Taking 150 folk from Manus helps a few but solves nothing. We can do better. Let’s take the lot…the four hundred odd left over blokes and the 1200 odd others left to wait on the pleasure of a Trump led America.
YOU HAVE TO GO BACK A LONG WAY to find anything remotely resembling Australia’s current treatment of New Zealand. For a supposedly friendly government to deliberately inject inflammatory disinformation into the political bloodstream of its supposedly closest neighbour is an extraordinarily provocative act. Not quite an act of war, but the sort of intervention that can all-too-easily provoke a catastrophic loss of trust.
The vast majority of New Zealanders resent the way Australia treat us and finally having a Government who will stand up to them is actually going to resonate with many voters.
The Australian humanitarian crisis cannot be ignored by New Zealand. Canberra seems completely paralysed and unable to understand the horror of the situation they have created at the Manus Island Detention facility in Papua New Guinea, let alone resolve the problem.
I think attempting to rehabilitate 700+ highly traumatised male refugees when we have 10000+ in our own prison system with barely any rehabilitation services, let alone the hundreds of thousands within the community who are being let down by the non-existent mental health system would be a huge call that could easily implode in public anger.