (collective) action to be counted where our cowardly politicians can/will not – surely any prospect of 2 years is worth less than saving what is an innocent life.

    2(b) Your mention of the Hague – surely enough is enough – a crowd funding effort?

    Labor – for the sake of (self) respect (politics is not perfect) – (1) lesson from history (or benefit of 20/20 vision hindsight or begetting of wisdom) – admit being sucked into the bottom of the abbott barrel in the fabricated confusion of the time and not leading on principle (2) highlight your 1 year interim term of your policy which the LNP tormentors delight in more than tripling and (3) stand as an example for humanity and leave (hammer) the LNP (and their misled supporters) to the bottom of their barrel.

    AIMN – should any photo from MSM particularly from the news camp be qualified?

    Nauru and Manus #notinmynameaus

  31. crypt0

    “The government, however, has posted a 1.6 point gain among voters aged 18 to 34 and held its position among voters aged from 35 to 49.”
    WTF is wrong with Oz voters ???
    Of ALL bloody ages ?
    They had the obvious example of the abbott/turnbull “govt.” in front of them … and went ahead and re-elected them !
    Now this.
    Perhaps turnbull/abbott and co. are an accurate reflection of the population these days … or at the very least, 51%.
    Good luck Australia.

  32. david

    Did anybody else hear the ignorant, arrogant prick waffling on during the FM radio cricket broadcast, during lunch (or tea) break on Boxing Day? Sheezes, this ponce is Australias’ Prime Minister? Slime Minister would be more accurate description. Disgusting.As bad as abbott ever was!

  33. MichaelW

    Jumped the shark? Shame he wasn’t eaten by it.

    Politicians don’t seem to get it, there would be no need for photo shoots of these morons serving meals to the down and out if they spent money rectifying the problem. But oh no we will give tax breaks to companies that pay little or no tax. The trickle down effect will fix everything. That yellow smelly liquid dribbling down on the down and out from the tax cheats above.

    Earlier I tried to post comments on one of the Murdoch rags (no pay wall on this particular page, why would you pay for that shit?) the comments about refugees and their families were unbelievable, my comments of course were rejected.

  34. MichaelW

    judith bell, I donated via paypal, a while ago still waiting for a thank-you.(would be nice) mmm. Maybe I’m being cynical or expecting too much, or maybe the Aimn doesn’t give out thank-you emails.

  35. Deanna Jones

    MichaelW, “jumping the shark” just means doing something desperate for attention when things are, well, desperate. When the tv show, Happy Days, was dying a slow death, they wrote in this weird episode in which the main sleaze bag, Fonzie, very un characteristically accepted a challenge to water ski jump over a shark. This was to boost ratings; I don’t know if it did, but this is where the expression originated. A cartoonist or youtube editor could have had fun with the latest TBull stunt.

  36. Arthur Tarry

    Politicians are always ready for a stage managed photo opportunity. They don’t seem to realise that such things are a cause for the abject level of respect they have. Do they really think the electorate is so dumb?

  37. Jeffrey Passlow

    I think that most, perhaps all, of what I have been thinking has been said. The LNP are the ones who are responsible NOW, Labor is complicit, so at age 71 I have joined a political party, for the first time, that will probably never form a government in its own right, certainly in my lifetime. The party has a conscience, stands up for refugees and actively advocates settlement of those on Manus and Nauru in Australia. Some, those who know nothing better, are aghast at the idea of joining the Greens. They may not have all the answers but as I have said, they have a conscience AND listen to the voters.

  38. abbienoiraude

    Hypocrisy thy name is Turnbull ( and wife).

    We ask ‘why’ this and ‘why’ that….Why don’t the Australian people see through all this. Why doesn’t the ALP stand up and shout the truth and expose themselves as a party with a beating heart and integrity?

    1 MSM = Murdochrisy= The bastard child of Australia who now wraps himself in the American flag and pulls the strings of the Antipodean southern island.

