One of my all-time favourite cartoons is by Leunig from one of his earlier collections. It’s got two people roasting marshmallows around a campfire and one is saying to the other “What do you mean the acoustics could be better? What the hell are you talking about?” …or words to that effect. It’s funnier when you see it and comes to mind whenever Julia and Tony start banging on about boat people.
Refugees coming here by boat isn’t an ideal situation. I couldn’t agree more. Nonetheless, shit happens, and in the scheme of things, whatever you think about giving refugees a fair go, stopping the boats (or as is more likely, not stopping the boats) is going to have very little effect on our quality of life.
However, as details on stuff like climate change, health, education, industrial relations and the economy are a little abstract for a tasty sound bite, I’m sure we’ll be hearing lots more about boats in the weeks to come. We get the government we deserve, I suppose.
The Australian, 27 July 2010