Revenge or Nationalism?
- Nov 12, 2018
- 4 min read
Updated: May 25, 2019
At the same time that the Dual Citizenship scandal broke out, the government set about making new deportation laws that, apparently, do not apply to them. Was this an act of revenge against Australians, or another expression of Nationalism? Judging by revelations exposed throughout the media, it certainly looks like one or the other.
Part 3 - Deportation Immunity
Under the provisions of the new deportation laws, repeat law offenders are being shipped off to any country they are a citizen of - irrespective of their place of birth or whether they have ever stepped foot in that land - with many held in detention without charge or trial (ie unlawfully).
Other provisions don’t even require the person to be a law offender. Some examples include:
Christian Feetham is facing deportation for crimes of his youth despite his entire local police station providing character references.
92 year old war veteran with no criminal history at all facing deportation after having suffered a fall in which he broke his collarbone and pelvis.
Dan Hall was given seven days to leave the country because Immigration lost his paperwork.
One of Australia's most infamous aviation pioneering family face deportation even though they were all were given Australian citizenship at birth and despite no criminality what-so-ever.
Hundreds deported for minor traffic infringements and unpaid fines, some born right here on home soil. On the spot fines are pretty bloody normal here!
Deportations also include people of Australian Indigenous heritage. It doesn't get any more un-Australian than THAT!
In case nobody noticed, this is not Trump's America! Separating families for no good reason is just plain undemocratic. Not-with-standing, immediately and indiscriminately deporting people AFTER they have served their sentence is tantamount to admitting Australia’s prison system is not capable of reforming offenders. And those offenders who reformed themselves are simply ignored.
Now let’s compare how these new deportation laws effect parliamentarians. Some of you may recall, earlier this year, ABC found an old white cabinet - No! Not the parliament - an actual filing cabinet, which revealed some telling facts.
Serial repeat offenders, who have not been deported, include:
Nationals Bridget McKenzie (a British citizen) accrued 53 infringement notices
Former Minister for Law Enforcement Angus Taylor (a NZ citizen) accrued 38 infringement notices
Labor MP Michael Danby (a citizen of Israel) accrued 49 infringement notices
Other serial offenders - who have never faced a court of law, never done jail-time, never had their license disqualified and have never had their vehicle impounded (just some of the consequences under Australian law) - include:
Former Liberal MP Fiona Scott recorded 35 infringement notices, including nine on a single day
Labor's Tony Burke also accrued 35 infringement notices in a short period of time
In fact, the old white cabinet uncovered more than 1,000 offenses within a 5 year period, although it is not clear whether the public purse is being used to pay the fines and associated fees/costs. Nor has it been revealed who the other offenders are or whether or not they are repeat offenders.
“First they came for the foreigners, but I did not speak out because I’m not a foreigner...”
Recently, in Foreign Correspondent’s “Why Is Australia Deporting So Many Kiwis?” the New Zealand Minister made an extremely valid point. Australia is supposed to be a 'common law' nation, a law which is founded on the doctrine of Habeas Corpus (ie the inability to imprison ANY human, citizen or not, without charge or trial).
What we've become is vigilanties, a rogue state that's not even respectful of our international contracts and obligations, let alone the principles of common law. We are so rogue we’re even interfering with the constitutions of other independent sovereign states in order to impose our own rogueness on them.
There are many other instruments that we are signatory to which would otherwise prevent us from breaking international laws, like our War Lord allies do in the US. We cannot sign a legally binding contract, impose it on other nations and then turn around and cry about being bound to the contracts we have signed.
The saddest part of this whole sorry story is that many Australians are actually proud of our vigilante status and take every available opportunity to rub the less fortunate's faces in it.
Australians want out of the UN
Or do we? When it came to finding out who was responsible for the downing of MH17, we begged the UN to lead an independent investigation. We relied on powerful position to navigate the outcome we wanted.
When it is convenient, we seek protection from and take advantage of our UN membership. We are part of NATO. Our military operates under the 'rules of engagement' determined by the UN and other instruments that Australia participated in developing.
We deploy our military all over the world under the provisions UN peacekeeping forces.
Without the UN, we have no allies, we have no protection against invasion and we have no international standing to even be complicit in any wars. Australians who wish to exit the UN have very little idea of how much we need it, not to mention how much of it our nation actually created.
But they will be first ones to enlist the UN when any harm comes to them personally, or when their own democratic rights have been infringed upon.
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