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Tag Archives: Refugees
Scott Morrison fails the test, outed as a bully
Just when you thought the asylum seeker issue could not get any worse, we had the embarassing spectacle of the $800 Knob himself, the oleaginously and publicly pious Scott Morrison, very average former head of Tourism Australia, currently in charge of the network of concentration camps which house asylum seekers who arrive by boat, fronting the AHRC (Australian Human Rights Commission) with his Department secretary as willing spear-carrier, to take on one of the most formidable and forensic lawyers in Australia, Emeritus Professor Gillian Triggs, President of the AHRC.
Watch the video of the AHRC hearing into children in detention here
And you can read The World Today‘s transcript here.
A New Matilda reader also took a transcript.
Public hearing ACT – National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention
Minister Scott Morrison and Department secretary Martin Bowles are involved from time segment 7:30 (full context starting at time segment 1:24:54).
The section related to the end sentence in this New Matilda article is:
Triggs: “…I’ve been there three times, you cannot get into any of the sections without going through armed guards, etc etc”
Bowles: “we do not have armed guards”
Triggs: “…I don’t need to (garbled)…”
Bowles: “we do not have armed guards”
Triggs: “…to describe them as not prisons…”
Bowles: “we do not have armed guards President, I’d like you to acknowledge that”
Triggs: “I’m not sure, but I’m, I’m, um, aahhhh”
Bowles: “I’d like you to acknowledge that, we do not have armed guards”
Triggs: “I will check that with my clients then because some of those guards are armed…”
Bowles: “well I, again, again President, I would like you to check that and I would like you to retract that”
Triggs: “well I ah”
Morrison: “I’d just like to understand what the president is suggesting”
Triggs: “The point I’m making is…”
…
Triggs: “…on any analysis that is either locked detention or a prison”
Morrison: “well Madam President you would’ve been to many gaols and prisons…”
Triggs: “indeed”
Morrison: “…and are you suggesting that Long Bay Gaol is the same as a pool fenced Alternative Place Of Detention at Phosphate Hill on Christmas Island”?
Triggs: “…………um, I would like to move on but basically I have been a practicing lawyer since I was 22 years old so I know a prison when I see it”
Morrison: “Madam President, I’ve just asked you, you’ve said that these places are prisons, now you’ve been in prisons, so you’re telling me that the Phosphate Hill Compound on Christmas Island is the same as Long Bay Gaol?”
Triggs: “I’m not saying they’re equivalent, I’m saying that the, the, prison facilities…”
Morrison: “Well, we can move on then I think Madam President”
Triggs: “Ok…”
So Morrison doesn’t believe that immigration detention is not imprisonment? And bluster-master Morrison thinks it is OK to talk over the top of one of the country’s most respected public servants?
Then he’d better try our random vision test. Ten mixed photographs of prisons and detention facilities. Can you spot the difference?
We cannot. Morrison deludes himself yet again.
Scott Morrison’s Manga-lated Madness
Most people would have seen the story about a rather bizarre publication targeted at and distributed among asylum seekers by the Australian Government.
This “graphic novel” (“comic book” for more mature readers) is aimed specifically at discouraging Afghan Hazaras and outlines the story of a young man who flees Afghanistan, travels to Indonesia and meets up with people smugglers. The boat is intercepted and the young man is then subjected to the full force of Scott Morrison’s Final Solution.
Presumably whichever rocket scientist came up with the light-bulb moment which produced this did not bother to think that facing off Morrison’s goons might be infinitely preferable to being tortured and murdered by the Taliban, who are pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing of the Asiatic Hazara minority.
Perhaps the Taliban and Morrison should get together. They have some alarming similarities.
Thanks to the wonderful comedian Pauline Pantsdown however we now have a revised version which is far more truthful.
So without further ado sit back and check out Pauline’s version.
A Modern Major Xenophobe
By Mike Carlton and Ben Pobje
I am the very model of an immigration minister
In charge of refugees and matters maritime and sinister.
At school I studied hard at maths and lessons alphabetical,
I learnt the scriptures backwards and the canon evangelical.
I made my rise to greatness from political obscurity
Conflating xenophobia with national security.
Endlessly I preached the word to ordinary Australians
Arousing fears their homes were being overrun by aliens.
I blamed the Labor gang for this invasion of Muhammadans
Who wear the burqa, pray to Mecca, starve themselves at Ramadan.
Fanatics who would have us all obeying their sharia laws
They’d ban the Easter Bunny and abolish dear old Santa Claus.
But! Now that I’m the minister I’ve vowed to turn the boats
around,
I’ve got a three-star general to keep our borders safe and sound.
The bleeding hearts and Greenies call me cruel and confrontational
But I riposte: “My lips are sealed on matters operational.”
When Jakarta once accused me of egregious hypocrisy
I shrugged my shoulders lightly and replied: “Well, that’s
democracy.”
And though it’s not much help in dealing with the Indonesians,
I quote the Bible’s letters of St Paul to the Ephesians.
With humanity and decency my only motivation
I am standing resolutely at the frontiers of the nation.
And armoured in self-righteousness I spurn each rude inquisitor
For I’m the very model of an immigration minister.
The World Refugee Burden
Thanks to the ASRC for the infograph
Election special No 14 – ”Go sit on the M4, people see 50,000 people come in by boat …”
Liberal candidate links asylum seekers to traffic jams and hospital queues
September 3, 2013 – 11:01AM
James Robertson
Reporter
Fiona Scott suggested asylum seekers were making traffic worse and also exacerbating traffic queues. Photo: Screen grab, 4 Corners
A Liberal candidate in western Sydney has said she believes asylum seekers are contributing to outer-suburban traffic jams.
