Labor is making a meal of the asylum-seeker issue once more. It might help them if they used plain English words to explain things as this would make it easier to argue the case for compassion.
In the first place they should always call asylum-seekers “asylum-seekers” because that’s what they are. They should always fight against those who dare to call them “illegals.” It is not illegal to seek asylum and this must be repeated until people understand it.
Secondly when they refer to a place where people are locked up they should call it what it is. It’s a prison. It’s not a “detention centre,” or a “processing facility.” And the people locked up then become “prisoners” not “detainees.”
This then makes it much easier to argue in favour of processing people quickly so they are not locked up, at the taxpayer’s expense, while they acquire a range of otherwise-preventable mental illnesses.
“We will not imprison men, women and children who have done nothing wrong,” the Prime Minister will explain. “These people have come here asking for our help. We will help them if we can and if we can’t we will send them home. But we will not punish, without trial, thousands of people who are doing what anyone would do – fleeing the Taliban or getting their families out of a war zone.”
By using the language of “detention centre” and “illegals” the government concedes too much ground to the right. It is time to reclaim the moral high ground on this issue so we can start debating things that really matter.
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