By Situation Theatre 16/8/2018
It takes real courage to consign Nazism to the dustbin of history while running not one but two concentration camps.
If you were a local Canberra resident yesterday on the prowl for a nice long session of masturbatory self-congratulation, gosh were you in luck. The nation’s pollies banded together for some backslapping for their brave contributions to Australia’s Biggest Exercise In Cognitive Dissonance.
White Prime Minister For Exploiting Black and Brown People For Political Gain, Malcolm Turnbull, said there is “no place in Australia for racism.”
He added, “we are a nation that does not define its nationality, its identity, by reference to race or religion or cultural background or ethnic background”.
He followed this up with a helpful public service announcement to raise awareness of the real concern about Sudanese gangs in Melbourne.
Mr Turnbull continued, "People from every corner of the earth, from every religion - or of none - and every race can connect, be inspired by, be part of [our] values. That is Australia”.
“Everyone from the European far right to Donald Trump has been inspired by our immigration policy.”
Boat turnbacks campaigner Bill Shorten spoke passionately about separating race from politics and he seemed to believe this almost as fervently as he believes we should keep refugees on Manus and Nauru separate from the Australian mainland.
Lest accusations of cynicism fly, it is important to recognise how wonderful it was to see the bipartisan, near-unamimous denunciation of racism in Australian politics. We haven’t seen that sort of unananimity from our parliamentarians since that time we tortured thousands of refugees in remote island prison camps. No wait, we're still doing that.
Some commentators found it “deeply gratifying to see the Australian parliament come together and condemn Anning’s foray in unequivocal terms”. Others read eight tweets that made them think “maybe there’s still hope”.
800 refugees on Manus and Nauru saw the same political posturing and moral mendacity that's kept them behind bars since 2013.