    2 When we had a PM who said; “Enough” and started the #BringThemHere humanity scheme, he was damned, blasted, vilified and destroyed even by his own Party. What a weak and nasty people we are to be so easily diverted back to a lie of ‘deaths at sea’.
    The people who pay and board boats to find their way to ask for Asylum in Australia do so by choice and aware of the chances just as fisherpersons who fish from rocks, or climb into a boat loaded with beer on a hot day, or jump from the top of a waterfall, or ride a surfboard at the break of day/at dusk knowing ‘there be sharks’…or who dive into a creek or river not checking the depth or the dangers beneath…examples flow for lesser reasons to ‘take a chance’ than to flee horror toward an imagined future for yourself and family!

    3 Australians have never been so educated or have information so readily available to them in its history and yet the half thinking don’t bother to check facts or the stories of the real people being treated so abominably by we ‘The People’ via our ambitious arrogant and selfish, greedy politicians.
    Reading, hearing, seeing the stories of our Asylum Seekers seems to not resonate with the populace. Why?

    4 Keep ‘The People’ worried about themselves, frightened for the now, the future, trrsts, conflict…fearful of ‘the other’, selfishly joining the ranks of the nasty neoliberals (or so they think), looking forever inward, with downward jealousy encouraged by a Politicians who manipulate for their own (so called) survival.

    Makes me sick how pathetic, how narcissistic, how self interested, how manipulated, how stupid, how cruel we have become.
    Back in my dad’s day he had a ‘belief’ that what the Germans were doing whilst he was fighting them in Greece and Crete could never be done by ‘Good British Stock’ or by any Australian, because ( he thought) ‘we are different.’
    Glad he is now dead so he cannot see what the Nation he fought for and suffered the rest of his life because of that experience has become especially under the auspices of his beloved ‘Country Party’ ( National Party).

    Damn and blast.
    I look to The Hague for relief.

  39. Florence nee Fedup

    Please can someone tell PM one doesn’t handled the food. One allows people to remove it from the tray themselves.

  40. Michael

    He did not have his bow tie on!

  41. Florence nee Fedup

    So right. Maybe he doesn’t know? Doesn’t seem to have many skills. Brought up in his father’s pub and farms one would expect more.

    Attending boarding school from 8, one would think he had chance to learn.

  42. helvityni

    Oh, Florence, I thought the same: he’s spreading germs when he condescendingly hands a poor man ‘a gift’ of a lousy kebab.

  43. Jennifer Meyer-Smith

    Turnbull’s cynical and blatant hypocrisy is his way of attempting to de-sensitise the Australian People to identify the division between right and wrong.

    What better way than using Christmas Day and the Poor to play out his sick joke, in the guise of the anti-Christ?

  44. kerri

    Florence and Helvityni I noticed that too but wondered if it was just him protecting the poor from over indulgence? You know, can’t let them have too much of a good thing! They might get used to it?

  45. Wayne Turner

    His total transformation into a better speaking Abbott is complete.

    Tony Turnbull is he.

  46. MichaelW

    Did Turnbull give five dollars to each of the down and outs?

    Wayne Turner, Tony Turnbull is dead right. Although the way he is waffling lately not sure if he is a better speaker than Abbott.
    At least you could get a daily laugh out of our Tones, Turnbull just makes me cringe.

  47. ace Jones

    Why didnt they show Turnbull at the Mining/Bussiness xmas party serving up wholesale tax exemptions to all in sundry!
    Fancy having had your xmas lunch served up by a Turd on Legs and being told ‘ This is as good as the “Trickle Down ” regime gets for serfs!’ …

  48. helvityni

    “At least you could get a daily laugh out of our Tones, Turnbull just makes me cringe.”

    Michael, totally agree; not that I liked Tones, but Malturn has been a greater disappointment, I foolishly expected better of him….and I knew what Tones was like before he became our PM…

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