From 1947-1954, prime minister Ben Chifley welcomed 170,000 displaced people to Australia from the camps of Europe. This was roughly three times more refugees per capita than we admit today………
……In the 1970s, when boats of Vietnamese asylum seekers began arriving in Australia’s north, prime minister Malcolm Fraser actively encouraged ordinary Australians to understand they deserved protection, humane treatment and fair processes. The future governor of South Australia, Hieu Van Le, arrived by boat in Darwin Harbour in 1977…
..There are no easy solutions to this issue. Refugee movements are complex by nature and people in desperate need will resort to desperate measures.
Trying to deter people in need of protection leads not to sustainable solutions, but rather to expensive, chaotic and damaging measures with intergenerational consequences.