<
https://theconversation.com/politicians-have-scapegoated-immigration-for-decades-its-time-to-flip-the-script-264266>
"For decades now, public discourse about refugees and immigrants has become
increasingly fractured, ugly and untrue.
From John Howard’s “we will decide who comes to this country” mantra, to Kevin
Rudd’s “if you come by boat you will never permanently live in Australia” in
2013, through to Tony Abbott’s “stop the boats” election victory that same
year, it has been a prominent feature of Australia’s recent political
landscape.
For the Coalition, it was about stopping so-called “illegals”.
For Labor, it was framed as “saving lives at sea”.
For both, it was about keeping people seeking asylum out of contact with the
Australian community, demonised and dehumanised, called by numbers, not names.
Against this backdrop, it’s perhaps unsurprising Australians turned out in the
thousands to rally against immigration this weekend. It could be seen as the
culmination of years of MPs using immigration issues for short-term political
gain.
But just as government messaging has partly contributed to this situation, it
could also help get us out of it."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
