You would think by now policymakers would know that anything is better than running latter-day gulags in crumbling nooks of the Pacific.
Far too much of what is written and said on this subject is trite, self-serving, hollow.
This cap fits many self styled “realists” – the “stop the boats” proponents who gleefully belittle their “soft-headed” opponents.
Alas, the very same cap fits many of their self styled “compassionate/progressive” foes.
To mock one’s opponents’ alleged naivety or to decry their alleged inhumanity is doubtless self-satisfying.
However, in terms of actual policies that could produce better outcomes, all this jeering is worse than useless.
The quotation atop this post comes from a much more useful recent contribution, by Richard Ackland for The Guardian.
Click here to read a piece which justifies its title: There are policy alternatives to locking up refugees in Pacific gulags.
[…] Word power: Richard Ackland on Australia’s approach to “refugees”/ “asylum s… […]