"Bringing asylum seekers to a place like this is hardly sending the right message to the tens of thousands of potential boat people in our region,"
"[It] is basically saying to the people smugglers and their customers that the welcome mat is out, that the red-carpet treatment is available.
"You do not send idyllic picture postcards from Australia to the people smugglers and their customers."
What bollocks.
What is attractive to asylum seekers is Australia. They don't give a damn about our detention centres, they give a damn about Australia. If Abbott really wants to get rid of the "pull factor" he should come up with some policies that make Australia a horrible place to live in. Make it a place less inviting than Indonesia.
There is a fair bit of crap being represented about the Inverbrackie detention centre. For a start it is not in Woodside. From my home town to Adelaide I would drive through Woodside (an oft made trip). I only once saw the Inverbrackie barracks and that was when I was about 10 and wanted to be join the army, and so Dad took me to the barracks to see what it was like.
Other than that I never saw it. You have to turn off and drive out of the town to reach it. So when you see photos like this accompanying a story on the issue, you get the feeling the people of Woodside are going to be bumping into the asylum seekers while they're down at the shops, or they'll need to find a new place to park when going to the hairdressers because suddenly a detention centre is where the carpark used to be. It isn't.
Woodside is a nice place to live.
It is quiet place that has seen real estate prices increase by massive amounts over the last decade as people realise that it's an easy commute into Adelaide.
It has kept up this nice, quiet atmosphere despite there being an army barracks located out of town.
Or do you think young blokes in the army are all church going folk who live quiet peaceable lives and never like going for a drink and getting up to a bit of young, loud fun ?
But as I say, the barracks are not exactly next to the Post Office.
Here's the barracks:
Yep - there goes the neighbourhood.
But let's get back to Abbott and his message. What message does he want us to send? If being tough on detainees is what he thinks works, then lets get out the razor wire, and get the kids behind it. Let's reduce the rations and see if we can't weed out a few through natural attrition.
All in the interests of sending a message, mind.
We don't want to be subtle about it - because you just know those infidels don't grasp subtlety, so let's make sure the message that gets sent is of a decent camp were people are treated indecently. Last thing we want is anyone to think Australia is a place of compassion.
But hell, the asylum seekers who are here most likely are terrorists so we can't be too careful. If they are found to be "genuine" refugees why not let them out in the public, but make sure they are known to all. Look they're all Muslims so let's get them to wear a crescent moon on their clothes so we know who they are. That will send the right message to those wishing to come here that Australia isn't the place for them.
Geez... the bile it rises.
This sending a message crap needs to get stomped on for the utter stupidity it is. Abbott and Morrison if they knew anything about asylum seeker policy would realise that the only way (the ONLY way) to any long term solution is through a regional solution.
The whole objective of the proposed East Timor centre is that getting sent there is not a fast track to Australia. The problem of course is it requires the region to agree to the process.
That is bloody hard.
Indonesia quite frankly doesn't give a damn about asylum seekers coming to Australia, and truth be known most likely thinks the whole attention our media and parts of the electorate gives to it is rather humorous. But Gillard's visit to Jakarta was a good start. Any media reporting that it was a negative outcome because President Yudhoyono didn't give the East Timor idea a ringing endorsement really needs to be taken with a bucket load of salt.
No one expected an endorsement. Naomi Woodley got it spot on yesterday when she reported:
NAOMI WOODLEY: Mark he's spoken in positive terms of the Government's attempts to put in place a regional framework to deal with people smuggling and asylum seekers. He's pointed to the fact that there are already two different forums looking at those sorts of questions.
And like Julia Gillard he thinks the talks known as the Bali Process are the right place for these discussions. He says that should happen next year and that is the timetable that the Federal Government was already working towards.
On the specific question of a processing centre you know proposed for East Timor he hasn't given it the Indonesian government's endorsement. But Julia Gillard would have been encouraged by his response.
Exactly - it's encouraging. It's just a start. This is going to be a long process - but one worth following. (Or should Gillard only bother with policies that can be sorted within the 24 hour news' cycle?).
The ALP needs to hold firm on this. They have got to abandon the attempt to appear tougher than the Libs. It doesn't work with the asylum seekers, and it doesn't with the voters. Do you think anyone who wants a tougher asylum seeker policy is still with the ALP?
Chris Bowen has got the response spot on when he said:
Mr Bowen says detention centres are not meant to be punitive or send a message of deterrence to asylum seekers.
