I want to blame Tony Abbott, but I can’t. The fault lies with the 60% of Australians who want harsher action on asylum seekers. Due to the Australian navy’s “accidental” breach of Indonesian waters, the Indonesian government has now sent four navy ships to patrol its maritime borders saying “It isnt about who would win, but every country has the right to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity.” A pretty stern warning. To add to it, asylum seekers are accusing the Australian Navy of beating them and inflicting burns when being towed back. The Human Rights Watch has criticised Australia in its annual world report, saying it has damaged its record by persistently undercutting refugee protections, it noted Too often, the Government has attempted to demonise those trying to reach Australia by boat and has insisted that officials refer to all asylum seekers who do so as illegal maritime arrivals. These people are REFUGEES; they are coming from terrible situations that only a very small percentage of Australians could even begin to fathom. Australians are the richest people on the planet. We are the richest people to ever walk the earth and we are living on stolen land. Who are we to demand “harsher action” on refugees? There has to be a better way. Maybe put a limit on the amount of Kiwis coming in. In 2012 alone, over 50, 000 Kiwis migrated to Aus. From my own independent studies, I concluded that close to 20% of New Zealanders living in Australia are of the mindset that “everything is better back home ay” haha. Surely we could give some people coming from war torn, life threatening situations a percentage of the annual Kiwi migration. Or set up processing centres in parts of Australia where we could build solar or wind farms and during the processing, refugees could be learning specific skills to constructing these farms while earning a wage. If they were to be granted refugee status, there could be stipulations on their visas stating that a minimum of say 4 years work on the project is required prior to full residency being granted. We are not entitled to more because of where we are born or what car we drive.
Posted on: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 22:21:02 +0000