”[Asylum seekers are] a hot topic here because our traffic is overcrowded,” Fiona Scott, the Liberal candidate for the seat of Lindsay told the ABC’s Four Corners program.
Fiona Scott with Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
When asked to explain her view she said: ”Go sit on the M4, people see 50,000 people come in by boat – that’s more than twice the population of [western Sydney suburb] Glenmore Park,” she said.
Ms Scott also suggested asylum seekers were exacerbating hospital waiting queues.
Ms Scott is challenging Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury in the September election. She came to prominence last month when Tony Abbott controversially described her as having ”sex appeal”.
Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul described Ms Scott’s comments as ”shockingly ignorant” and said there were only a few thousand refugees in the area.
On the issue of asylum seekers, Mr Rintoul said Ms Scott’s comments ”reflected the scaremongering and the xenophobic views of the Coalition”.
”She should be well informed, but she is saying absurd and ridiculous things.”
Mr Rintoul estimated that just a few thousand refugees, mostly from Afghanistan and Iran, would call suburbs in the seat of Lindsay, which includes Emu Plains and Castlereagh, as home.
”She has characterised [refugees] as creating social problems,” he says. ”Western Sydney is full of migrants who have very often experience some kind of discrimination and these negative views on asylum seekers will do no good to her campaign whatsoever.”
And of course some humour followed
“Stop the boats – except for the one I was on…”
#AustralianLabor #auspol #VictorianLabor
Just when you thought the Coalition’s election campaign could not get any sillier along comes John Nguyen, second-time Liberal candidate for the Victorian Federal seat of Chisholm, currently held by the Speaker, Anna Burke.
John Nguyen looks impressive at first glance – young, good-looking and with obvious appeal to Asian voters. Until you read his mail-out to voters, a direct contrast to his pamphlet.
We wonder what message that sends to former refugees and asylum seekers living in the electorate.
Oh dear, hypocrisy much? Talk about rejecting the past…
Open Letter to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
We have read your new policy on asylum seeker boat arrivals. It is an audacious policy which no doubt took your colleagues and the rest of the ALP by surprise.
Without necessarily supporting what you did we understand why you made the arrangements you did with PNG Prime Minister Peter O’ Neill. In that one gesture you apparently shored up your racist and bigoted constituency in marginal seats, wedged Tony Abbott and his three-word bogan slogans and attempted to appease those ethical and compassionate people with genuine concerns about unsafe boats full of asylum seekers attempting hazardous voyages.
We will not go into the details of the policy. It has been thoroughly reported by the media somewhat starved of controversy in the last week or so, along with the usual commentary from the usual media suspects such as conservative commentator Paul Sheehan, who has spent the last three years telling people what a dreadful government we have but has suddenly discovered that asylum seekers sometimes drown, so desperate are they to find a safe place to live.
We are somewhat surprised that a country your government’s own DFAT travel advice website has warned Australian travellers is a security risk should be deemed acceptable for asylum seekers as a place of settlement. There seems to be a bit of careless racism implicit in that.
So while you tick those boxes off may we remind you that the ongoing hysteria about asylum seekers is not going to go away. That same constituency which you think you have placated will continue to hate and vilify new arrivals, no matter how they arrived in this country.
- They will continue to defame the small population of Muslims in Australia, those who were born here as well as those amongst the new arrivals.
- They will continue to abuse women and men in religious garments in the street because they “dress differently”.
- They will target the 13% of the population who either emigrated from Asia or who are the descendants of those of Asian descent who have lived in Australia for many years, along with the many Asian students here for an education.
- They will continue to racially abuse people, including children, on buses and trains because they “look different” or “speak different”.
- These individuals will continue to gather in vile hate groups on social media, and to infest the comments columns of newspapers.
So Kevin we need an undertaking from you that you are going to address this xenophobia, because you and the government are the only ones who can do so.
We want an undertaking that you and your MPs will explicitly address and overturn the unfounded fears and festering hatred of this misguided sector of the electorate, because you are supposed to govern on behalf of normal Australians, not just expediently at election time for the passing whims of the haters.
Then we may again be a fit country to receive and welcome newcomers to a safe and secure life, because at the moment we are not.
In anticipation
theantibogan
E mail: theantibogan@gmail.com
www.theantibogan.wordpress.com
Twitter: @theantibogan
Australian Defence Force Infantry Linked to Death Threats on Asylum Seekers
@australianarmy @abcnews24 @channeltennews @7news @9newsmelb @SBSnews #auspol
The administrator of the Royal Australian Infantry Facebook page broadcasted this anti-asylum-seeker joke to an audience of:
19,021 followers of the page +
180 (shares) x avg. 200 Facebook friends each (36,000)
= approx. >55,000 people.
You Dont Speak for Me
Does the current political discourse on race and immigration, as reported in the media, reflect the opinions of ‘ordinary’ Australians? I for one say No.
You Don’t Speak For Me.
Among my music collection is a treasured album from retired Australian folk singer Judy Small. I had the absolute delight of first hearing Judy perform before hundreds of women at the UN Women’s Forum in Beijing in 1995. A song that resonated with me then but more so now is You Don’t Speak For Me.
You who poison the airwaves with Ghengis Khan views
You broadcast your bias and call it the news
You say that you speak for the millions out there
And deny that you’re lighting a dangerous fuse
You don’t speak for me, no you don’t speak for me (J Small 1988)
I am a resident of the Gold Coast in the electorate of McPherson. Today…
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you said it... 