"I don't think, for example, that children and families should be located in remote locations in high-security facilities which is what Mr Abbott seems to be implying.
It's time the ALP stuck to its guns and not worry about the asylum seeker dilemma. We are at a point in the electoral cycle where the polls are almost irrelevant (one of the reason why I haven't bothered to report on Newspolls etc since the election).
If they think they are right; if they think their policy is the best for Australia - then be bold and argue it - explain it (God, please explain it, because I bet 95% of the electorate don't understand it yet) - convince the voters as best they can, but not worry if they don't convince a majority (because they won't). If they think it is right then do it. Don't do it because they think it is the least worst way to tackle the issue politically.
Peter Brent is right when he says people thinking the ALP Government doesn't stand for anything is hardly stunning news - people thought that of Hawke and Keating (I certainly did as an angry-young man at university). But that doesn't mean the party shouldn't stand for things.
This is one issue on which the ALP needs to make a stand.
Tony Abbott and his merry band of retarded misfits really are becoming very nasty pieces of work with the sort of comments he made today.
ReplyDeleteI really like Chris Bowen in this portfolio. He does have compassion and is implementing policy that demonstrates that. I thought it was interesting that he said that there is a much higher return rate to country of origin when detainees are held in the community. In detention centres solidarity makes them more likely to stick together until the end.
ReplyDeleteObviously Abbott still thinks he is on a winner with this but it may back fire. Hopefully by next election it will have all been said and argued and can stop being such an issue
Heard on ABC Local in Adelaide this morning a snippett of what drop-kick Abbott was saying to the audience of 200 BUSSED-IN supporters, 1 "illegals", 2 "stop the boats" and turned the radio off. That's right, the ABC journo who went to the big photo opportunity said they bussed in their supporters.
ReplyDeleteMuch less was mentioned in later news reports of the other locals who were out and about putting up purple ribbons all over Woodside as a sign of welcome to the refugees.
Hi Greg
ReplyDeleteThankyou for another informative, interesting piece about Woodside, it certainly is a pretty little town. Greg your pieces continue to delight me.
Tony Abbott is only causing a noise because he has not had very much media coverage lately, his visit to The Melbourne Cup failed on the nightly news.
So he goes back to being nasty to the refugees and Asylum seekers, "stop the boats", where would he like them put, he doesn't say, as you said back behind razor wire in the desert.
Greg I have to tell you this as a matter of principle, which has been bugging me for a long time.
Commenters on blogs do not like constanly leaving comments without any acknowledgement at all.
I know this as fact,because we have had plenty of commenters on The Political Sword
that have said they have returned up to five times to see if their comment has been acknowledged in anyway.
After all it is only human, how does one feel to be ignored.
Given the way the Australian cricket team are going, with a Tamil hitting the winning runs against Australia, I'm sure Johnny will be having a word in Tony's ear before too long. Why waste their talents in Nauru when they could fill the gaps in the cricket team! (Mmm, I wonder if Australia could beat Afghanistan at cricket at present? )
ReplyDeleteClearly time for a clean out of the old mob of descendants of Anglo boat people and offer citizenship to some new talent!
Ah, the irony of it all! Murali hitting the winning runs must be causing the primary architect of Abbott's "Stop the Boats" nonsense some excruciating dissonance!
sorry lyn, I didn't realise I had been ignoring you!
ReplyDeleteI don't acknowldge every comment because unlike TPS which is more of a comment/conversation type blog that generates conversation, mine is more my just writing pieces.
Often I only see the comments the next day - I don't respond to comments during the day when at work, so by the time it gets to when I could respond to them I am already trying madly to write the next post in betwen everything else in my life.
The way my time is limited I'm not going to be acknowledging each comment. Sometimes I'll reply to a comment - especially if a question has been asked, but I am never going to be able to have the time to really give the comments the responses they deserve.
I certainly do read them and appreciate the commentary. Were I to go to a 2-3 post a week blog, I would spend more time getting a discussion going in the comments. But for now my time is spent doing other things.
Intersting Pip - a rent a crowd? I didn't read about that. You would think that might be newsworthy...
ReplyDeleteHi Greg, thanks for the reply, in our household we understand the format and don't expect replies so appreciate this one.
ReplyDeleteAnon - I understand you passion, and agree with your point about the nasty aspect, but as the Dad of a girl with Down Syndrome, I'm not a fan of the "r-word".
ReplyDeletecheers Pip - it really is just a time issue. It can take up to 3 hours to write a post - which can mean I'm only finishing around 9:30pm, at which point my real life kinda likes to get some attention!
