Keating was concerned about the numbers of refugees seeking asylum in Australia and decided to do the unthinkable - he established the first concentration camps to lock up people fleeing from just such scenarios.
This was the beginning of "man's inhumanity to man" on a scale not seen in Australia since the white British settlers landed in 1788 and started the massacre of the indigenous population of Australia to such an extent that today they represent but about 4.5 per cent of the population.
Were the original inhabitants of Australia such a threat to the newly arriving white men and women from the European shores?
Is this how governments in Australia have seen successive waves of asylum seekers fleeing in terror from their countries of origin as threats to their white anglo hegemonies?
The numbers trying to enter Australia have been tiny in relation to refugee problems around the world and part of the problem has been that some of the refugee situations have been created by successive Australian governments having indulged in war exercises in some of the host countries.
When are Australians going to realise that asylum seekers are not terrorists, are not threats to the "native" populations, and there is a much greater likelihood of home-grown terror than from people fleeing terror in their countries of origin?
Those of us who are not part of the indigenous communities in Australia are all "boat people" of one sort or another and our forebears were responsible for robbing ownership of the country from those to whom it originally belonged.
This petition which I started so long ago is even more relevant than it was then, and I urge you to sign it as urgently as Peter Short's petition on euthanasia which is also on this blog.
Stop Australian Incarceration of Asylum Seekers
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/13/stop-australian-incarceration-of-asylum-seekers/
Target: Australians and International communities
Sponsored by: Mannie De Saxe, Lesbian and Gay Solidarity, Melbourne
Australia is trying to negotiate an off-shore solution to Asylum Seekers coming to Australia in boats which are not seaworthy, and which have already been responsible for many drownings offshore. The latest attempt is the so-called Malaysian solution involving Australia sending 800 asylum seekers to Malaysia in exchange for 2000 refugees in Malaysia.
Both the Australian Government and its parliamentary Opposition are demonising people fleeing desperate situations in their countries of origin, mainly because of Australian military intervention in those countries.
The total numbers of asylum seekers trying to enter Australia is a miniscule number in terms of refugees and asylum seekers around the world, and most of the people in Australia illegally have arrived by plane!
Australia is signatory to United Nations conventions on refugees but is ignoring these UN documents in its political attempts to stop the demonised "boat people" ever setting foot in Australia.
Help to obtain justice for Asylum Seekers in desperate situations.
The situation has worsened with the federal government reopening the concentration camps on Nauru and Manus Island.
Get the government to close these camps now.
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