Policies have no merit
Has there ever been a time in Australia when our policies are being guided more by focus groups and propaganda than common sense?
To have the leader of our country continually say "we stopped the boats" when all we are doing is moving them on to other sovereign countries is frankly offensive to anyone who spends five minutes reflecting on what is actually happening.
Maybe he should change his slogan to "We stopped the boats coming to Australia by endangering the lives of legal asylum seekers, we pushed them back out to sea after paying cash to the smugglers and breaching section 20 of international law".
The government is breaking section 20 of the immigration act 2003, which means Abbott is a criminal, yet many of you will now say "who cares, he stopped the boats". If those people had drowned on their return and not been rescued, would you care then?
And now Peter Dutton wants the power to remove citizenship of people at his discretion without those silly judges getting in the way. The fact our constitution says we have the "right to a fair trial" makes this illegal, but as long as Mr Dutton gets to post his cancellations on his Facebook page then all good as far as he is concerned.
Facebook you ask? Have a look at Mr Dutton's Facebook page and you will see his cancellations of visas posted like some trophy cabinet.
This type of dumbing down of really important legislation to bumper sticker slogans is what works well when appealing to the uneducated.
Policies should be evaluated on their merits. Not solely if it is Liberal or Labor and definitely not because Ray Hadley, Alan Jones or the ABC tells you what to think.
Policies should be sensible, beneficial, effective and legal. Asylum seekers are not automatically "illegal". In most cases there is no queue to jump, which is why they risk their lives getting here. They are not automatically criminals. They are not "the enemy".
At what point does a government use such cruel measures to obtain a result that the Australian people decide that they want off this train?
Is Australia swimming to the bottom of the barrel in politics or are we just too busy to actually listen past the slogans?
The Abbott government is counting on you being lazy to pass legislation that is political, not sensible.
Scott Eagar, Beverly Hills
