End the incarceration of refugees

We have become desensitised to the inhumanity and regularity of our abuse of innocent people who have come to us seeking refuge.

We have dehumanised refugees and have summarily, but intentionally identified a slaughtered, terrified youth at the wrong end of an SAS assault rifle as a terrorist.

At the same time we encourage Australian war mongering businesses with blood on their hands, to profit from America's pseudo wars.

To add to our glorious record, we now have two Australian-born children trapped in prison on Christmas Island for yet another Christmas and hundreds of refugees staring down the barrel of another year in prison for doing nothing other than pleading with us for help.

What say you Australia? What have we become? What gift do we deserve this Christmas? "young and free" indeed.

I would have to wonder on what scientific evidence to prevent the spread of COVID-19 the decision was made to ban handbags from Manuka Oval on Tuesday night for the BBL?

Surely checking driver's licences for place of residence would have been a more effective way of ensuring the safety of Canberrans!

Trump could have been right with his steel fence along the Mexican border. It is just what we need to keep our Canberra Bubble safe.

Look how they fenced off the lawns to keep Parliament House safe even before COVID-19 appeared.

Mind you it will take a while and lots of cash to import all the steel fencing we need from China to enclose the ACT, but maybe we could swap wine for the metal.

In the meantime, we could call out the drones to fly over the 101 entry points to the ACT. SWAT teams from the SAS could be on standby to pick up illegal COVID-19 jumpers spotted by the drones.

Such an appealing suggestion from Peter Stanley to recognise significant places and buildings in the ACT that have a place in the hearts of our residents and visitors by means of a distinctive plaque.

My nomination for the first of such plaques is the beautiful, elegant and evocative building that wraps gracefully around another important site.

That is the Anzac Hall at the Australian War Memorial. It meets every criteria for such recognition, and long may it continue to do so.

Never did I ever expect to agree with John Winston Howard. The first time was when he changed the firearms laws following the Port Arthur massacre. I had been there with my family two weeks prior to the tragic event.

I now acknowledge John Howard was right a second time when he summed up politics during 2020 by saying: "in the end, the public, when threatened, want their leaders to defend them against the threat".

Once again, during recent times of national crisis the heavy lifting has been executed by the states and territories. Not the federal government.

Mark Kenny ("Australia's third-rate leaders are failing the climate test", canberratimes.com.au, December 19) nails it when he writes of the "wilful negligence" and "deliberate intransigence" of our political leaders in their failure to produce sensible policy to address climate change.

Sadly, that can be said of many areas of government policy, none more so than refugee policy, the practice of indefinite offshore detention of people seeking asylum who arrived by boat.

After seven years, 290 people are still held in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

Over 1000 people were transferred to Australia for medical care, and most are now in community detention. Over 200 of those people, however, are being held in locked immigration detention.

There is no security or community safety reason for these people to be held in prison-like conditions.

Not coincidentally, they were transferred under the now-repealed Medevac legislation, and are being treated much more harshly than other medical evacuees.

The vast majority of them have had their protection claims processed and are recognised refugees.

After seven years there is no reason for them to be in immigration detention at all.

Toxic politics continues to reign; "myopic third rate leaders locked in a self referential struggle for marginal advantage" indeed.

There seems to be an unnecessary argument going on between some of your frequent correspondents about the prime marketing man's asinine assertion he can't join the rest of the developed world in setting a "zero emissions by 2050" target because he doesn't have a plan to get there.

Well, why not?

It seems obvious there needs to be both a widely shared target and an appropriate plan to achieve it crafted by each country.

It is also obvious however that this federal government has absolutely no interest in such "socialistic, green, woke nonsense" and no concern about our planet's future.

Another cause for head-shaking in 2020 ("Morrison awarded US military honour", canberratimes.com.au December 22). But perhaps understandable when taking into account that neither the recipient nor the giver believes that showing "leadership in addressing global challenges" has anything to do with fighting global climate change impacts and significantly reducing emissions.

I note that Minister Angus Taylor has "donated" $50 million to the Northern Territory to boost gas production.

