Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Sad State of Affairs

This nonsense around asylum seekers and the "Malaysian Solution" is poor form. As Julian Burnside points out here - it’s a solution in search of a problem.

Those Australian's who understand the consequences will be seriously distressed.

Distressed because on the one hand we have an Opposition Leader who has been busy fanning the flames around asylum seekers - knowing full well that a large subset of our population are bigoted and racist and uninformed. He sees an opportunity and is simply chasing after the bogan vote. Just like a dog after a car. He is not at all concerned or bothered by any implication beyond next week. Apparently he doesn't realise that his hate campaign is turning large numbers of real Australian's off him and his political party. He thinks the *rusted ons* will always vote Liberal. Think again Fido.

And on the other hand we have a Prime Minister who is clearly not brave enough to stand up and be counted and to act like a leader and tell the truth to the Australian people. She has been intimidated by a populist Opposition Leader and has decided to join him in his pursuit of the bogan. Instead of telling him to piss off her actions are pissing off Labor Party supporters - who are moving elsewhere in droves.

It's poor form when the two most powerful political leaders in the country have agreed to beat up people who have fled their native land in search of a better life and who have ended up on our shores as asylum seekers - seeking our help.

All for the sake of winning a few hundred thousand bogan votes. They both behave as if those bogan votes are more important to them than human rights. Are they?

It's a blot on our democracy that we have allowed this behaviour to exist at all. We need to re-set our political processes to banish this trivial pursuit of the lowest common denominator and its related bigotry and racism and ignorance.

We can start by replacing these two political actors with genuine leaders who understand and value our nation and know the meaning of that word - Leadership.

And then follow up by rejecting the supporters of this obnoxious behaviour next time we front up to the ballot box.

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