But this is true to form for Abbott. From the man who was willing to 'sell his arse' to become PM, it seems grabbing his ankles during meetings with foreign leaders surely comes as second nature.
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There is ample evidence of the Sri Lankan regimes ongoing abuses, according to the UN they include torture, abductions, killings, land seizures by the military, and the corruption of the judiciary and other state functions. There are also a great many concerns following the recent civil war in Sri Lanka. But they don't seem to worry Tony Abbott overly.
In relation to alleged torture, the Abbott government's position is that while it: "deplores the use of torture we accept that sometimes in difficult circumstances difficult things happen"
Unbelievable. What will happen if we face difficulties in Australia?
As Jeff Sparrow from the Guardian points out, there are concerning parallels between today and the late 1930's. And there is a Townsville connection.
To quote a part of Sparrow's article (link above):
By the late 1930s, the increasingly brutal anti-semitic measures of the Hitler regime had generated a wave of refugees across Europe. Even in distant Australia, the authorities responded with alarm. "While the Commonwealth will consider sympathetically the applications of thousands of Jewish refugees seeking to come to Australia from Austria, no mass influx will be allowed," reported the Townsville Daily Bulletin on 1 April 1938. "Emphasising this yesterday [Prime Minister] Lyons said suitable migrants of British stock would be given preference to aliens"
On 23 June, the Hobart Mercury noted: "No encouragement will be given to the migration of Jewish refugees to this country. It has been decided to admit not more than 500 a year in small batches to avoid the setting up of foreign Jewish colonies."
A fortnight later, the Townsville paper again took up the issue. "The inflow of Jews will be watched closely," it explained. "The government will give first preference to British subjects, and will provide every safeguard against immigrants depriving Australians of employment."
For the record Lyons was a member of the Labor party before resigning in 1931 and moving across to the conservative United Australia Party (UAP). Leading the UAP, Lyons became the 10th Australian PM, dying in office in 1939. This ushered in the first disastrous Menzies government.
So Australia and conservative governments have form in this area. And while people always decry any comparisons to the Hollocaust, there are parallels with current events.
But of course there is more! Abbott has gone further!
We have gifted two Navy patrol boats to the Sri Lankans with no conditions on their use. We have thus allowed the Sri Lankans to stop persecuted people from fleeing their country in an effort to stop boat numbers to Australia. To continue with the Hollocaust comparisons that Jeff Sparrow and others have made... this is the equivalent of setting up machine gun nests on the border of Switzerland in the 1940's.
But hey... that's what mates are for!