Why? There is no need to destroy and desecrate (remember Rio Tinto?) native land and water with the drilling and fracking of thousands of dirty, polluting wells, especially as vast volumes of our (Australia's) clean gas is currently piped into Darwin from federal-owned acreage in the offshore Browse Basin.

Failing this source - why not divert the odd LNG tanker carrying our gas to South East Asia from the offshore Carnarvon Basin, to Eastern Australia - or both?

Douglas Mackenzie's frequent letters (the latest on December 22) are quick to reiterate his perceived shortcomings of the current federal government, who in his eyes are doing absolutely nothing constructive for the growth of renewables.

While this fits nicely with anti-government forces, it fails to recognise advances made, which although they may not satisfy Dr Mackenzie are considerable. Nor does he talk much about the lack of any credible Labor Party policy, the constant subject of internal dispute.

More importantly, I have yet to hear him expound on the biggest issue - that of the lack of bi-partisan consensus. With the realities of climate change being of the utmost importance - where might we now if the major parties had some 15-20 years ago put aside point scoring in lieu of putting their collective heads and expertise together to tackle this challenge? It seems easier just to brand anyone who does not agree with a particular point of view as a climate denier.

On renewables it is fascinating to note in The Canberra Times ("ACT bills to rise", December 21, p3) that the ACT with it's 100 per cent renewables policy is delivering us by far the most expensive energy in Australia.

M. McConnell (Letters, December 23) wrote "our present illicit drug laws are a failure". He is correct. The reason they are a failure is that the punishments are ridiculously low. Indeed they seem to have been designed by drug dealers to encourage young fools to take a dare to show how brave or cool they are.

If for the less harmful drugs there was a mandatory minimum punishment of $10,000 or 12-months weekend detention for use or possession, and five times that for supply, prohibition would be effective.

For more harmful drugs, mandatory sentences should be at least one year of imprisonment for possession or use, and at least 10-years imprisonment for supply.

For those who think those punishments are too high, the solution is simple: don't supply or use illicit drugs.

Rachel Stephen-Smith has proven a worthy successor to Meegan Fitzharris ("Border bungle bites business", December 22, p5).

It is almost ironic that "the Strumpet" never got beyond the level of apprentice in the White House. When you wish upon a TV star...

As a resident of the ACT I could not visit my mother in aged care in southern Sydney for Christmas this year unless I was prepared to quarantine for 14 days. I can visit regional NSW as can all the people from southern Sydney. If it made sense I would be fully supportive but this just makes me feel disappointed.

It would be nice to see less use of bureaucratic jargon in 2021. At this point in time, perhaps one needs to reach out to stakeholders to have a conversation about it to achieve closure?

"What to say," said the shepherds, the stars, the cattle, and the straw: "God: tiny, unassuming; lying at our feet longing to be loved and cuddled and fed". Peace.

For some reason hearing that Donald Trump has awarded a military honour to Scott Morrison reminds me of the story of Caligula making his horse a consul.

Brian Wern (Letters, December 22) asks what the elevation of Senator Seselja says about the Morrison government. It says that not doing anything pays off, and that the voting public got what it voted for.

Sorry to be a killjoy, but publishing a picture of children diving head-first off the bridge over Candlagan Creek ("COVID border lockdowns: South Coast businesses face uncertainty", canberratimes.com.au, December 22) wasn't a good idea. The water is often very shallow and from memory there is sign prohibiting jumping off the bridge.

Given how swiftly and well our state premiers act on COVID-19 matters, and how slow Mr Morrison is in making any decisions, I think the Prime Minister should delegate anything to do with the vaccine to the states. He should then simply butt out of it or we all going to be infected.

Last year the Deputy PM, Michael McCormick, claimed that as he was acting PM then Wagga Wagga was the new national capital. With PM Scott Morrison opting to spend Christmas at the Lodge, does this make Canberra the new Hawaii?

Re N Ellis ("Many a true word", Letters December 24). Congratulations for the most perceptive observation of 2020. Very funny.

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