On Wed, 7 Nov 2012, Mike Mitchell <m.mitch@exemail.com.au> wrote:
I don't think your response is at all by-partisan. I don't believe Australia's treatment of refugees is bad. I think Germany's is duplicitous. They are complaining about Australia doing far more than they are. They fail to mention that they are only taking about 5% of the responsibility Australia
If you look at a map of the world you will notice that refugees won't often arrive in Germany by boat because it's rather a long journey. Someone who was going from Africa or the middle-east by boat would find it a lot easier to stop in the UK, France, or Spain. Someone who was going mostly by land to Germany would probably stop in Poland, Italy, or France first. But that's not the issue, the issue is what happens to the refugees who do arrive. If Germany treats 100% of refugees in a manner that complies with all relevant international agreements and preserves their human rights then they are entirely justified in criticising the Australian government. But even if Germany were doing the wrong thing, that doesn't excuse us from our obligations. If you have ever read the Bible you might recall that the Samaritan didn't say "but the Pharisees aren't helping people". As the majority of the Australian population is Christian it would be nice if some of the positive aspects of the Bible were considered when determining government policy. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/