Isobel, you have written a truly moving opinion piece which needs to become part of national, parliamentary and public policy debates in our great country Australia and internationally.

All to often the good citizens of Australia are too busy extinguishing bushfires and have too little time to become actively involved in scrutinising policies on asylum seekers, human rights or foreign policies that discriminate and delegitimise sovereign states like the Republic of Macedonia. We must not wait to be led. We must lead debates and policies for achieving better social, economic, democratic and ethical outcomes.

maybe Isobel you should use some of your compassion to meditate on the millions of displaced people who are waiting in refugee camps and have no money to pay people smugglers. If a tiny bit of logic enters your brain you will see those in the camps are really the 'innocent lambs'. I suspect it does not fit your politics as it doesn't the UN.

I identify the moral and intellectual fakery of Isobel’s article as lying in the fact that she expects other people to be forced to pay against their will the costs of the values she pretends to hold but is not willing to pay for voluntarily.

“We must not wait to be led. We must lead. “

Good. Here’s your chance. I have already asked you and everyone criticising Australia’s asylum-seeker policy to undertake the costs themselves, and received only shrieks of silence in reply.

My humanitarianism has even drafted the Deed and Declaration of Trust that you can use to prove that your protestations of moral superiority are not fake.

Here it is. Open a trust account, and deposit as much into it as you believe should be spent on social justice for asylum-seekers. And circulate the deed to everyone who agrees with you, with instructions how to deposit into the trust account.

Then print and sign the deed, and then post the signed original in PDF back into this thread so anyone in Australia can sue you on it if they want.

“DEED AND DECLARATION OF TRUST

I, the undersigned, hereby solemnly and sincerely declare that I hold the whole of my property, both real and personal, ON TRUST to pay for all the costs of dealing with asylum-seekers to Australia with the compassion, and to the standards, I proclaim as good and morally necessary.

This includes all costs of:
• Ensuring their safety at sea and safely landing in Australian territory
• Health and identity checks
• Accommodation, food, health, mental health, sport, recreation, training during processing
• The costs of determination of refugee status, including all reviews administrative and judicial
• The costs of administration, including all premises, staff, salaries, tax, superannuation, workers compensation, holiday leave, flex leave, long service leave, maternity leave, study leave
• The costs of resettlement including income support, housing, and training
• Full indemnity for any crimes, including full costs of legal, court, admininstrative costs, and impact on victims..."

(cont.)

(cont.)

“I declare I am appalled by, and condemn the moral depravity of current policy on asylum-seekers.

On that basis, I make this solemn declaration as legally binding with the intention that any person in Australia should have and does hereby have a legal action against me in law and equity for judgment as to the whole of my property in repayment of any and all of the above costs, in satisfaction of the values of humanity I have publicly declared without so far having to, or ever intending to, put my money where my mouth is.

SIGNED, SEALED AND DELIVERED

Isobel Blackthorn
Every member and supporter of the Labor party
Every member and supporter of the Greens
Every member and supporter of the Refugee Council of Australia
Every member and supporter of the Jesuit Refugee Service
Every member and supporter of the Refugee Advice and Casework service
Every member and supporter of the Asylum-Seekers Centre"

Most of the bleating seems to be coming from seemingly paid activists, looking at their rapidly diminishing bank balances?

Rather than genuine asylum seekers, who to a person, are thankful for safe sanctuary!

Yes it's not perfect, but then we could say the same about our own orphanages, or about those forced to sleep rough, and sometimes for virtual decades.

And we have over a hundred thousand of the latter right here, and a far better place for our "forced" largess, than on uninvited economic migrants.

Perhaps if we could just have some BALANCED comparisons between our treatment of intending economic migrants; and those meted out in ASYLUM seeker camps in southern Thailand!?

Those bleating about how we treat ENTIRELY UNINVITED GUESTS, would have absolutely nothing to say!?

I didn't agree with how he went about it, but I entirely agree with what former P.M Howard said! "We shall decide who comes here and the manner of their arrival"!
Rhrosty.

Another 'activist'. Woudn't have thought that there would have been much action in "rural New South Wales" where she lives. Everyone is an activist these days. Activism means ' a policy of taking direct and often militant action to achieve an end, esp a political or social one'.

Nothing about whimsy and naive nonsense which flies in the face of common sense, majority opinion, and the rule of law which protects our democratic way of life.

Leave activism out of Australia where it is irrelevant. Life doesn't get any better than it is here.