Very Powerful Article. Australia has constructed a myth about itself which cannot survive unless we forget a number of painful truths. We draw a veil of comforting amnesia over anything which contradicts our self-image. And we forget, the line in the second verse of our national anthem. For those who come across the sea there truly are boundless plains to share. For refugees locked away in remote detention centres, that line must cast light on the frontier which delusion shares with hypocrisy. We forget that boat people who come here to ask for protection are not illegal in any sense – they are exercising the right which every person has in international law to seek asylum in any country they can reach. We forget that the greatest number of unauthorised boats to arrive in a single day got here on January 26, 1788. We forget that the first white settlers in this country were true illegals: sent here by English courts for a range of criminal offences, and the soldiers sent to guard them, and the administrators who, following London’s instructions, stole the country from its original inhabitants who, if possession is nine points of the law, had the backing of 40,000 years of law to justify calling the white invaders “illegals”. During the election campaign, many of us watched aghast as both major parties promised mistreatment so harsh that it would act as a deterrent; mistreatment so unpleasant that it would seem more attractive to stay home and face down the Taliban rather than flee for safety. It is painful to recognize that we are now a country which would brutalise one group with the intention that other people in distress will choose not to ask us for help. The sight of the major parties competing to promise greater cruelty to boat people is new in Australian politics. We have never been perfect, but this was something without precedent. But some of us remember how things once were, some of us see how things could be. And we grieve: aliens in our own land. I too feel an alien in this land and am deeply distraught at the leadership of this country.
Posted on: Sat, 21 Sep 2013 12:14:12 +0000
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