Sadly for those who pay tax, neither Abbott nor Shorten has the guts to take the lead and courageously reduce the growing budget deficit by doing the legally “right thing”. Bipartisan compliance with international law and common decency could stop the outrageous waste of taxpayers’ money – $5 billion – to apprehend, lock up and torture “boatpeople” with detention and indefinite suffering. They could be working and paying tax while they wait for a decision on their protection claim. No civilised society imprisons asylum seekers; most know refugees are an economic and social asset.
Historically most asylum seekers landing in Australia, like our Vietnamese “boatpeople”, really are persecuted. Of the 572 protection claims of asylum seekers involuntarily sent to Nauru two years ago, 488 were decided in the positive, proving that these “boatpeople” were refugees from the moment they fled their country. Government has made a costly mountain out of a mole hill.
And still Abbott decrees, on behalf of this nation of immigrants, that these genuine refugees shall not settle in Australia, but can choose to take their chances in Cambodia. Fair, generous, compassionate Australia?
– Frederika E Steen AM, CLA member, Chapel Hill Qld