The recently released l979 NT Cabinet documents revealed that conservatives were more sympathetic to refugees arriving in Australia by boat at the time . While the Federal government expected to take in 14,000 refugees during 1979/80, the NT put in place a plan to accommodate four lots of 80, 320. Cabinet here was told that the massive outflow of Indo-Chinese refugees represented an enormous human tragedy and a challenge to these people. As a result, the Australian government had adopted a major settlement program, supported by the Chief Minister, Paul Everingham.
The confidential briefing warned that a “volatile”situation had been reached in Brisbane resulting in an ”altercation.” Dare it be mentioned that Prime Minister Robert Menzies agreed to take in 6000 internees and prisoners from Britain during WW11 . One of the vessels which brought human cargo here was the HMT Dunera, the subject of a book and TV series, with 2542 German and Austrian internees. Most were said to be political or racial refugeees and enemies of Nazism and Fascism. Some had been in concentration camps. Today Rusty Iron Bar Tuckey can see a threat to the nation's security by a handful of Sri Lankans locked up on Christmas Island .
The confidential briefing warned that a “volatile”situation had been reached in Brisbane resulting in an ”altercation.” Dare it be mentioned that Prime Minister Robert Menzies agreed to take in 6000 internees and prisoners from Britain during WW11 . One of the vessels which brought human cargo here was the HMT Dunera, the subject of a book and TV series, with 2542 German and Austrian internees. Most were said to be political or racial refugeees and enemies of Nazism and Fascism. Some had been in concentration camps. Today Rusty Iron Bar Tuckey can see a threat to the nation's security by a handful of Sri Lankans locked up on Christmas Island .
While the devious and desperate Federal Opposition continues to hammer the refugee issue it massages the nation’s well documented , deep seated zenophobia, for base political reasons. An observer of the US political and economic scene just the other day said the situation there had seen the return of “vicious elements,”long thought to have been in the past. As we reported in a previous post, veteran political journalist /author , Alan Ramsey , said the refugee issue had the power to poison the country right up to the election. Makes you want to ship a growing list of hardline pollies to Devil’s Island .
