Anzacs and the boat people
direction. But the danger seems exaggerated, if only because of certain brute facts of geography.
The voyage here is long and dangerous and no such boat has managed to make it. That doesn’t mean that the people-smugglers who prey on the desperate might not try it. They, after all, don’t care about risking the lives of those on board.
But we should be sceptical about Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s claim that but for Australian border protection, ‘‘thousands’’ of unauthorised people would have arrived here.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has dismissed the rumours as intelligence ‘‘chatter’’, while also rightly condemning people smugglers as parasites. Opposition MPs in New Zealand say Ardern should keep quiet and stop offending the Aussies by repeating her offer to take the unwanted Australian immigrants on Manus Island.
But this offer is exactly the same as that made by the National Government. National’s approach to Australia was essentially one of appeasement over boat people and on many issues affecting the rights of Kiwis living in Australia.
There is no evidence that keeping quiet in an attempt to avoid annoying our Aussie cousins has made any difference. They will continue to take a tough line on the boat people, whether their Government is Right or Left.
Australia complains that if New Zealand was closer to the source of the boat people, it wouldn’t be so self-righteous. Perhaps there is some truth in that. But there is also a deepening ethical and political gulf between the two.
Australia complains that the plight of people on Manus Island and other Pacific centres has been grossly exaggerated. Again, the Australians have leaked a lot of information suggesting the people in the camps are not the innocent victims they claim to be.
Perhaps there is some truth to the Australian claims. But the fact remains that many people around the world are concerned by Canberra’s hard-line approach to the boat people. Australia’s reputation has undoubtedly been damaged, and its leaks campaign tries to combat that image.
New Zealand, it might be added, takes far fewer refugees per head than Australia does. In that sense the Aussies are a more liberal and enlightened country than we are.
But Australia’s blatantly unfair treatment of Kiwis, its persistent denial of rights that New Zealand grants freely to Aussies living here, shows a darker side of the Lucky Country.
Turnbull and Ardern make a show of their personal goodwill towards each other: the traditional Anzac bond almost requires it. Beneath that sunny surface are deeper and darker disagreements and animosities.