OPINION: A sick joke
The following are Tweets from the account of Foreign Minister Bob Carr:
I couldn鈥檛 quite tell whether he was being deliberately ironic or whether it聽was some form of joke. Either way, there was something deeply sick about聽it.
At almost exactly at the same moment as Foreign Minister Bob Carr tweeted聽this, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was joined by Papua聽New Guinea聽Prime Minister聽Peter O鈥橬eill to announce the Government鈥檚 new asylum seeker聽policy. A policy that will ensure that any and all asylum seekers who arrive in聽Australia by boat will now be resettled permanently in Papua New Guinea.
A sick joke indeed.
Whilst our Foreign Minister is telling us that LGBTI rights will be a core聽part of our foreign policy, our Prime Minister is announcing that we will聽be sending thousands of asylum seekers to a place where homosexuality聽is illegal. We鈥檒l be sending thousands of asylum seekers to a place where聽men caught engaging in anal sex can be punished with prison sentences of聽up聽to 14 years. A place where a man who “commits an act of gross indecency聽with another male person” in public is subject to three years imprisonment. LGTBI聽people face significant discrimination in Papua New Guinea, with activists reporting聽that queer people in country often find it difficult to find employment and a decent聽wage in the country.
This leaves us with a very real聽possibility – a queer person fleeing persecution聽because of the sexual identity tries to make their way to Australia by boat, and ends聽up being sent to聽a country where homosexuality is illegal, by a government that聽apparently cares about LGBTI rights. The persecution would never end, except this聽time our government – the one that supports LGBTI rights – would be complicit in it.
And this, on the same day that our Foreign Minister tweets that he will “promise to聽stand up against homophobia, transphobia and biphobia”.
It seems聽that聽LGBTIQ rights, like climate change and asylum seekers,聽have become聽the political playthings of the ALP. Support same-sex marriage to give you a boost聽in the community, but be quick to sell queer people out when it is needed politically.
Mr Rudd and Mr Carr, this is not how you make LGBTI rights a “core foreign policy聽priority”. In fact, it is the opposite. It is how you trash LGBTI rights as part of your聽foreign policy.
But hey, I guess no聽queer asylum seekers will be voting in the election, will they?
A truly sick joke.
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