Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Briefly, good news...


Seems such a rare commodity but it does happen..
Writing some time back about the West Papuan situation, I had noted that Amanda Vanstone (piggery shareholder and Minister for Immigration) had denied asylum to one of the 43 West Papuan Asylum Seekers (who had arrived by canoe onto Australian shores). The person refused asylum was David Wainggai and he has spent the last months in a very uncertain situation on Christmas Island (one of Australia'a answers to unwanted arrivals, we ship them to processing centres offshore that make it very difficult for asylum seekers to get legal representation and support) Anyway the Refugee Review Tribunal has overturned the Department's decision and David has just been granted a protection visa. All I can say is thank god for the few processes that are still free from political interference. Click the title for a link to the story -

3 comments:

scout said...

geeze, sounds like the howard regime fits 'right' into bush and his litle followers like stephen harper. ironic, the christmas island thing, considering oz's colonial roots. it's all like a dysfuntional family and children repeating the patterns, isn't it?

austin said...

I hope that you are not heading into 10 plus years of Harperism as we have had of Howardisms.

Thanks for your links info. I have yet to have layered my thoughts enough to try out the process!

I know, you would think that we would have some sympathy with people arriving here by boat but it seems that the deregulation of the world's finances does not translate into the free movement of people.

scout said...

i've always wondered what the world would be like sans borders. would it be a recipe for disaster, or would some sort of orderly flow come of it? who knows!!!!

and ya, let's cancel ANY thoughts of harper continuiing in office!!! when's howards' time up....can he hold office for more then a certain amount of time?