4. ON REFUGEES

A wonderful change has just taken place in Australia. We now have fast-track onshore processing, and a definite possibility of bridging visas for refugees. This is hugely different from the previous slow, off-shore processing, which was neither humane nor economical. While I am overjoyed by the change, I can't help but be a little bit disgusted by the way in which it came about.

This link shows Julia Gillard grudgingly announcing that they will revert to onshore asylum processing, as a kind of last resort. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-13/government-reverts-to-onshore-asylum-processing/3570302 Not only that, but she continues to speak in favour of the Malaysia 'Solution', which a High Court ruling found to be inhumane and unethical. She even said that it is in "the national interest". Well excuse me Ms Gillard, but if a system proven to be physically and psychologically unsafe is in the national interest, I think the nation needs to get over itself and look after the interests of others. And surely we should be especially concerned about the interests of those who are helpless, who have been on a very dangerous journey even to get here, and who have come specifically to us to seek asylum.

Of course, this kind of idiocy isn't new. The Australian Government's policies regarding refugees have been consistently horrendous, and looking at our track record only makes today's change seem like even more of a leap forward, when really it's simple common sense which should have been implemented years ago.

I am very happy that things have been decided in favour of humane practice (why it was ever otherwise I still don't know), but I am also very angry that it has been treated as a terrible thing. And of course, another election will come around, and the fear-mongering will begin. We'll all be fed mind-numbingly stupid fairy tales about the scary 'boat people', and both major parties will make promises to keep them away. And while the politicians say that their aim is to stop people-smuggling, it is all too evident that what they are really trying to do is play off Australian's fears, which are born of ignorance, in order to win votes.