We're all a bunch of convicts anyway
It seems that our government, in its infinite wisdom, has taken rather a liking to clapping people in irons. What started with merely locking refugees away indefinitely in remote guarded internment camps has expanded to include the mentally ill, among others. And not only are we incarcerating our own people, we're booting them out of the country as well. It's all so mind-bogglingly incompetent, I hardly know where to begin.
First, I should state my general unease with detention centres in general. They've been a fact of life in this country for so long that they seem to almost have been forgotten. At the very least, opposition to them has been so ineffective that the protesters have simply run out of juice. Other than the column inches devoted to them, however, little has changed in these camps. They are still a violation of human rights, and not exactly one of our most internationally popular policies.
As if they weren't a big enough thorn in the side of our current (and persistent) crop of fearless leaders, along comes the Cornelia Rau affair. An Australian citizen, suffering from schizophrenia, locked up for four months. This is not just a failure of the Immigration Department, it is a failure of the mental health system, which is in fact a shambles. Mental health really is an issue which is swept under the rug in this country. I'm not talking about Joe Bloggs paying vast sums to have a bit of a lie down on a nice comfy couch and tell someone what's eating him. I'm talking about the seriously ill folk, and the woefully inadequate, underfunded, understaffed systems in place to help them. Cornelia Rau was failed by this system, as it has failed many others.
So, after that giant stuff-up made the news, they must have launched an inquest, because oh boy, what they've been coming out with in the past few days or so! Not only have they locked up thirty-odd "illegal immigrants" who were actually Australian citizens, they have actually deported some. One of whom has vanished from radar and is nowhere to be found. I suppose she mustn't be too dissatisfied with her new life, or surely she'd be firing off flares right about now.
Well I don't know about you, but I'm beginning to lose confidence in this government of ours. First it fails to stick up for its citizens when they are imprisoned in someone else's dodgy prison without a fair trial (I'm looking at you, Guantanamo Bay), then it starts locking them up itself. Now it has gone even further and started kicking people out willy-nilly and immediately losing them. Now I'm not saying we should all stop paying taxes just yet, but I ask the question; are our elected officials holding up their end of the deal?
First, I should state my general unease with detention centres in general. They've been a fact of life in this country for so long that they seem to almost have been forgotten. At the very least, opposition to them has been so ineffective that the protesters have simply run out of juice. Other than the column inches devoted to them, however, little has changed in these camps. They are still a violation of human rights, and not exactly one of our most internationally popular policies.
As if they weren't a big enough thorn in the side of our current (and persistent) crop of fearless leaders, along comes the Cornelia Rau affair. An Australian citizen, suffering from schizophrenia, locked up for four months. This is not just a failure of the Immigration Department, it is a failure of the mental health system, which is in fact a shambles. Mental health really is an issue which is swept under the rug in this country. I'm not talking about Joe Bloggs paying vast sums to have a bit of a lie down on a nice comfy couch and tell someone what's eating him. I'm talking about the seriously ill folk, and the woefully inadequate, underfunded, understaffed systems in place to help them. Cornelia Rau was failed by this system, as it has failed many others.
So, after that giant stuff-up made the news, they must have launched an inquest, because oh boy, what they've been coming out with in the past few days or so! Not only have they locked up thirty-odd "illegal immigrants" who were actually Australian citizens, they have actually deported some. One of whom has vanished from radar and is nowhere to be found. I suppose she mustn't be too dissatisfied with her new life, or surely she'd be firing off flares right about now.
Well I don't know about you, but I'm beginning to lose confidence in this government of ours. First it fails to stick up for its citizens when they are imprisoned in someone else's dodgy prison without a fair trial (I'm looking at you, Guantanamo Bay), then it starts locking them up itself. Now it has gone even further and started kicking people out willy-nilly and immediately losing them. Now I'm not saying we should all stop paying taxes just yet, but I ask the question; are our elected officials holding up their end of the deal?
posted by Nick | 8:41 pm
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