The day after politicians united to condemn Katter Party senator Fraser Anning’s “final solution” speech, they ensured that refugees would continue to languish in detention centres. It was an act of irony on a par with Labor prime minister Julia Gillard cutting pensions for single mothers on the day she lectured then opposition leader Tony Abbott about misogyny.
Australia’s minister for Israel, Michael Danby, has announced that he will not contest the next election.
“Every year several hundred children are expelled from government schools [in Victoria] … A disproportionate number of expelled children have a disability, are in out of home care, or identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. Some come from backgrounds of significant trauma. Some are only five or six years old.”
Deaths of Palestinians at the hands of Israeli “defence” forces are all too frequent. Israeli soldiers continue to murder Palestinians (including non-violent resistance activists) with impunity. Any attempt to fight back on the part of the occupied Palestinian population is dealt with swiftly, severely and collectively by the Israeli state.
Refugee rights activists have helped to prevent the deportation of a 60-year-old man to Iraq. “Saeed” (not his real name) is from a religious minority that faces ongoing persecution. The head of his village was murdered in 2015 in a suicide attack. His family reside in Iraq but are stateless.
The case of nine Australians detained in Malaysia for stripping down to bathers emblazoned with the Malaysian flag has received a lot of coverage. The men violated the country’s conservative laws and were seen as disrespectful to the nation’s modest sensibility and patriotism.