ReplyDeleteMy blog is a bit like Possum's in that comments are certainly appreciated, but it's not really a discussion blog - and Possum himelf rarely responds. A blog like Jack the Insider on the other hand is one where the comments are the main game. I seriously don't have the time or energy (or at his point desire) to go down this route.
So comments are certainly welcome, and are most definately read. But please don't be offended if I don't respond. (As a rule I do repsond if you've found an error - though I know I didn't yesterday when Lyn found one).
Thank you for writing this great article.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who has a refugee background, I am disgusted by the Liberal Party stance on asylum seekers of them trying to spread xenophobia amongst the community. It's a shame that this was the same party that Malcolm Fraser came from who was generous in accepting refugees from Vietnam (which Howard was the only cabinet minister who opposed that decision). The Liberal Party certainly went down hill ever since.
Greg
I have a question about the "East Timor Solution". You have stated that this would be different to the Pacific solution because East Timor is a signatory of UNHCR.
However what practical difference would this have if they are detain in a UNHCR detention centre instead of in Nauru? Would the proposed detention centre in East Timor be similar to creating another UNHCR refugee camp? Right now I'm not too sure what is the difference between the "East Timor Solution" and the "Pacific Solution".
It's also good to see an Oils fan as well :)
ReplyDeleteExactly the same BS going on here in W.A with the "rent a crowd" headed for NOrtham tomorrow. Not to mention the daft talk back radio buffoon sprucing his live broadcast from the event. It's so embarrassing :-(
ReplyDeleteTrung the big diff is Nauru was essentially just a stop on the way to Australia - and only asylum seekers coming to Oz went there.
ReplyDeleteThe East Timor proposal is a regional one in that asylum seekers who come into the region may get sent there - or to another regional centre - where they would be treated the same as asylum seekers in other centres throughout the region.
This is the key (and the bloody hard part). As Gillard said the other day when she was in Malaysia:
"Ms Gillard agreed to share information with Malaysia because she said the "foundation stone" of her plan was that all asylum seekers should face the same processing rules in any country. "My vision here is regional processing framework. People would face the same processing and outcomes."
So being in the East Timor centre would give you no greater likelihood of ending up in Australia than were you to be in a Malaysian one.
So in effect there is no point in getting on the boat because you will get no advantage by endning up in East Timor as you would have had you stayed in Malyasia or Indonesia - in fact if you entered Malaysia you might be sent to East Timor anyway depending on space in other centres.
At its core it is about trying to actually establish a real queue. Is this realistic? Who knows. For mine it sure is worth trying - at worst we might get Indonesia and Malaysia to adopt more humane treatment of asylum seekers - a worthwhile goal in itself.
Now it is a big ask. I don't know if they'll get there - but a real regional solution is the only real long term solution (in my opinion)
Great explaination of the East Timor solution. If only the ALP were that articulate on the subject (although I am a big fan of Chris Bowen). The angle about creating a queue would resonate with Australians as apparently this is their main gripe (well so they say).
ReplyDeleteWhile comments are appreciated they arent expected! well by me anyway. I for one would rather you post everyday but I admire that you can do this and have a life. Keep up the goodwork!
The bit I found most disturbing was Abbott's repeated use of "people smugglers and their customers" and then the usual condemnation.
ReplyDeleteThere used to be at least a pretence of differentiation between the 'scum' smugglers and the 'desperate' asylum seekers.
And the asylum seekers destined for this town are the families with children. Maybe the Opposition fears this more, as it may actually bring about a change in attitude when the locals are pleasantly surprised at the nature of the new residents. Fear won't work so well then.
As usual Grog you've summed things up well.Oh the sadness and the embarrassment.
ReplyDeleteWhat I want to know is how can a man who is a professed Christian and Catholic, behave in such an appalling way?? I understand that Mr. Abbott was educated by the Jesuits. I was educated by the Dominican nuns and obviously recieved a completely different message about charity and compassion to those who are in need.He surely does no credit to his teachers, let alone his religion.
Trung, a Timor Leste solution has at least three major advantages over the Pacific solution for the Government.
ReplyDelete1: AS don’t have to pay smugglers to take them from Indonesia to somewhere near Australian waters in a leaky boat. They can take commercial inter island transport either direct to LT if there are regular direct links, or to West Timor and then a bus ride to the TL border where presumably transport will be provided to take them to the processing centre. Either way, it should be cheaper and much safer.
