Today is a bit personal and very political, and sometimes they mix
My mother is angry. it takes a lot to make her angry. She's one of the most pleasant people you will ever meet. She was going to write a letter to a newspaper. We talked about it, and she says she will write a series of letters to Federal politicians and party leaders. It's a very simple letter "Why are we letting refugees suffer until Christmas? Why aren't we taking them in now?" And it will probably contain an element of "Why are we taking so few?"
There is a history lesson in the Australian situation. We took a lot of refugees from the Cambodian and Vietnam wars, with complaints, but also with some grace. Those refugees became solid citizens and have enriched the country. No-one's disputing this. In fact, very few people are mentioning it.
This current policy goes back to Australia's treatment of Jews from 1938 until after World War II. Limited numbers, careful vetting. Australia had a maximum number of permitted Jewish refugees and seldom reached it. Before then, it had its White Australia policy, and Jews were honorary black.
Moslem refugees today are honorary Jews.
Last week the government was all "We can take Christian Syrians" rather than "We will take people because they need somewhere safe to live. We will welcome them because we're human beings and they are. Both our cultures will adapt and we'll all be the richer." The first sentence reflects the policies of the late thirties and early forties. The second reflects the seventies and eighties.
So we've gone back to the bad old days. Our leaders have their own personal time machine. I don't envy honorary Jews who are homeless and stateless: it's a very bad place to be. And that's not why my mother is writing the letters. We talked about this after she'd decided.
She's writing the letter because the thought of people in refugee camps, driven out of home, with nowhere to go, this hurts her very deeply. Her family is the refugee side of our family. If her father and grandparents hadn't somehow got around the White Australia policy, she wouldn't exist and I wouldn't exist. She's hurting for what they've been through, and hurting for them being in a camp for even a minute longer than they have to.
I haven't suggested she write to the Minister for Immigration. I think he has a hard heart. I haven't suggested she write to the Prime Minister. I think he has a heart only for six people in the world (maybe eight, on a warm and generous day) and once his heart is full there is no space for anyone else. She's writing to her local MP, to various Senators and to the State Liberal Party. This latter is the important one, for she lives in Victoria, the state that brought forth a conservative prime minister who nevertheless opened the doors to refugees. The Victorian Liberals may well also currently contain some of the biggest rightwing ratbags in the country. A letter may make a difference.
There are so many ways to fight this impossible Australia. Mum can't go on marches, she's not interested in joining a party or in converting her friends to a particular path of thought. She just wants her voice heard. If enough people shout, then we have possibilities in the next twelve months that we haven't had for twenty-four months.
Australia is in election year. This will decide who we are. Not the appalling last two years, but what we say and do from now until voting is done.
Terms are three years here. The election has to be completed by mid-June in 2017. In reality, that would normally mean a September-December vote next year. The earliest date for a normal election is in August next year.
Abbott has already said how recalcitrant we all are in not allowing all his budget measures through and in not accepting his policies with enthusiasm and suggested he might call a double dissolution. He can do that almost anytime. He has the triggers, I think, because of the Budget stuff. He could've claimed that he wasn't being permitted to govern for nearly 18 months now, I think. (All the destruction Australia's being undertaking and undergoing are nothing compared with what would have happened if Abbott didn't have a recalcitrant Senate and the checks and balances of the Westminster system. Abbott undermines them, but they fend off the worst nonetheless.) What this would mean would be a full Senate vote instead of a half Senate vote: it would be very risky. I wonder why he's threatening it. Unless he's doing it because we (the voters) are no longer responding to the fear-of-everyone tactics that served him in the lead up to his government?
Anyhow, if anyone wants Australia to move back towards humanity, now is the time for lobbying and public speech. We need to see practical paths and positive futures. We need the flaws in policy carefully exposed and the hurt policy creates laid bare. We need to return to the land of the fair go. We need letters from elderly women saying "Why can't we start letting refugees in now?"
There is a history lesson in the Australian situation. We took a lot of refugees from the Cambodian and Vietnam wars, with complaints, but also with some grace. Those refugees became solid citizens and have enriched the country. No-one's disputing this. In fact, very few people are mentioning it.
This current policy goes back to Australia's treatment of Jews from 1938 until after World War II. Limited numbers, careful vetting. Australia had a maximum number of permitted Jewish refugees and seldom reached it. Before then, it had its White Australia policy, and Jews were honorary black.
Moslem refugees today are honorary Jews.
Last week the government was all "We can take Christian Syrians" rather than "We will take people because they need somewhere safe to live. We will welcome them because we're human beings and they are. Both our cultures will adapt and we'll all be the richer." The first sentence reflects the policies of the late thirties and early forties. The second reflects the seventies and eighties.
So we've gone back to the bad old days. Our leaders have their own personal time machine. I don't envy honorary Jews who are homeless and stateless: it's a very bad place to be. And that's not why my mother is writing the letters. We talked about this after she'd decided.
She's writing the letter because the thought of people in refugee camps, driven out of home, with nowhere to go, this hurts her very deeply. Her family is the refugee side of our family. If her father and grandparents hadn't somehow got around the White Australia policy, she wouldn't exist and I wouldn't exist. She's hurting for what they've been through, and hurting for them being in a camp for even a minute longer than they have to.
I haven't suggested she write to the Minister for Immigration. I think he has a hard heart. I haven't suggested she write to the Prime Minister. I think he has a heart only for six people in the world (maybe eight, on a warm and generous day) and once his heart is full there is no space for anyone else. She's writing to her local MP, to various Senators and to the State Liberal Party. This latter is the important one, for she lives in Victoria, the state that brought forth a conservative prime minister who nevertheless opened the doors to refugees. The Victorian Liberals may well also currently contain some of the biggest rightwing ratbags in the country. A letter may make a difference.
There are so many ways to fight this impossible Australia. Mum can't go on marches, she's not interested in joining a party or in converting her friends to a particular path of thought. She just wants her voice heard. If enough people shout, then we have possibilities in the next twelve months that we haven't had for twenty-four months.
Australia is in election year. This will decide who we are. Not the appalling last two years, but what we say and do from now until voting is done.
Terms are three years here. The election has to be completed by mid-June in 2017. In reality, that would normally mean a September-December vote next year. The earliest date for a normal election is in August next year.
Abbott has already said how recalcitrant we all are in not allowing all his budget measures through and in not accepting his policies with enthusiasm and suggested he might call a double dissolution. He can do that almost anytime. He has the triggers, I think, because of the Budget stuff. He could've claimed that he wasn't being permitted to govern for nearly 18 months now, I think. (All the destruction Australia's being undertaking and undergoing are nothing compared with what would have happened if Abbott didn't have a recalcitrant Senate and the checks and balances of the Westminster system. Abbott undermines them, but they fend off the worst nonetheless.) What this would mean would be a full Senate vote instead of a half Senate vote: it would be very risky. I wonder why he's threatening it. Unless he's doing it because we (the voters) are no longer responding to the fear-of-everyone tactics that served him in the lead up to his government?
Anyhow, if anyone wants Australia to move back towards humanity, now is the time for lobbying and public speech. We need to see practical paths and positive futures. We need the flaws in policy carefully exposed and the hurt policy creates laid bare. We need to return to the land of the fair go. We need letters from elderly women saying "Why can't we start letting refugees in now?"
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