Letters to Tyranny #51

Dear Prime Minister,

It is hard enough to admit to being an Australian when terrible crimes are being done to keep refugees out of Australia but unbearably so to see you boasting that Australia's border protection policy is "the best in the world". To do so at the United Nations when the UNHRC criticises our policy of mandatory detention as "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" and in breach of international law, is incredible. You are a fantasist. And all the while that you are boasting about securing our borders from refugees you open the floodgates of unregulated trade so foreign capital can cherry pick our assets and Australian workers and businesses must compete in the race to the bottom for lowest wages and shoddiest products.

While you parade your self-delusions in New York, Nayser, a Rohingya from Burma waits, trapped on Manus Island, desperate to be reunited with his family in Australia.

Bring them here

Ruth Halbert