We can never be any good as international citizens while we continue to have a racist PM, a racist opposition leader, a racist parliament and courts who flout laws, the rule of law, the constitution and human rights at will.

The abuse of refugees and aborigines is egregious, they don't seem to want to listen to anyone even the head of the UN.

We should be kicked out of the UN, not allowed to join in.

WE are now forcibly deporting Sri Lankans even while the government is accused of hideous war crimes, we are torturing children for politics, wasting billions in the process and the moron parliamentarians are claiming we have to do this to protect our borders from the victims of wars we started.

No country in the world will listen to us while we don't listen to anyone.

It's disgusting that you can even shrug off the fact that policy won't change, it can't be shrugged off like that.

WE are committing crimes against humanity to appease racists and that is the bottom line.

The abuse of refugees and aborigines is egregious,
Marilyn Shepherd,
It's not a good situation at all I agree, but what do you suggest be done ? Let every refugee who desires to come into Australia ? Let the Aborigines laze & drink themselves into earlier & earlier graves ?
For a start you could provide 3-5 points of what you suggest should be done with refugees & to get the wayward indigenous on a good track similar to what 10% of them are.
btw, what are these abuses which weren't brought on by themselves ?

Dr. Alison Pert;

IThanks for your clarion call for Australia to take a lead role in the Security Council.

The upcoming Commonwealth Summit-2013 in Sri Lanka would be a great opportunity for us to follow suit Stephen Harper of Canada and David Cameron of the UK.

Syrians or Sri Lankans, we should never let them take us backwards into killing own citizenry and impunity

But surely our grovelling acceptance of insane UN climate predictions, and our government's willingness to inflict financial pain on its citizens as a result, must have bought us deep affection and commitment from such up-and-coming UN stars as the Maldives and Fiji?

And who knows, if we continue our march back to the Middle Ages, one day we might even attract the approval of a genuine democracy.

But I won't hold my breath.

The enormous amount of money that is being totally and utterly wasted by the political class on things such as attaining a non-permanent seat on the Security Council is causing great concern to a large number of taxpayers. When governments are forced to look at budget cuts, as at present, the first item to be considered should be politicians salaries, and the second should be foreign aid. After all, charity should begin at home. As for international law, what a joke! Beginning with the Nuremberg Tribunal, where Nazis were convicted using retrospective legislation, international law has continued to be invented by lawyers without any authority from the people. It would have been far better and more honest if Churchill's suggestion had been followed and they had been just put up against a wall and shot. The Melbourne paper the Age is not known as right-wing, but has recently described the current status of politicians as "subterranean".

When are we going to get real reform such as:

1. Excessive spending by politicians on election campaigns to be controlled by providing that the only money they can spend is that raised by putting their daughters on the streets.

2. All international conferences, meetings etc. involving politicians MUST be held at the Woomera detention centre (as currently constructed).

I have a further list of necessary reforms, but those two will do for now.

>>Perhaps Australia’s two-year tenure on the Security Council will be an opportunity for it to regain some of the reputation it has lost in recent years.>>

Reputation with who?

Who are these paragons of virtue into whose good graces Australia should strive to wriggle?

I thought the main role of a security council seat is to enable second rate politicians from a minor country to delude themselves that they are movers and shakers on the world scene.

I now see I was only partially correct. Another function of the seat is to enable members of the "Leftariate" to delude themselves that by offering advice to aforementioned second rate politicians they can influence global events at one remove.

Never before have so many Australians paid so much to gratify the egos of so few!

As for R2P – I would have thought the primary responsibility to care of the Australian government is to its own citizens and if that involves pulling back from international conventions that are no longer fit for purpose then so be it.