After the Australian government announced the re-opening of the remote Curtin detention centre, these suggestions are completely supported:
Human rights barrister Julian Burnside QC, who was an outspoken opponent of the Howard government’s asylum-seeker policies, said the Rudd government was following the same policy trajectory and urged people to punish Labor by voting for the Greens in the Senate.
“Curtin is about 28 hours drive north of Perth — it’s just insane. I think one of the problems is if people are isolated like that and they don’t get community support that we know Australians are capable of giving, they will very likely experience greatly increased mental distress,” he said. “The fact that this is being done with a punitive intent to send a message to other people is precisely what the Howard government was doing, and I think it’s deplorable.”