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Day to Day Politics: A Government devoid of compassion.

Tuesday 29 August 2017

1 A Government that deserts its duty of care for humans in its charge is one that is devoid of a moral compass that includes basic decency. That an Australian Government could possibly do what it now proposes is really beyond any acceptable standard of Australian governance. Shame, Turnbull shame. Shame, Dutton shame.

Yesterday your Government evicted 100 Australia-based asylum seekers onto the street. In doing so it told these individuals who have been receiving $100 a week to support themselves that they, in future, will receive nothing from the Government.

These are people who for one reason or another have needed medical treatment in Australia. Had the figure been 300 then the public would have been none the wiser. That being so and the boats have not restarted then, by inference, doesn’t it prove that it is possible to resettle people in Australia with little fuss?

They will have three weeks to move out of government supported accommodation and find a place to live and support themselves. This may include a pregnant woman transferred to Australia from offshore detention for medical reasons.

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection will issue dozens of asylum seekers with a new visa known as the “final departure Bridging E Visa”.

“You will be expected to support yourself in the community until departing Australia,”

There it is in a leaked Immigration Department’s letter:

“From Monday 28 August you will need to find money each week for your own accommodation costs. From this date, you will also be responsible for all your other living costs like food, clothing and transport. You are expected to sign the Code of Behaviour when you are released into the Australian community. The Code of Behaviour outlines how you are to behave in the community.”

Their cruelty is beyond description and leaves little doubt as to their intentions. They want these asylum seekers back on Nauru or Manus, or better still back to their land of birth. They are prepared to place a burden of depraved inhumanity on them to get their way. Remember, these asylum seekers have committed no crime yet have been sentenced to a lifetime of incarceration.

Opposition Shadow spoksperson Richard Myles was on News 24 last Sunday reinforcing the principle that they must be prevented from settling in Australia at any cost. The Government must find 3rd country settlements, he said. He also knows that in Government Labor would be hard pressed find other countries to take them. It’s a shared problem.

They have been trying to do that for over four years – at a high cost and no takers. Both parties know that if the US doesn’t do what it said it would, then they will have to go somewhere. Whatever happens there will be a large number of people without a home who will have to be housed.

On Monday Bill Shorten said that:

“These people should be eligible for settlement in the United States or other countries in our region – so they have a permanent home. This act has nothing to do with strong borders or stopping people smugglers. It’s a weak Prime Minister trying to look tough. That’s it.”

Two points: 1) He too knows the difficulty of resettlement, and 2) he is correct to say that Malcolm Turnbull is trying to look tough. Who would have, before he became Prime Minister, considered that he was capable of such inhumanity to his fellow humans. Power does indeed do strange things to people. The facade of Christian grace has worn thin.

Crystal logic would tell you that there are three options: 1) they are returned to Australia in total, 2) America takes some and the balance are returned to Australia, or 3) they are left to rot on Nauru for the remainder of their lives at great expense and shame.

Let’s face it, if after four years another country has not offered to take them it’s hardly likely to happen soon.

The callous Immigration Minister Dutton wants to put these poor people through the most excruciating experiences in order to get them out of the country. He wants them to return to the danger from whence they fled.

“The sensible and compassionate thing to do would be to let them stay. Instead, Dutton is trying to starve them out,” said Daniel Webb, a lawyer at Human Rights Law Centre.

Dutton, in an interview with Alan Jones described lawyers acting pro bono for the asylum seekers as “un Australian”. I would have thought the reverse applied. That Dutton himself was about as “un Australian” as any Australian could possibly be.

Asylum seekers subject to the new visa conditions will be reminded that they are free to leave Australia at any time to return either to their home country or the offshore processing centres on Nauru or Manus Island.

A friend on Facebook, Madeleine Ogilvie had this to say:

”What an appalling, incorrect and downright rude statement. As a lawyer who represented asylum seekers I categorically reject Mr Duttons nonsense. He does not get to tell us that caring for people is unaustralian. Many of these lawyers are acting pro-bono and good on them! While I’m at it – the people of Australia are completely capable of working out the difference between border protection issues and humanitarian issues. Conflating these two things was the start of the big picture challenges we’ve got now. The detention islands are a deep embarrassment to all of us. It just can’t go on any longer.”

