DEAR News Of The Area,

FINALLY we have the release of many refugees who have long been forced to suffer in detention under the policy of the current Federal Government.

The national security narrative of “stopping the boats” as rationale for this policy has been revealed for the falsehood that it always has been.

Instead it was purely an act of political cruelty to victimise those who were forced to leave their country of birth for personal safety.

Massive health costs for those detained, enormous reputational damage for Australia as a multicultural democracy and at a budgetary cost of nearly $6 billion to prosecute this falsehood.

Concurrently we have the rise of the Sino-Russian alliance and the global security threat this represents.

We have our neighbours in the Solomon Islands signing up to a security pact with China, a development that totally blindsided our Federal Government.

What if we had provided immediate protection for the refugees and reallocated some of that wasted $6 billion to the people of the Pacific by assisting with infrastructure development like hospitals and schools?

We would have avoided creating such vast suffering for some and we would have maintained our presence in the Pacific.

Now we have a major national security threat.

These were deliberate choices made by the current Federal Government and they represent an incredible policy failure of national security.

Yet again another demonstration of incompetence by a government that Australia can no longer afford.

Regards,
Jon FERGUSSON,
Raleigh.