As the Italian immigrant Nino Culotta (John O'Grady) said about Australians - They're a weird mob. On the one hand, the sentiment 'for those who've come across the seas, we've boundless plains to share' appears in the second verse of our national anthem but in reality, something very strange happens to Australians when they hear the words 'asylum seeker' and some start to froth at the mouth at the mere mention of 'boat arrivals'
We just don't seem to understand that we are not being overrun by refugees and even if we were, we would still have a moral, not to mention, legal obligation to provide help to people asking for help.
For those that don't know, the current Australian government was elected on the strength of three word slogans and, given that directly after winning government they announced that the 'adults were back in charge' one can only presume that they believe we 'children' would struggle to comprehend detailed policy but I digress - one of those three word slogans was 'stop the boats' repeated often and at every opportunity, over and over again until the Liberal candidates started to resemble the robot from Lost in Space, yelling 'warning, warning' and waving their arms around a lot.
(Funnily enough this comparison with robots became true - when one Liberal candidate was asked for details of what the policy involved in the lead up to the poll, he answered 'well er... um... er... we're going to stop the boats yep, stop the boats, that's what we're going to do we're going to stop the boats' and was unable to explain his party's policy beyond the three word slogan.)
So our new government set up an important sounding quasi-military operation called 'Operation Sovereign Borders' which was tasked with 'stopping the boats' They bought some expensive lifeboats and told us they would tow boats back to sea but that is where the communication from our government ended and questions about 'Operation Sovereign Borders' are invariably met with the phrase 'we do not comment on operational matters'
So a few weeks ago when two asylum seeker' boats entered Australian waters and made contact with both the government and refugee advocates, we were treated to a performance from our Immigration Minister (Scott Morrison) that would put Basil Fawlty to shame. Firstly they denied there were any boats, then they told us that they do not comment on 'on water incidents' then they handed the people from one of the boats to the Sri Lankan navy (the very people they were seeking asylum from)
The people on the other boat are now being held on an Australian vessel, somewhere on the Indian Ocean, without representation, until Australia's (independent) High Court decides whether the government is acting legally and still the government sees fit to withhold information from it's citizens.
'Stop the boats' has become 'hide the boats'
And the reason for all this bastardry?
This government is so twisted that they think because they made such a big deal of 'stop the boats' the people that voted for them will not forgive them if even one asylum seeker boat makes it to Australia - by their own measure they will have failed.
I say people's lives and human rights are more important than three word slogans.