The Hand

The hand is extended
To those who are but poor
The hand is outstretched
To those who have no more

The hand seeks the ill
Without the means to pay
It is its obligation
When society has a say

The hand is extended
To those unloved anymore
The hand reaches out
Prosperity belongs to all

The hand reaches out
To the hungry one and all
The hand it will feed them
In this we all should share

The hand is stretches out
So the homeless shall not fall
The hand offers a place of sleep
No matter what the cost

The hand is extended
To those who greave and mourn
The hand offers mercy
Mercy it will not ignore

The hand is freely given
To the righteous falsely accused
The hand it offers more than hope
It offers labour too

The hand it should be taken
When through the net they fall
When society sees a need
That was not their fault at all

The hand is the government
For everyone to grasp
Not just for those who have
But for those who have nothing at all

An observation

“Be as humane as you can possibly be.”

2 After years of denying it, the former Prime Minister, in a sobering moment, confessed to the fact that he was drunk and incapacitated on the job. His confession reaffirms the fact that he is without doubt the biggest liar to have ever trodden the plush carpets of Parliament House. As is usual in doing so he sought to compare his excesses with others. Believe it or not, he blamed welfare recipients for blowing taxpayers’ money on booze:

“Because certainly in lots of places, that money is being blown on booze and that’s not a good thing for anyone.”

You might recall that his expenses were extraordinarily high when he was Opposition Leader (higher than PM Gillard’s) and higher when he became Prime Minister.

He went on to say that his drinking binge paled in comparison to Labor’s profligate spending. What that had to do with his intoxicated state is anyone’s guess. Getting rid of Abbott must surely equate to 90% of reclaiming our democracy.

Meanwhile, former Labor Treasurer Wayne Swan, who was forced, at the time, to withdraw his suggestion in Parliament that Mr Abbott had been drunk, said the then-Liberal frontbencher “slept through votes which were to save Australia from recession”.

“His priority was himself not the Australian people or their jobs,” Swan said.

Turnbull told radio 3AW that Mr Abbott was drunk but “there was nothing we could do”.

He said the MPs known as whips — who organise their colleagues to be ready for votes — just could not wake Mr Abbott as he slept on the couch.

“The whips tried to rouse him to get him down into the chamber to vote but they were unable to move him so he missed out on his vote,” Mr Turnbull said.

“It was a pretty important vote too — that was Rudd’s big cash splash after the GFC, I was arguing we did not need to spend that much money that quickly’’

“I was disappointed, I can’t remember anyone else missing a vote because they were too drunk to get into the chamber, but the fact is that Tony has ‘fessed up to it, he knows it was an error or whatever’’

“He has acknowledged it, and that is good.

“It is clearly not acceptable or admirable in any way.”

3 Just to add to my piece last week on Mathias Cormann and his attack on socialism … He was at it again Monday morning and I began to wonder just what he knew of Australian history. For example, does he know that during WWII, ‘Socialist’ Labor leaders banned strikes among their members and consolidated industry for the war effort. And that in 1949, Australians defeated Menzies’ Referendum to outlaw the Communist Party.

The ‘Reds under the beds’ – communist hordes from the north – scare argument has been practiced by the Right long before Mathias Cormann became a citizen of this country.

Given that this LNP Government is allowing the wholesale selling of Australian industry, land, housing, farms and mines to the Communist Chinese their fear campaign seems rather strange, even hilarious.

4 Let me finish with a note of caution on the citizenship debacle. The Prime Minister’s statement that the “the High Court will so hold” is just an opinion. He believes the court will affirm the legitimacy of Joyce and others.

My opinion is the opposite. I believe, given all the evidence, that the court will take a hard-line view of the Constitution. If they do then Joyce is gone and Turnbull will be faced with a constitutional crisis.

At the moment independent Cathy McGowan and Xenophon Team member Rebekha Sharkie are the only two crossbenchers guaranteeing supply and confidence, but that may change as the plot thickens.

Now you may remember that Speaker Tony Smith is already on the record as promising not to use his casting vote if the House was tied at 74-74.

Still some water to flow under the bridge yet.

My thought for the day

“For a Ministry with diplomas from the greatest learning institutions in the world its difficult to imagine how so many brainless buffoons could gather around the same table at the same time and cause so much havoc.”

27 comments

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  1. Terry2

    Either the Immigration Minister is not coming clean over his announcement to withdraw support from asylum seekers and refugees currently in Australia or they are, perhaps inadvertently, offering these folk a lifeline.

