Refugees

Had letters published in the West and the Oz this morning.

Each was bemoaning the public stance of our respective State and national Leaders on this issue.

I am sure Kevin Rudd has some advisors who think he has to be seen as TOUGH on refugees by styling their journey to seek asylum as ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION. If it is ILLEGAL then in the public mind they are criminal.

The reality of the Federal Government stance is that they respect the right of people to seek protection in our country if they are fleeing from persecution and worse, and they are determined to treat people, while they are having their claims assessed, in a much more humane manner than was the case under the regime established by the cadaverish Phillip Ruddock (this man does not deserve the honorific title I offered yesterday to the Police Minister in WA).

In this context SOFTENING our policies on Boarder Protection is not, in my view, a dirty word. It is simply taking policy back into the realm of decency.

Our local leader, Colin Barnett, was also bleating about refugees, this time the provision of Permenant Residency to all passengers on a boat that caught fire while the Navy was trying to redirect it to Christmas Island. A Coronial Inquest will investigate if anyone acted illegally to cause the fire to start but it is not due to begin its formal investigation until next year.

The Immigration Department has assessed everyone's claims and found them deserving of protection, and the NT police do not believe they should be held in detention until the inquest.

Barnett, on the other hand, wants to condemn them all to detention until we find out who (if anyone) acted illegally in starting the fire. Like his Liberal counterparts in the Federal Parliament he has no heart, and has forgotten the meaning of a fundamental principle of the rule of law - one is innocent under law until proven guilty.

The further this man gets from his precarious beginnings in goverment - almost a minority government - the uglier and more arrogant he gets. It is just a pity the LAbour party was in such a shambles before the election.