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Word power: Richard Ackland on Australia’s approach to “refugees”/ “asylum seekers”/ “illegal” arrivals

You would think by now policymakers would know that anything is better than running latter-day gulags in crumbling nooks of the Pacific.


Far too much of what is written and said on this subject is trite, self-serving, hollow.

This cap fits many self styled “realists” – the “stop the boats” proponents who gleefully belittle their “soft-headed” opponents.

Alas, the very same cap fits many of their self styled “compassionate/progressive” foes.

To mock one’s opponents’ alleged naivety or to decry their alleged inhumanity is doubtless self-satisfying.

However, in terms of actual policies that could produce better outcomes,  all this jeering is worse than useless.

The quotation atop this post comes from a much more useful recent contribution, by Richard Ackland for The Guardian.

Click here to read a piece which justifies its title: There are policy alternatives to locking up refugees in Pacific gulags.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Published in opinions and journalism word power

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