    The Dutton announced that refugees and asylum seekers will cease to receive financial support and will be required to move out of supported accommodation but that they will have access to Medicare and for the first time they will be allowed to work, pay taxes and children will be able to attend school.

    When the new visa expires they will be expected to return to either Manus or Nauru, or abandon their protection claim and return to their country of origin. Well, this doesn’t make sense as, for a start Manus is being closed down : it is an illegal detention centre under PNG law. Next, if these people have jobs, are providing their own accommodation and their kids are attending school, it would be almost impossible to legally deport these people to the only remaining offshore detention centre on Nauru.

    Why would they have gone through all this pain and then just abandon their protection claim, they could have done this five years ago ?

    I am seeing Dutton’s announcement and his quick attack on Labor as just playing politics with the enthusiastic support of the Telegraph and 2GB.

    Interesting that Dutton was not available to be interviewed by the ABC yesterday but he was available to do his regular interview with Ray Hadley.

  2. wam

    What happened after the referendum in 1951, Lord? Remember the huge game of the petrovs? Remember the drama in my town with charles spry? Remember santamaria??
    Glad to see you counter trumball belief with a belief of your own. A bit like your story today, wasn’t it gillard who opened the camps?
    ps terry2 who listens to the ABC

  3. Harquebus

    I hate that term ‘unAustralian’. It’s unAustralian.

    “Hundreds of wise men cannot make the world a heaven, but one idiot is enough to turn it into a hell.” — Raheel Farooq

    We have no shortage of idiots but, all the same, they do seem to be over represented in our parliaments.

  4. Glenn K

    does Dutton actually think this is a vote-winner? or is he just filled with bigoted hate? Perhaps some focus groups are telling him that if the LNP can win back the PHON votes that they will retain power? sick sick sick.

  5. helvityni

    …and on last night’s Q&A Brandis had the cheek to say that Australia is the country where EVERYBODY wants to live…

    Maybe some of the Brexit affected British…?

  6. cartoonmick

    This entire tragic debacle is a result of incompetent pollies, from both sides, making bad decisions, over many years, for all the wrong reasons.

    And the hole gets deeper as more decisions are made. The damage can never be repaired.

    BUT, we could possibly avoid future tragedies if we elected more decent people into positions of power.

    We shouldn’t vote people in because of the political party they represent.

    We should vote them in for their character and good judgment.

    Cartoon refers . . . . . https://cartoonmick.wordpress.com/editorial-political/#jp-carousel-926

    Cheers
    Mick

  7. havanaliedown

    Hear, hear Mick. To all, a prosperous and enjoyable day.

  8. Terry2

    Wam

    A quick potted history.

    Under Keating in 1992, Australia adopted a mandatory detention policy obliging the Australian Government to detain all persons entering or being in the country without a valid visa.

    Offshore processing started under Howard in 2001 after the Tampa affair,

    Dubbed the “Pacific Solution” under John Howard, the policy saw all asylum seekers who arrived by boat intercepted at sea and sent straight to offshore camps established on Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island [and Christmas Island],

    Rudd, Gillard, Rudd, Abbott and Turnbull all continued the offshore detention policy even after the “ring of steel” customs and naval blockade successfully turned back incoming boats, in some cases by bribing the people smugglers to turn around.

    The point is that all Australian governments have been party to this failed populist policy and trying to attribute political blame is pointless and self-defeating.