2: The whole ‘boat people’ meme disappears. No more daily reports about another boat being intercepted. No more Opp demands to “STOP the BOATS.” The numbers game also becomes much harder for the Opp and media. The only one you might hear is how many AS have been accepted. Effectively, the boat people take on the same status as the much more numerous ‘airline people,’ i.e. invisibility.
3: It saves us a lot of money. Less need to have patrol boats on permanent station and Coast Watch planes endlessly looking for AS, no having to transport them to Nauru, no having to ship all they need, food, clothes, water, toilet paper, etc, 3,500km to that speck in the vast briny. Most of what they need can be sourced in LT.
I am not religious but Tony Abott's stand on refugees seems to be opposite of my limited understanding of the Christian faith. I note the church community is much more compassionate on this issue. I wrote this letter to the Herald back in July:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.smh.com.au/national/letters/stop-vilifying-desperate-people-20100709-103wi.html
We're last in the queue for logic
We sent our elite soldiers into the dangerous war zones of Afghanistan, uninvited by its people, but ''freeze'' the application for refugee status of the same people fleeing the same war zones, who arrive uninvited on our shores. We worry about our declining birthrates and pay a bonus for more babies, but reject whole families knocking on our doors.
We celebrate the courage of a 16-year-old sailing around the world in a high-tech yacht, but complain about ''queue jumping'' when asylum seekers risk their lives on leaky boats in the same treacherous seas.
We swamp our airtime with discussions of a few thousand boat arrivals when vastly more come by air. Our Prime Minister talks about ''leadership'', ''moving forward'' and ''governing for all of Australia'', then crafts her policies on polling results of a few marginal seats. Our Opposition Leader is a devout Christian - but exactly which paragraph of the Bible teaches him to ''turn the boats around''?
While the smarmy abbott and co keep up this pretence that the refugees are evil people who break the law to get here the great unwashed beer swilling lib supporters will continue to show their true colours, red of neck, green of eye. black of heart.
ReplyDeleteWhile the rabble you see at these lib rallies probably dont read, either lazy or just illiterate , it would be an improvement if this article by Grog was handed out at these meetings so as to have an easily understood rebuttal of the rants of the lib organisers.
I agree with ernmalliescat once the refugees are settled the locals who are opposed may realise that they are pretty much like everyone else and only want to live without turmoil in their lives.
Great The media has to carry a fair bit of the blame for this hysteria too. i had friends who turned upto the first Woodside meeting and said that it wasn't nearly as hostile and 'anti-refugee' as was portrayed on the box.
ReplyDeleteThe reality is that those refugees housed at places like Inverbrackie will be ones close to the end of the process who prima facie have strong claims and are likely to be granted protection.
Abbott's comments are simply offensive and reek of Nazi propaganda, a deliberate attempt to dehumanise. It's ok for some people to be put in ghettos because they are somehow less than us and less deserving.
ps. I did hear someone refer to Woodside as the Golden Grove of the Adelaide Hills lol
arguing for and supporting something because it is right - how i would love to see that.
ReplyDeleteit is time that somebody stood up and said that the way we treat asylum seekers is wrong, and that it is going to change whether people like it or not.
emjar and others - As a Catholic Tony Abbott can tell as many lies as he likes or commit other heinous acts with impunity. The Catholic Church has "confession" where people get "forgiven" for all their "sins". Great system for a politician (of all parties).
ReplyDeleteGrog, don't be misled into responding to comments more than you feel comfortable with.
A site like TPS may have 200 comments but they consist mostly of those people posting on it talking to each other over and over. It is more a social site for this reason and while Ad Astra posts really good material the responses confer an "in-house" flavour to any discussion.
The Opposition have chosen a path for this term of Government that seems to require them to play to the lowest common denominator and those in the media who don't care about anyone or anything other than themselves and their pay-packets.
A little bit of information about the Catholic Sacrament of Confession [now called Reconciliation].
ReplyDeleteBefore absolution is granted, the person confessing his or her sins, must be sorry for their sins and be intending to do better in the future.
I'm no expert on the subject but I reckon Tony Abbott might be having trouble with the second part given that he probably doesn't believe he's doing anything wrong in the first place......ever.
All Labor needs to do to stop the boats is go back to the Pacific Solution.
ReplyDeleteHoward took boat arrivals from 5500 in 2001 to 1 single boatperson for the entire of 2002. THATS A SOLUTION.
