Refugees, Compassion and Security
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Australia’s treatment of refugees is currently presented as being dominated foremost by concerns for our security and for the safety of those who may undertake perilous journeys in order to seek refuge in Australia.
Even legislation designed to ensure that doctors rather than bureaucrats determine whether a refugees is in need of medical treatment that can only be provided in Australia, is criticised for enticing people smugglers to resume bringing refugees into our waters.
Our embarrassing and dangerous Prime Minister and Attorney-General even suggest that the new law will permit thieves, child molesters etc to receive medical treatment in Australia. That these statements have not provoked an outpouring of criticism and outrage is surely an indictment of a gullible Australian society lacking in empathy. To agree with our government on this issue, would be to agree with the view that of people in Australia or in Australian custody elsewhere, only those without criminal records who do not pose any possible threat to Australia should be entitled to receive medical treatment that can only be provided in Australia.
Since when is medical treatment and preservation of life dependent on a person’s criminal record? Our government sees the glimpse of decency offered by the new law, (that will seek to ensure that decisions about who receives treatment in Australia are made for medical rather than political reasons), as a sign of weakness. Perhaps realising that this is scare-mongering, our government has set about spreading the word that the new law makes seeking refugee status in Australia more attractive, and announced that it will reopen the Christmas Island detention centre to ensure that people smugglers take this prediction seriously.
Let us hope that this does not to turn out to be a self fulfilling prophecy as our scaremongering and populist politicians will twist such a development into a crisis attributed to a law which in a very modest way allows us to regain some acceptance of responsibility to those who arrived in our waters seeking refuge (and therefore legally) and have been detained in barely human conditions for up to 5 years.
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