  9. Kyran

    This is refoulement. Nothing more. Nothing less.
    As most have been declared refugees, their ‘fear’ of persecution if they are returned to their countries of origin has been confirmed as a likely reality. To return them to the likelihood of harm in their countries of origin is refoulement.
    Both Manus and Nauru have, literally, thousands of documented cases of abuse, in all of its iterations. To return them to the likelihood of harm in PNG or Nauru is refoulement.
    There is no prospect of resettlement in another country.
    I think it was Kronomex who described dutton as a ‘f#cking lunatic’. The only thing I would add to that is that he is a dangerous f#cking lunatic.
    Unlike Terry2, I see no prospect of this becoming a lifeline. There are, approximately, 100 people affected by this most recent decision. There were, previously, up to 7,500 asylum seekers in Australia handed a mandatory deadline to lodge paperwork with the government by October 1 this year or face deportation. This is in addition to those being moved out of the camp in Lorengau to live in dutton’s mystical place – Limbo. This is in addition to those on Nauru who are, right now, subject to a martial law of sorts. If they gather in groups of more than three people, they will be bashed and/or charged and jailed. The pregnant women on Nauru, right now, are disallowed abortion and any prospect of being moved to PNG or Australia for necessary medical treatment. Another of dutton’s mystical places – Hell.
    These people, having done nothing more than ask Australia to observe its commitment to international treaties, are already beaten and broken.
    You may recall dutton’s previous assaults on radical groups such as GetUp, ASRC, RAC, National Justice Project, etc. You may also recall dutton suspended government funding of any advocacy groups.
    This is not a lifeline. This is the latest incarnation of the dutton/pezzullo plan. All of the remaining advocacy groups have been stretched beyond breaking point by the imposition of all of these new criteria. They are no longer concerned with beating and breaking the beaten and broken. They are now beating and breaking their advocates.
    As always, these gutless shits will resort to vilification of those in their way, in the absence of any possible justification for their barbaric activities.
    Clearly, approaching any of our politicians is a wasted exercise. Regardless of their ‘conscience’, they will simply tow the party line. Any legal recourse is being extinguished, however gradually.
    If you want to do something, contribute your time or your money to the advocates. If there is a rally, take part. These are the last defences against these barbarians.
    Apologies for the rant, Mr Lord. Thank you. Take care

  10. helvityni

    Terry2, I’m not sure what came first:

    A. Australian people don’t want asylum seekers here. Full stop.

    B. Most Australians were happy to accept a reasonable number of asylum seekers, but the leaders of both major parties don’t, and they have brainwashed the population to be anti asylum seeker.

    Of course all sides seem to be happy to let educated, well-heeled migrants settle here…we don’t tell THEM that this place is over-populated….

    No compassion/ but money speaks, always…

    Germany has accepted a huge number of refugees, and yet the country is booming.

  11. Kronomex

    I can almost picture Il Duttonuci getting someone to splice the DNA for fly wings into asylum seekers just so he pull them off when he gets bored or just feels like torturing them for daring to come here. As uncomfortable as it sounds, he more and more reminds me of Himmler. He is probably the most frightening person with a huge amount of power in this country.

  12. helvityni

    Thank you Kyran, for your most welcome ‘rant’, Australia needs more Kyrans…and fewer Duttons 🙂

  13. auntyuta

    Cartoonmick: I agree, character and good judgment, that is what we need in politicians.

  14. Susan

    Your thought for the day says it all!!

  15. stephengb2014

    I am absolutely gobsmacked at the response by Richard Marles, to this latest bit of facist style bastardry. I have been unable to see and hear all that he said but what I did hear it sounded remarkably like a “hear hear” , an applause!

    Does this mean that Duttons actions are secretly supported by Bill Shorten, in spite of Shorten’s verbal remarks which are also a bit on the fence?

  16. helvityni

    stephengb2014, I was disappointed to hear what Marles had to say about asylum seekers ( on Insiders), I’m also confused about Shorten’s take on this issues.

    Promise to take those few still left here, or lose voters to the Greens…We don’t want to be known as the inhumane country…

  17. nurses1968

    stephengb2014
    you were “unable to see” and on top of that unable ” hear all that he said ” but somehow, some way something Marles may or may not have said turns into “Duttons actions are secretly supported by Bill Shorten”
    Spare me !!!!!

  18. John Lord

    Terry2 I agree both parties are at fault but it is the Coalition that has condemned them to a lifetime of incarceration on Nauru.

  19. Harquebus

    “Members of the Muslim Rohingya minority escaped to the border with Bangladesh, but Bangladeshi border guards are turning them back.”
    “”They were pleading with us not to send them back to Myanmar,” said one policeman.”
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41067747

    Europe is also contemplating adopting some of our practices.

  20. helvityni

    What Dutton is doing now, is unforgivable. Turnbull seems to be all way with Dutton…sad.

    My heart bleeds for the Rohingya people, but Bangladesh is hardly able save its own people, all those floods over there…it’s not that they don’t want to, but they can’t….