What Labor are doing now is basically stalling for time and pretending they are doing something with this East Timor solution when it's clear it's never going to happen. A Labor tactic to simply stall for time as things get worse and worse.
There are 5 Million refugee's waiting for resettlement in the world. Australia has a set rate intake of 13,500 humanitarian spots per year.
The belief by the left that somehow those who pay people smugglers, pass through multiple countries and jump the queue are the most deserving out of all those 5 Million simply enters the world of do-gooder fairy land. NO these people are not the most deserving, they are the least deserving. Only Australia and the U.N should have the right to decide and choose those most in need, NOT people smugglers and criminal gangs.
And finally onto the point about redneck racist Inverbrackie. Can someone please explain to me why the hell Labor keeps opening detention centres in Safe Lib electorates well away from the lefties, labor seats and Canberra bueracrats?
Forget Inverbrackie, Weipa, Northam, Leonora or all the other out of the way area's it's time we open Canberra up for (people smuggler)business. Should be lots of army base space and public land in Canberra for a 1500 male detention centre I reckon and only a short drive away from the immigration public servants sucking the tit of our tax dollars.
But yet... nothing. No plans for a massive detention centre in leftwing heartland of Canberra, the perfect place for a detention centre.
Anyone care to hazard a guess why?
Seems Canberrans have caught a bad case of the NIMBY's don't want the detention centre wrecking their peaceful Canberran utopian lifestyles.
thanks Truthy, nice of you to prove that you can always squeeze in just a bit more idiocy into this debate.
ReplyDelete"peaceful Canberran utopian lifestyles"
Funniest line I've read all week.
Greg
ReplyDeletePerhaps Truthy is Mike Rann?
Following his election in 2002, Mr Rann said he was opposed to detention centres being opened in South Australia and that all asylum-seekers should be housed in “centres in Canberra, close to the federal government officials who process and assess the refugees”.
Dio, I don't recall ever defending Mike Rann on this issue.
ReplyDeleteGrog, I agree that you should feel free to turn off the computer once you have posted your item for the day.
ReplyDeleteI disagree Lyn that contributors expect to have some acknowledgement from the blog writer. Acknowledgements on The Political Sword are often little more than an overly fulsome thanks and a pat on the back whereas I hope to find comment and constructive argument.
I look forward to reading both GG and TPS but I rarely read the comments at TPS now because so many are off-topic, social chit chat or from the rabid right
Hmmm I see the coalition have been at it again in Northam. Surely they are as embarrassed by these people as the rest of Australia. Fuelling this type of behaviour is so irresponsible. They might steal my car??? Thats what happens when you imply that these people are criminals. Completely irrational statements. I for one am VERY embarrassed but also very happy I dont live in Western Australia.
ReplyDeleteWe wouldn't be having this conversation if Labor hadn't failed on border protection.
ReplyDeleteRemember Howard closed detention centres all over the country. You can do that when you stop the boats.
Now Gillard is having to open dozen of new ones to deal with the flood of boatpeople causing anger in the community.
The silent majority however are starting to gain a voice and this grass roots campaign is incredibly embarrassing for this weak kneed government, no wonder the Labor MP at the meeting tried kicking out the media, it's reminiscent of something former Soviet Governments would do when they were on their last legs.
I can see Nauru now being the only long term option now to stop the boats, it's simply a matter of when. Labor can do it now, or they can wait until they are chucked out and let the Libs bring it back in. And once it's back it will be back for eternity because Labor will never be stupid enough to make the same mistake twice and put themselves into such a position.
Mmmm, Truthy sounds like a Liberal troll.
ReplyDeleteDio, Mike Rann was more likely to have been against the hideous Baxter style of detention back in
2002, although he wasn't happy about not being informed about Inverbrackie.
Sonia, did you notice the professionally printed signs behind Julie Bishop and the National woman with the safety helmet "do" [can't remember her name} ? Nash or Cash I think. Much the same as the Mining Council signs during the election campaign. Nothing home made there. Another rent-a-crowd.
For the benefit of "The Truth Hurts". There are NO repeat NO uninhabited former Defence establishment premises or other Govt residential premises in or within 100 Kms of Canberra. Canberra has an unemployment rate of approx 2.5%, consequently housing is in extremely short supply.
ReplyDeleteDo some thinking and ask yourself which area most needs the employment stimulus of hosting Refugees, Canberra or Inverbrackie/Northam, they with their supply of residential accommodation or Canberra with its accute housing shortage and lack of available tradesmen to erect some.
