It is depressing but it is true. Prime Minister Tony Abbott is deliberately stoking racism and nationalism in a bid to reverse his collapse of public support, as shown by the polls.
Why else would he have made a speech that revived the legal fiction of terra nullius that was officially killed by the High Court in its historic 1996 Mabo decision?
Why else would he have chosen to declare, just before NAIDOC week that the British colonial invasion of this continent was a great act of “British foreign investment” that Australians today should be grateful for?
Why else would the great drama at sea have been staged with the naval interdiction of two refugee boats full of Tamil and other Sri Lankan asylum seekers and the forcible return of 41 of these desperate people into the hands of the brutal Mahinda Rajapaksa regime of Sri Lanka?
I find it hard to imagine that these are accidental events. Just at the time when Abbott's budget is facing mass opposition in the streets and faltering in part in the Senate, the government says loudly: Don't look at the budget, look at the refugee boats that we are stopping!
A July 8 opinion survey by shows a slight increase in public support for the Abbott government’s hard line on refugees. However, the survey also shows an equivalent increase in the numbers of people who think the government is “too tough” on refugees. So we are seeing a polarisation here.
Progressive forces need to take heart in this movement of opinion and resolve to keep fighting hard to win over the significant proportion of the population that is still sitting on the fence on this issue. Getting onto the front foot wins support but that applies to both sides. Abbott has gone on the attack knowing this and our side needs to fight back forcefully.
91̳ Weekly has also gone on the offensive. No ifs, no buts for us on this question. These asylum seekers needed to be brought to Australia. We reject the so-called assessment of the claims on naval vessels or offshore detention camps, through processes effectively closed off from public scrutiny and proper legal review. Let them land, and let them stay.
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