When I came to Australia nearly 50 years ago, it was just starting to recover from the White Australia policy and was still proud of giving everyone a Fair Go – that was the name of the boat we bought soon after our arrival!
Not true anymore!
Malcolm Fraser has often been praised for the way he handled the Vietnamese boat arrivals but his example has been turned on its head by more recent governments of both persuasions.
I dare you to watch the following two videos, as well as the report, and not feel shame for what Australia has become!
And the calibre of some of the comments on the Twitter feed makes me feel sick!
https://twitter.com/rebekahhlt/status/1039353954377687041
Over sixteen months this little girl has suffered vitamin deficiency and malnutrition as a result of living her life in detention. On Thursday, her family says things got worse – the Australian government says otherwise. pic.twitter.com/vTep5sfHwF
— The Project (@theprojecttv) July 7, 2019
Detention Centres are run by staff with no knowledge of the nutrition requirements of developing children, and the whole set up is blatantly ignoring the damage done to children when they are cut off from stimulation and the company of their peers.
A visitor with a birthday cake for a 2-year old is denied access!
Quite apart from the sheer inhumanity of this treatment of young children – and there have been others who have been treated similarly – it shows how totally out of touch this government is.
The current Climate Emergency – which the Coalition refuse to acknowledge – is going to lead to a massive exodus from many low-lying areas in countries like Bangladesh. Not only will country be flooded – by the oceans – but so, too, will countries like ours be flooded – with people – when these refugees seek dry ground!
We are currently seeing on TV the mass drownings occurring in the Mediterranean Sea as refugees seek help in Europe and are repelled at the ports. This is not Brave New World fiction, but living 21st Century reality.
As far as the Biloela family is concerned, the government is insisting that they can safely return to Thailand. They rely on the word of Thai government officials but a firsthand examination would almost certainly tell a different story.
In any case, the family was contributing to and loved by their community.
How much has it cost us, and not just financially, to destroy the happiness of this little community?
Peter Dutton is capable of making instant and arbitrary decisions but he does so more often in ways that cause harm than ones that actually benefit the people involved.
How long do we go on ignoring the extent to which the government lies to us?
Does no one care that our reputation as a country is being destroyed?
First Australia was established as a convict colony by the British and the First nations were subjected to genocide. They remain largely disenfranchised to this day.
Then we received floods of migrants after WWII who were rubbished by the white Australians as wogs or worse.
Then the Vietnamese fleeing their homeland, which we had helped the USA destroy, would have been turned back except for Malcolm Fraser.
Now, while war and cultural clashes in many countries results in many seeking safe haven, we have a cold-hearted government which sees protecting our borders as more important than helping the desperate.
And the final irony is that many of the responsible Ministers claim to be Christian, but their behaviour brands them as hypocrites!
New Zealand might not be perfect, but in many, many regards it truly puts Australia to shame!
Stop listening to lies, Australia, and show how you can be better than this!
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