Sometimes one dispairs for the way this country is heading. Petro Georgiou has restored some of my faith. We need representatives of conscience to stand up, not just follow a party line, if we are to preserve democracy. I don't want 'yes' men/women in our parliaments.
I want to see a healthy debate, not a rubber stamp and certainly not a dictatorship from the Leader of which ever party is in government.

That said, to those who agree with the governments current policy re detention of those who would dare to breach our borders, I ask, should those from Iraq and Afghanistan have stayed to be bombed by the allies?

Our Prime Minister took every opportunity to say how evil the former regimes of Iraq and Afghanistan were, yet these people and their families were suppose to stay and endure such evil? Think about that while you enjoy each day with your families.

And here's mean thinking the REDNECK was a dieing breed. Maybe we should try culling them.

Kenny, you are sounding very much like a tyrant: kill those who disagree with you. As for refugees, Australia already has a quota, a certain amount that we can accept. We cannot let them all in, and if we did, it still would'nt solve all the problems of the world. There would still be wars, poverty, famine etc etc.

I found Kevin Donnelly's article to be a refreshing change from the one eyed bigotry displayed from the anti-howard camp.

So it is Liberal policy to lock up children who have come to this country to seek refuge and discard those with a conscience. What is their crime? Wrong place wrong time?
How do the Liberals and their supporters justify this cruelty to children? Orwell said " In our time, Political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible." Today the Liberals dole out the euphemisms and PR to defend the indefensible. For instance: "mandatory detention" is really imprisonment without trial; an "illegal" is a mother, a child, a person - flesh and blood with feelings. The main argument that we get to counter refugees and others who protest against this cruelty in Australia is the "question-begging", the "what if" nonsense comparing the treatment that they would get at the hands of dictators without conscience (that most refugees are escaping from). These mothers, fathers, sons and daughters are denied our help because the humanitarian conscience that they are appealing to no longer recognises their humanity - the "sheer cloudy vagueness" has swallowed up their humanity. Vague, desperate, fleeting images in the distance behind bars.

According to KD, the Liberals have "legitimised" gaoling children and their parents in prisons to discourage other refugees from entering our shores. A terrorist is a person who uses extreme fear to govern or coerce government or community. So, I think, those condoning this method of coercion, that is, locking up refugees to coerce boat people into staying away is based on the similar thinking as a terrorist uses - it is wrong.
Moreover, political conformity of the kind KD encourages, engenders the machine-like responses Orwell talks of in his essays. Those in favour of gaoling the mums and dads from afar who seek our help to scare others have no conscience, or more precisely , a sense of justice. Conscience reminds us of our humanity - without it you are just cogs in a machine.

Well Kevin, not much sympathy with your fascist extremism attitudes in this forum. Maybe its time to limp away on three legs like another notable fascist , Bjelky Peterson.

boaz david, why are you surprised by my political background?