Bipartisan brutality is morally bankrupt
The Atrocity of Immigration Policy in Australia
After 24 hours of disturbances among the hapless and hopeless 1340
asylum seekers held there, one man is dead, a dozen more are seriously
injured, and another 65 have lesser injuries.
While Morrison projected his now standard contempt for
accountability, holding faux press conferences where he refused to
answer most questions, two things have become increasing clear.
First, that Manus Island, hell-hole that it is, is not just
part of Operation Sovereign Borders, it is its linchpin. Without it, the
whole offshore policy crumbles.
The fact that everything depends on Manus remaining online
was evidenced by Abbott's emergency chat with O'Neill in the wake of the
first incident on Monday night. The Australian PM was reassured that
PNG was still solid. The spectre of First World wealthy Australia
craning in desperation to retain the acquiescence of its impoverished
neighbour is an embarrassment and reveals the structural flaw at the
heart of the policy.
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