"Melbourne's medicos remind us that the utilitarian politics behind our brutal asylum seeker policy strikes at the heart of our civilisation.

It's easy to forget there was a time that we didn't justify our asylum seeker policies by claiming they were "stopping deaths at sea". Once upon the Howard era, we were candid enough to say flat out it was a bald assertion of sovereignty, bolstered by a general hunch we didn't really like these people very much."

(Not that the majority of folks on threads like this ever bother to hide their xenophobia - although I note the latest lament that the kids should be returned to abusive situations so they can be beside their equally abused parents)

"Viewed through that history we can see just how remarkable the transformation has been. "Deaths at sea" allowed us to take a crassly nationalistic argument and turn it instead into a moral one. The odd "economic refugees" or "Christians only" snipe aside, we stopped attacking refugees directly and attacked people smugglers instead. Brutality was transformed into a kind of muscular compassion, and every confirmation of the psychological (and sometimes physical) destruction of people under our jurisdiction was rendered a sober necessity. Deterrence, no matter what horrors it entailed, became the only moral position. That, insisted Malcolm Turnbull this week, is "the melancholy truth".

And it is precisely this that makes the current refusal of doctors at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital to discharge their asylum-seeker patients if they are to be returned to immigration detention so potent. In a debate that is so constant and repetitive it has become mere auditory wallpaper, theirs is the most disruptive intervention in years. And that's because it is so explicitly not political.

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/doctors-protest-over-asylum-seekers-shows-us-what-real-morality-is-all-about-20151014-gk9emp.html#ixzz3ocS3ZxwI

poirot: although I note the latest lament that the kids should be returned to abusive situations so they can be beside their equally abused parents)

Who said they are abused just by being in a place where they knew they were going to end up in.

poirot: turn it instead into a moral one.

No, one of protecting the Australian people against importing an evil religion that is even now hurting them.

doog: The decision to grant a 23-year-old Somali refugee - raped on the offshore detention centre Nauru - an abortion was the only acceptable outcome, after a week of high media scrutiny and public outcry.

Have we heard from the "Right to Life" people on this decision.

& Now by the look of it a flood of suddenly raped women are popping up everywhere. Foot in the door? They & their greenie ilk will try anything.

Poirot,

Both you and Waleed Ali have considerable gall to accuse the government (and the Opposition too who support stopping the boats) of utilitarianism.

Then there is this noxious, unexplained and unsubstantiated allegation against the Australia that has taken in so many migrants and implemented so much 'diversity' as to threaten continuance of its own culture,

"the utilitarian politics behind our brutal asylum seeker policy strikes at the heart of our civilisation"

Honestly now, what a load of steaming manure and very solidly establishing the author's claims to the title of Moralising BS Artist. There are a few like him around.

tbc..

contd..

However I also read some posts in the link that did not make it a complete waste of time. Here is one from 'Crystal Clear',

" There are now fewer than 100 children in detention, on or offshore. I understand some of these are the families of failed asylum seekers, some on security grounds,who cannot be returned to their countries. Some from Nauru have been offered to be able to come to the mainland but without the refused parent. This has been declined.Do you have the figures, Waleed?

If we examine the European analogy, the number of arrivals, and the rate of drownings in the Mediterranean increased greatly after Italy commenced their Mare Nostrum pick-up and then EU started Operation Trident. Why? Inflatable canoes, even more disastrously overloaded, rather than marginally seaworthy boats were used as the migrants would ring to be picked up mere kilometres from the African coast. Result: more deaths. If Schengen rules were enforced at point of entry, fewer would have attempted the trip also.

Between Greece and Turkey there were few drownings until Merkel recklessly offered German hospitality. Then the rush in flimsy inflatables , overloaded, without safety jackets or reliable skippers , commenced, as all know the door cannot be kept open for long.
So there is substance to the argument that these "stop the boats"policies save lives.

I do not want to see children in detention either. The Liberal government is doing well to have the numbers as low as they are. But it is hard to be sure of anything Waleed when one does not know ( and cannot know for privacy reasons?) all of the details of the Australian detainees.

Maybe one should say that after WW2 even fascists and Nazis who wanted a fresh start became good citizens all over the world. So if the kids have unacceptable parents, let them in. Your street, or mine?- yours, please."

Beach, no one is asking you, or anyone, to put money into rice farming in Fiji. The aim is to make Fiji self-sufficient in rice production by 2020 thus saving the economy about $40m annually. The latest venture is Korean backed through GRFC, I spoke to a company rep last week about the project and he gave me a bit of run down on the aims and future plans and I wish them well, the fact the Australian venture of 20 years ago failed is neither here nor there, and its not bagging Australia. These people are simply trying something different, Fiji thanks Australia for what we do for them both in aid and through the tourism industry, Fiji's largest industry now, taking over from sugar production.
Again, no one is having a lend of me regarding children's dental work

http://www.agriculture.gov.fj/index.php/newsroom/press-releases?id=257