Tag: asylum seekers
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Pre-emptive fact busting
I have a theory (or, really, two theories) about what goes through Tony Abbott’s mind in situations like this. The context, so as not to get too far ahead of myself, is that Indonesian doctors appear to be treating burns of asylum seekers who claim mistreatment at the hands of the Australian Navy, as they…
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Hopes for 2012
Here’s a bit of everything for the new year — some hopes for what we could and should be doing as a nation, in no particular order. We must address the asylum seeker debate with decency, maturity and humility. We should accept many more refugees, and at the same time encourage other countries to do so…
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Manoeuvring the boats
In a previous post, I described Labor as the “architects of unconscionable incompetence”, specifically with respect to the Malaysian Solution, at least temporarily defeated by the High Court. This post is motivated by the latest political manoeuvring on the issue. I was about to declare myself wrong over the “incompetence” tag (but certainly not the “unconscionable”…
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Inconvenient sanity
The judicial arm of government has taken the executive’s asylum seeker policy out the back and had it shot, such was the extent of its mutilation and suffering. The Labor Party is busy saving whatever face it can, but this is really very hard to spin. I fervently hope its strategists are even now exchanging…
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The economics of insanity
I learnt a new phrase today – “lexicographic preference” – courtesy of economics professor J. Bradford DeLong. Before I tell you what it means, let me show you what kind of thinking it produces (not on DeLong’s part, but on those he ridicules). Here are two quotes (don’t look at the links just yet). First:…
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Nothing so humble
The ABC reports that Scott Morrison “climbs down in funeral row”: Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison has admitted he was “insensitive” to question the cost of funerals as families mourned for those lost in the Christmas Island shipwreck tragedy yesterday. News Ltd reported that Morrison was sorry for his “insensitive and inappropriate” comments: A CHASTENED…
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Back’s boats
Senator Back is doing the rounds with a strong anti-boat-arrival theme. I fired back a letter in frustration, which I’ll get to in a moment. First, I’ll mention something else I discovered. Back sent out two letters, about a month apart, each accompanied with a pamphlet on how Labor is failing to “stop the boats”.…
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Was it right? (part 2)
This is a counterargument to a [intlink id=”1069″ type=”post”]previous post[/intlink], in which I argued the case for switching from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to Prime Minister Julia Gillard (or rather, why certain objections were unfounded). Gillard’s rise to power may have restored Labor’s popularity for the time being (and certainly at a very opportune moment),…
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Wilson Tuckey, supergenius
Kevin Rudd must secretly love Wilson Tuckey, in the way that one might value a psychopath who happens to inhabit the enemy bunker and can’t actually fire a weapon. In other words, Tuckey plays right into Rudd’s political message. Perhaps feeling a little defensive over all the condemnation of his [intlink id=”935″ type=”post”]boat terrorist hypothesis[/intlink],…
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It’s teh boat terrorists!
The existence of Wilson Tuckey is truly an unnecessary contribution to the heat death of the universe. Quite predictably, he suggests that terrorists are lurking among asylum seekers arriving by boat. Sayeth the Great Purveyor of Entropy, himself a convicted criminal: If you wanted to get into Australia and you have bad intentions what do…