Get your hand off it and do some thinking!
MJC
Quote Truthy We wouldn't be having this conversation if Labor hadn't failed on border protection.
ReplyDeleteWrong Turthy, we wouldn't be having this conversation if Howard, Abbott and the rest of his xenophobic bigots didn't play the race card at the slightest provocation.
Thanks for the detail response about the East Timor Solution Greg (and morewest). I do appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteI may have a small criticism here. I understand that you don't have to respond to any comments if you don't want to. However I do feel that you are calling TheTruthHurts' argument as idiocry without really addressing his arguments.
If the point of you blogging is to state your opinion and hopefully try to educate and persuade people to think differently about this issue then I don't think brushing off dissenting opinion (and other commenters have called him a liberal troll) is really productive. Cause the result is that you'll just be preaching to the converted and having a comments section of people who just agree with you telling how great the article is (it is great BTW) without really changing anyone's opinion.
___________
Truthhurts
When ever there is wartime situation or where people are getting persecuted. It's generally the people who are relatively wealthy who escapes the country first. After all these are the people who are more likely to be inform whether danger is imminent and these are the people most likely have access to resources to help them escape the country. Nevertheless the fact that they were relatively wealthy doesn't make them any less of a refugee or any more or less deserving then those people who were left behind in the country.
Essentially the nature of being a refugee is to get out of the country and settle in another country, any way as possible.
Now my parents were refugees that escaped Vietnam by boat and then they arrived in Malaysia. They stayed in a refugee camp before being settled in Australia (so I guess our family would be classified in the "Good" refugees by Liberal party standards).
Nevertheless the condition of the refugee camps weren't exactly safe and the processing of refugee status was a long time and often takes several months for your status to even be assess. It's not you can go get employment easily.
My parents didn't have the resource to try to find away out of there and get to Australia. However if our family did have some money and someone offered them the chance to get out of refugee camp and started promising them to be settle in Australia then they would be very tempted to take up their offer. Most people in the camp would be.
If people want to take the risk of getting on a boat and making a dangerous journey to Australia (back then only 1/4 boats that left Vietnam arrived anywhere safely. Although this was an era where pirates were a much greater problem). Then so be it. After all the nature of being refugee is to escape the country and resettle anyway as possible and these are the people who are most desperate.
The people who arrived in Australia by boat are no less deserving of status then people who stayed in the camp. Really it's a bit hypocritical to say it's ok for refugees to go to Malaysia, Indonesia (who aren't signatories of refugee convention) but it's not ok for them to travel to Australia.
Truthy, as one of those lefty labour public servant Canberra types - I say let them come. That way the federal government will be forced to spend hundreds of millions of dollars building housing in Canberra that we can use when the refugees vacate to move interstate. About time that Canberra got some federal pork!
ReplyDeleteTrung, some points deserve a detailed reponse. Others don't. I know Truthy from The Poll Bludger, there's is no point engaging with him on this issue.
ReplyDeleteHi Grog:
ReplyDeleteFirst time visitor to your blog.
I liked your article and it's "Ho Humminess".
So here we go again the same rehashed talking points delivered with the red hot sauce of bile and bigotry, and the same point by point refuting. No they are not illegals; no they are not deemed a security risk; no they are not riddled with disease et alia....
yes and ignore the latest newspoll
ReplyDeletedont be poll driven abbots chickens will come home to roost soon as he runs our of popular ideas
some one mentioned rent a crowd a friend of mine in tassie tells me it happens there in the forest may be so who knows but know one even a journalists says and\" excuse me but do live around here"mmm
ReplyDeletedo you post every day grog i am not a member of any of the social net works.so cannot receive twitter of the like
ReplyDeleteand i can understand how you cannot comment all the time you have life after all and thankyou for what you do.
Some years ago the gaol in Cooma was closed and the town was devastated. Nobody cared that it had been a prison for sex offenders and right in the middle of down-town Cooma, it was sorely missed. Relatives of the prisoners and prison employees had given a tremendous boost to the town economy and local schools. The closing of the prison was a disaster. Some years later, after much lobbying, pleading and threatening of State and Federal members, the prison was reopened and extended. Oh joyous day, it breathed new life into a town that was close to death. There were jobs for locals, new employed people building, buying and renting houses, buying groceries and curtains, there were more kids attending schools, playing sport and musical intruments - and how the money rolled in. Why are people objecting to asylum seekers and their carers coming to a place near them?
ReplyDelete