  21. diannaart

    How they voted, earlier this year:

    That the Senate—

    (a) notes that:

    (i) Australia's offshore processing is a deliberately cruel policy that has created a humanitarian crisis,

    (ii) men, women and children who have sought asylum have suffered immeasurable harm at Australia's hands, including death, psychological trauma and serious injuries,

    (iii) the former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Mr Juan Mendez, concluded Australia had "violated the right of the asylum seekers, including children, to be free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment",

    (iv) Amnesty International says the Nauru detention centre was "explicitly designed to inflict incalculable damage on hundreds of women, men and children",

    (v) indefinite offshore detention has led to global condemnation and a lowering of Australia's international standing,

    (vi) despite the Manus Island processing centre being declared illegal by the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court in April 2016, the Australian Government has failed to resettle people in its care and forcibly deported an unknown number of people from Papua New Guinea,

    (vii) the Department of Immigration and Border Protection says the cost of establishing and running offshore detention has exceeded $4.4 billion since 2013,

    (viii) the Australian National Audit Office found that **it costs $573,000 per person per year to keep people locked up in offshore detention**,

    (ix) **despite the massive human and financial cost of this policy, that boats carrying people seeking asylum continue to attempt to reach Australia**,

    (x) **many of these asylum seekers have been turned around to meet an unknown fate at sea or potentially refouled, contrary to Australia's international legal and moral obligations, and

    (xi) despite the Australian Government's so-called "deal" with the United States, no one has been resettled in that country; and

    (b) calls on the Government to end offshore detention, and bring every man woman and child, detained on Papua New Guinea and Nauru, to Australia**.

    External links

    Debate in Parliament

    Votes Not passed by a large majority

    People who are for regional processing of asylum seekers would have voted No

    Add or update related policies

    Nobody rebelled against their party.
    Party Votes
    Cory Bernardi SA
    Australian Conservatives
    No
    Australian Greens
    (78% turnout)
    7 Yes – 0 No
    Australian Labor Party
    (80% turnout)
    0 Yes – 20 No
    Nigel Scullion NT
    Country Liberal Party
    No
    Derryn Hinch Victoria
    Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party
    No
    Gavin Marshall Victoria
    Deputy President
    No
    Sue Lines WA
    Deputy President
    Absent
    Jacqui Lambie Tasmania
    Independent
    No
    David Leyonhjelm NSW
    Liberal Democratic Party
    No
    Liberal National Party
    (100% turnout)
    0 Yes – 2 No
    Liberal Party
    (67% turnout)
    0 Yes – 14 No
    National Party
    (75% turnout)
    0 Yes – 3 No
    Nick Xenophon Team
    (0.0% turnout)
    Absent
    Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party
    (100% turnout)
    0 Yes – 4 No
    Stephen Parry Tasmania
    President
    No
    Totals
    (76% turnout)
    7 Yes – 50 No

    Turnout is the percentage of members eligible to vote that did vote.

    https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/divisions/senate/2017-03-29/4

    Not only the LNP is to blame…

  22. Florence nee Fedup

    I was under the impression Germany was facing aging population and encourage refugees in to improve the faltering economy. Desperately needed younger workers. Has worked.

  23. Florence nee Fedup

    Labor is being careful as Dutton is attempting to wedge. Shorten not taking the bait. Sad the low level our politics is at.

  24. stephengb2014

    Nurses1968,

    Hmmmmmm –
    Last I heard Bill Shorten is the Leader of the Labor Party in opposition, I doubt that anything Richard Marles said, would be ignored by Bill Shorten if it were against Labor policy.

    I believe it is acceptable to assume tacit, if not actual approval, if a team member plays a move against the teams agenda.

    That was my train of thought – next time I will remember that perhaps there are some people unable to join the dots!

    S G B

  25. nurses1968

    stephengb2014
    sometimes the half baked dots lead nowhere, just get led along by half arsed guesses and poor conclusions.
    If you have any evidence of Bills alleged motivations provide them, or then we can safely assume another anti Labor anti Shorten stunt

  26. jamesss

    Kronomex, Himmler is quite appropriate for the sickness Dutton is. Hopefully he will eventually be facing the courts in The Hague.

  27. LOVO

    One wonders how little Johnny……and G.W… and Blair…have fared.. in regards to the “Hague “….”little lone” Dutton.
    Dutton and Co. know how to ‘splash’ da cash…and/or not ?…to unaustralians like Dutton, the Hague is but an wtf..or at best ..pfftt…just ask “little Johnny H” (the war criminal ) about the Hag-ue. .jest sayin’?

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