Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose  Bob Dylan’s words  ring true for asylum seekers getting on leaky boats. “Freedom is the ability to walk a mile in another persons shoes ” better expresses what we as Australians need to do when dealing with those we so easily brand  illegal arrivals.  It’s our ability to empathize with them and each other as men, women, children, gays, black, white,  yellow or poor that sets us all free. It takes us away from the days of  poofter bashing and the antiquated laws that we thought once served us.  Empathy that freed us from misconceptions held and will always to do so.
Abbott   has degraded this country trashed it  in the eyes of the world because of paranoid and intolerant reaction to these refugee asylum seekers. People who risk body and soul when they get in those leaky little boats with kids. They know they can’t swim, they know the boats are crap and yet they are prepared to  risk all, that’s desperation.
 The cry  for Assimilation and the end to Multiculturalism is simply intolerance by a few. 50% of Australia is connected to non Anglo/Saxon immigration. Difference is the natural order of things not uniformity. Bendigo & and Shepparton have successfully integrated muslim communities outsiders have stirred up trouble. These towns accepted change did not resist it for their betterment. It should be encouraged. Alan Jones’s racist rants on 2GB fueled the Cronulla  riots. He was not a local nor are those stirring up trouble in Bendigo. It’s why we need section 18C  of the Racial Discrimination Act to remain in tact. Jones  should have been charged for racial vilification at the time. Brandis’s  moronic suggestion” bigots should be able to be bigots” is a promise made to Andrew Bolt on behalf of  Tony Abbott for his support. Section 18c is not there to stop people thinking but doing things that vilify the otherwise powerless.
What are the values we need to Assimilate to? Adam and Eve and not Adam and Steve.  Christianity  not Islam? Are the values and culture of indigenous Australia to be excluded.? Aboriginies were good enough to don uniforms and fight and die for this country but when they got home we turned our backs on them. They could die but not vote. If they complained against the bigotry Bolt’s song  like Henry Higgins demands “why can’t they be more like us” You can’t force people into “little boxes, little boxes”, Multiculturalism  is what made America and Australia post ww2 and we flourished because of it.  We are Greek Turkish and Lebanese  Australians. We are not “New Australians ”  such a dumb term coined with Assimilation was the goal. Have you heard of a New Americans or New Canadians?
 Win at any cost, party politics turned refugees into  a political handball it drew out the worst jingoistic attitudes in us but it doesn’t mean they are right. What was wrong is  our politicans backed them selves into a compassionless corner and wont admit they were wrong . Government might be about winning  but it’s also the ability to say ” sorry we have  made a mistake let’s fix it “.
 Razor wire locks people in but it also defines us. As do our jails which are bursting at the seams with  the mentally and physically ill. The young who shouldn’t be there and are now serving a  apprenticeship in crime.
 It’s not a far  stretch to call our current government’s actions Nazis and their apologists the Murdoch press and 2GB the equivalent of Goebbels. Like the Jews the asylum seekers arriving by boat have been publically demonized, maligned  and for what seeking refuge.  Mothers have singled out as cunning  self harmers not worthy of any attention or sympathy because their actions are merely to garner attention and sympathy.  What else have they got to get somebody to listen? What kind of grubs are these media dogs Bolt, Jones and the army of maggots called spin doctors who work for the PM  and Immigration Departments.  120 scanning social media and using it to misinform  deflect, scaremonger or just withold information. It’s to his credit Alister Nicholson retired chief justice of the Family Court has stood up and  said ” The Abbott government has adopted another practice of totalitarian regimes of shrouding its activities in secrecy and applying a false patina of military necessity. What they are doing is now hidden from the public and the media. Goebbels, Stalin and similar types would be proud.”
The current policy $$$  for voluntary return hides the fact that asylum seeker treatment is so brutal that  they have no real choice or options. The Abbott Coalition pays others to do this work under strict secrecy. It doesn’t always work and the news get’s out such as the murder of a detainee and the injury of 69 others.  Scott Morrisson then deflects and would have us believe it’s not our problem or his fault. It’s been contracted out to PNG Nauru G4S etc mercenaries. This government takes them into custody then transfers them abrogating any responsibility.  Scott Morrison said “As the individuals and the centre are located in PNG territory, it has primary responsibility. However spoken like a politician it’s a lie  & the president of the Human Rights Commission  Gillian Triggs clearly stated  “Bottom line is they definitely are responsible and the reasons for that is firstly, Australia has the primary responsibility and secondly, we cannot abdicate that responsibility by sending them off to a third country,” “Also as practical matter, there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that Australia is in effect in control of activities and the management of these detention centers, so frankly from the point of view of international legal standards and international law there’s very little doubt that Australia remains responsible.”
Scott Morrison there has been a murder and 69 people injured in one day on your watch. Treatment has caused detainees to suffer irreparable mental health issues.  All done in secret and common practice in totalitarian states. Furthermore you blame the victims to justify your actions.
You can’t rewrite this history it belongs to you and Tony Abbott.