A bit of history:
A) When mandatory detention was introduced:
"The Government is determined that a clear signal be sent that migration
to Australia may not be achieved by simply arriving in this country and
expecting to be allowed into the community ... this legislation is only
intended to be an interim measure." (Immigration Minister Gerry Hand under
Paul Keating 1993)?
B) Refugees throw children overboard to reach Australia (Minister for
Defense Peter Reith under John Howard 2001)
C) "We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which
they come" (PM John Howard 2001)
D) "onshore processing encourages people to jump into boats" (Houston report
under Julia Gillard 2012) leading to re-opening of offshore processing at
Nauru and Manus Island
E) "From now on, any asylum seeker who arrives in Australia by boat will
have no chance of being settled in Australia as refugees." (PM Kevin Rudd
2013)
F) "I do not comment on on-waters matters" (Minister for Immigration Scott
Morrison under Tony Abbott 2014)
G) It prevents people from drowning and saves lifes (PM Tony Abbott and
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten 2015)
H) “The Australian Government has zero tolerance for people smuggling" (PM
Scott Morrision 2019)
I) "Every individual senator has to make a decision: whether they stand on
the side of stronger national security or weaker national security."
(Senator Cormann under Scott Morrison 2019)
Both parties, supported by 75-80% of all Australian voters, having
positions and acting
in a way only supported by the Far-Right in Germany. the AfD,
a party with close connections and leaders associated with fascism and
neo-Nazism.
I am living in a land that implemented anti-refugees policies
German fascists and neo-Nazis dream of.
Good to be here..
Peter
On Thu, Dec 5, 2019 at 9:56 AM Paul van den Bergen via luv-talk
<luv-talk@luv.asn.au> wrote:
>
> Hey Folks,
>
> My take on a lot of this is that Australia has one of the most representative electoral systems in the world (states not withstanding)... Consequently when we elect a bunch of moralizing faux-christian fascists, it's because that's what we really want...
>
> In other words, it's not just about who is in power, it's about the sort of society we want to live in... I despair for our children...
>
>
>
> On Thu, 5 Dec 2019 at 00:33, Andrew McGlashan via luv-talk <luv-talk@luv.asn.au> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> On 5/12/19 12:16 am, Jason White via luv-talk wrote:
>> > I've been living overseas in recent years for work reasons, so perhaps I shouldn't comment. However, I don't recall that the Australian Labor Party was particularly progressive regarding the rights of refugees - at least when I was last paying attention. Didn't they favour mandatory detention policies, and the exclusion of off-shore detention facilities from the migration zone?
>> >
>> > If that's the case, then the issue lies with both sides of mainstream Australian politics, making it more complicated than the question of how far to the right the current government is. So far as I can remember, the Australian Greens have been consistently supportive of upholding the human rights of refugees.
>> >
>> > Others are welcome to correct me if any of the above are false impressions, of course.
>>
>> Labor has rolled over on many things; expecting to form government to
>> fix some of them.
>>
>> Labor had, in Hawke's time, more compassion for the people and their own
>> very fair "green" agenda before the Greens party even existed -- there
>> was no need for the Greens back then.
>>
>> In any case, Labor is far too close to LNP in many issues, but you can't
>> win elections (generally), if you keep wanting to take monies out of
>> people's pockets, especially in this depressed economy. It's more give
>> me, give me, give me and "what's in it for me" ... AU people have to
>> look after themselves and do what they can to support causes they
>> believe in if they have enough funds to do so after huge rises in cost
>> of living here.
>>
>> I'm pretty sure one of Keating's last policies helped get him booted, he
>> wanted to increase the government take on capital gains -- sound
>> familiar? Taking ANY monies from the people is a recipe for disaster in
>> this greedy country that can see no further than the value of their dollars.
>>
>> Of the two major parties, I believe Labor is far ahead of LNP, but they
>> don't present well and there are too many supporters of LNP with very
>> strong voices and loads of money for the cause.
>>
>> Yeah, we are stuffed and two rights (LNP and Labor), doesn't make it
>> "right", it just makes it sad.
>>
>> A.
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>
>
>
> --
> Dr Paul van den Bergen
>
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