Open letter to Minister Peter Dutton
On Friday morning on the radio I heard you emphatically stating that boat smugglers in Colombo are talking up Australia's weakness on the Tamil family from Biloela, in order to sell their product. I wanted to say, "Well mate, you created this situation".
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This would not have been big news in Australia and around the world if you and your department had acted with care and compassion 18 months ago. If your department's armed guards, in large numbers, had not arrived unexpected at 5am at the family's home, given the parents 10 minutes to pack, then bundled parents and children into separate vans, rushed them from the east coast to the west coast only to have to return them to a guarded unit in a Melbourne detention centre where they stayed until just over a week ago.
Their close-knit country town has been traumatised by all this. The family was a well-integrated and productive asset to the town.
The trauma experienced by the parents and the two tiny Australian born children is immeasurable. While in detention, the children's health deteriorated due to a vitamin C deficit and poor nutrition.
Now the family has become headline news as we have followed their distress and over-the-top treatment from your department officials.
What have you learnt about your processes? What have you learnt about the Australian people? What is the financial and emotional cost of mismanagement?
Di O'Neil, Bendigo
Support for the Tamil refugee family
I wish to commend those who are voicing their opposition to the Morrison government's decision to send a Tamil family back to Sri Lanka because they are deemed as not being "genuine refugees".
I wonder if the Holy Family 2000 years ago tried to seek asylum here in Australia if they too would be turned away. After all, Jesus and his parents were refugees when they had to flee the wrath of Herod after he ordered all the baby boys under the age of two to be killed in Bethlehem and the area around Bethlehem (Matt 2:16).
Joseph, Mary and Jesus had to flee to Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod just like the refugees of today who have to flee oppressive regimes, war, and terror and death threats.
Yes, Jesus might not have truly been a "Prince of Egypt" but he was the "Prince of Peace" who was a refugee just like the thousands who escape oppression every day and seek a better life.
Therefore, we should show some compassion for refugees including this Tamil family and the Prime Minister who claims to be a Christian should remember this Bible story and show some Christian charity to this Tamil family and anyone else seeking asylum here.
After all, Jesus did teach us to "do to others as you would have them do to you" (Luke 6:31).
