And now Morrison (yes, him again) denies us our history
Jennifer Wilson reports more on the heavy-handedness of Scott Morrison in his closing days as the Minister for Immigration.
Author Peter FitzSimons recently completed a documentary on the history of race riots in Australia. The first episode of “The Great Australian Race Riot” aired on SBS on January 4th.
FitzSimons wanted to include the 2001 riot at the Woomera Detention Centre.
However, then Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Scott
Morrison (yes, him again) refused FitzSimons access to the long-closed
facility, and demanded the crew not film within 150 metres of the site.
“That furiously annoyed me,” says FitzSimons. “We couldn’t shoot in
Woomera itself, which staggered us. We were attempting to take a serious
look at a sometimes difficult multicultural society.”
This is a deliberate attempt by the Abbott government to control a historical record of racial unrest in Australia.
The 2001 Woomera riot took place on the Howard LNP government watch.
It is a period steeped in turmoil over asylum seekers arriving here by
boat. It was at this time the notorious Tampa stand-off
took place,causing an international incident between Australia and
Norway as well as profound domestic political unrest as then Prime
Minister John Howard made his infamous declaration: “We will decide who
comes to this country and the manner in which they come.”
Howard exploited populist xenophobic fears incited by Pauline Hanson,
then leader of right-wing One Nation, a conservative, anti
multicultural political party. Co-opting Hanson’s xenophobic policies,
Howard attracted her voter base and went on to win the 2001 federal
election.
Woomera Detention Centre was central to the combination of
circumstances that elevated the exploitation and incitement of
xenophobia and racism to the central platform they remain for both the
LNP and the ALP to this day. That period began what has become an
increasingly isolationist and inhumane Australian response to the global
problem of stateless persons.
The treatment of asylum seekers imprisoned in the Woomera and Baxter
detention centres marked the beginning of increasing public acceptance
of the state’s dehumanisation of those fleeing persecution, and laid the
ground for popular acceptance of Morrison’s narrative of border
protection. Morrison’s alleged “war” against waterborne asylum seekers
has been used to justify the ludicrous and sinister secrecy in which the
Department of Immigration and Border Protection is now irrevocably
steeped.
It is astounding that the Abbott government has in this instance
successfully engineered the recording of Australian history to exclude
any reference to the Woomera riot. Fortunately many records of these
events exist. Morrison and Abbott are fighting a losing battle if they
believe the voices of this period of our history can be silenced.
Indeed, their attempts to control information appear increasingly
desperate and naive, as they consistently fail to recognise that what
one attempts to omit from the narrative eventually becomes the
narrative, and all they are left with are increasingly sullied
reputations drenched to the bone in lies, secrets and guilty silence.
History eventually will judge Morrison and Abbott, and the Australian
Labor Party, and find them all excruciatingly wanting.
First published on Jennifer’s blog No Place For Sheep.
No comments:
Post a Comment