A needle in the haystack

Finally some movement. Since 2001, I have been horrified of the leadership of my country. Seeing the dehumanisation of some of the weakest amongst us left me dissappointed and feeling betrayed. Last week we are at last seeing glimpses of hope for dialogue about how we detain those or seek to "illegally" enter or country.

I admire the courage of the three Liberal MPs seeking to introduce a private members bill to begin dialogue to reform our immigration system. Bruce Baird, Petro Geogriou and Judi Moylan, I admire your courage. I admire the fact that you have stood up and said that it is time to debate the issue. [And it is my belief that a judicial enquiry into Australia's policy of Mandatory Detention is necessary].

This is a struggle of small steps and this week, the Australian Liberal Party will debate these issues. So I ask that you give consideration to this, and if you agree that the current policy that sees children locked up is inhumane, write to these liberal MPs or your local MP, if they are Liberal. (The Liberal Party is discussing this on Tuesday). [I will update this with a link to a paper written by the Social Issues Executive (Sydney Anglican Discose)]

I was dissappointed to find that both John Howard and Kim Beazey saw fit to see a vote on these bills is not a vote of conscience, say what?

But the needle is this. I disagree with Howard on a lot of things. But a soundbyte from yesterday, in which he was asked about the verdict in the Corby trial, and he said that he hoped that Australians would accept the verdict, saying that we would not like it if another country interferred in our judicial process, so we should not interfere in the Indonesian judicial process. To a degree this rings true for me.

I don't want to say much about the Corby trial, and verdict, save this. I have never seen such a hysterical outburst from the media and public to an Australian caught for drug-trafficking. Here is today's editorial from the SMH. Which makes the point, far more eloquently than I. (Incidentally Corby is one of 155 Australian's (including two on deathrow) accused or found guity of drug-trafficking).

Another editorial, comments on Immigration, and Corby.

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To change the tack, I did manage to wake up for the Champions League Final between Liverpool, and AC Milan. Boy was it worth it, at halftime Liverpool were all but out, trailling 0-3. While having half an eye watching the game, I'd started doing other things, my full attention gradually returned as in the space of 7 minutes Gerrard, Smicer, and Alonso all scored making it 3-3, setting up a gripping final period. The rest is history, the match went to penalties, and Liverpool won. Too bad, at this point they are not able to defend the title.

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And a different sort of article, from the Weekend Herald


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UPDATED: Here's a link to the latest paper from the Anglican Social Issues Executive