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Refugees will be an election issue : Comments
By Graham Young, published 12/7/2010A 'What the People Want' poll finds the refugee story encapsulates some of the themes that underlie the two sides of Australian political debate.
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Once you've imagined it or experienced it, there's no debate. You know you can't abandon people to torment and death.
Almost all the boat arrivals of the last few years have been granted refugee status. Those who aren't of course can be returned and are returned.
All this says about us is that we are so well-off we can't even begin to imagine the circumstances of those who aren't. We just want them to go away.
If you've been homeless and in fear of your life, you know exactly why asylum seekers get on boats. If you haven't, if you are lucky enough to have escaped those life extremes, then you've got a responsibility to your fellow human beings to imagine what it's like, and care about it.