Where is the Outrage?

Where is the Outrage?

 Article by John Kelly



Excerpt from the Article:

Ever since that day back in 2001 when the Norwegian freighter Tampa
rescued asylum seekers from drowning and John Howard refused permission
for them to disembark at an Australian port, the political landscape
for our country changed. Because we the people endorsed that decision,
we must accept responsibility for everything that has happened since.
That John Howard’s legacy will be tainted forever by this one
opportunistic decision and be the defining measure of his time as prime
minister is something for him to contemplate. That we the people have,
subsequent to that decision, forced both the major political parties to
quiver in their shoes every time the media highlights the issue is
something for us to contemplate.


On Q&A last Monday night, Jamie Briggs, Assistant Minister for
Infrastructure and Regional Development argued against his government’s
culpability in the Manus Island murder of Reza Berati by reminding Labor
Transport spokesperson, Anthony Albanese that 1000 asylum seekers
perished at sea over the past 5 years. When a debate descends down this
path one can see that the substance of the issue has been reduced to the
level of its form. It now comes down to the question of who has been
more successful in killing the least number of people seeking asylum in
the race to stop the boats. Where is the outrage?


When we defend the charge of causing someone’s death with a counter
charge that our accuser did the same thing, we should know that we have
reached the bottom of the barrel in our moral and social understanding
of rightness and wrongness