The Australian 9/7/2010

Apparently it is perfectly okay to have an irrational fear of boat people these days. I’m not the Prime Minister, or a psychologist, but I can’t help thinking that pandering to an irrational fear isn’t the best way of sorting it out. We aren’t being swamped by boat people. Most of them turn out to be legitimate refugees. The most efficient way of dealing with their claims would be to do it in Australia. Beating up on these incredibly vulnerable people will not do anything to stop the root cause of the problem, and to do so is (yes, I’m going to say it) downright unAustralian. Deep down I think we all know that we’re not going to stop people smuggling until there is a worldwide change in human nature, and I’m not holding my breath. While we’re waiting for world peace and an end to world poverty, perhaps some sort of regional or global formula for humanely, fairly and efficiently dealing with refugees wouldn’t be a bad idea at all (yes, the mythical queue!) however, again, breath holding is not advised. In the meantime, a little more of compassion and a little less xenophobia might help make the world a slightly better place, or failing that, some decent, brave leadership from politicians who really should know better wouldn’t go astray. …okay, I’m not holding my breath on that one either.

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