With
respect to asylum seekers some people, politicians and voters alike, are failing
to separate the boat issue from the obligation to protect people from genocide
and the like.
Who sez
the candidates or the media should frame debate in such a limited way?
Rudd’s goal is to create a disincentive to boat
travel. It is an admirable goal, but his solution is not the best. PNG may well
be a threat from our own privileged
and more informed viewpoint, but to those who are desperate, PNG is a chance
because it is a relative unknown. It certainly fails the protection test.
As for Mr
Rabbit’s solution – getting the navy to get tough is downright impractical and
innately stupid. Perhaps Joe Hockey’s bellicosity is even more infectious than
I had already feared.
As much
as I disliked Gillard, she had one idea in common with Malcolm Fraser, in that
she felt for people who lacked the means to travel by boat.
Fraser
has recently reminded us of his response to the fall of Saigon :
We must create a queue.
We must
create a queue because for many people the reality is that there currently is
none.
The
promise of a queue and the expectation people must wait their turn might
provide a disincentive to boat travel, but its greatest virtue is it will
remove the inequity inherent in placing the richest refugees here, before
placing those without the means to beg, borrow or steal a boat ticket.
Having
created a queue – e.g. with a “local branch” in Indonesia -
Sorry
Rudd, your ‘solution’ sounds as desperate as the Malaysia
The
Greens, it has been said, can afford to have more generous policies because
there is no practical way they will ever have the means to implement them nor
will they ever be held to account for them.
The
notion that we should provide 30,000 people in one year with temporary visas
and the right to work is utterly over the top.
Forget
the government-dictated definitions of unemployment – there is a 15%
unemployment rate already amongst current citizens. We don’t need the
competition.
On the
other hand, Human Nature will always prevail. Where people do not have the right to work, a black
market of one sort or another will emerge.
Black
markets by definition contribute nothing to tax revenue.
I’m torn
between concern for myself as a jobseeker, and concern for what is morally
desirable for refugees, but Human Nature will always prevail. I can’t help but
feel that currently offered government policies must, to some degree, create a divide between “us”
and “them”.
There, I’ve
outed the elephant.
No I do
not propose that we stop taking anyone in, but that we get our act together and
start planning realistically for asylum seeking as a fact of life, and planning
realistically for a higher population density, and planning to let people do
jobs that might not be high tech but which benefit society as a whole.
The date
for the bollocks ballot has been set at September 7. The only thing I
know for sure is that I will be signing up to vote early, or vote by post. None
of these nongs is worth queuing up to vote for.
Similar to my sentiments about the disorderly arrival of refugees. Get a good mix happening and they will settle into Australia and be much more welcomed than they are. At a camp, here is list of countries where you may be accepted and next to the name is the possible waiting time.
ReplyDeleteBut there is no political advantage in that.
Hi Andrew, given that you seem to be "over" the election already, thanks for your comment - especially because I didn't realise the list even existed.
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