AUSTRALIANS have always understood a Fair Go.
It’s the treatment we expect from one another, a reflection of the Golden Rule expressed in the Gospels according to Luke and Matthew: ‘Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you’. We should all be accorded respect and equality.
Put aside politics for one moment and consider the plight of three-year-old Tharnicaa Murugappan, the Australian-born youngest daughter of a Tamil asylum seeker family.
Tharnicaa will celebrate her fourth birthday next week.
She has been held in Australia’s harsh detention facilities since she was 9 months old, along with her older sister and parents.
Most of us know the background to this story.
The whole Murugappan family was taken from their home in Biloela and placed into custody by Australian Border Force officials in 2018.
The family has been held on Christmas Island for the last 18 months.
Tharnicaa is now lying in Perth Children’s Hospital after being flown last night with her mother, Priya, for emergency medical treatment for sepsis.
Friends and family have questioned the time it took to diagnose the life-threatening illness caused by the body’s response to an infection.
According to family friend Angela Fredericks, Tharnicaa fell ill two weeks ago but her mother said detention staff brushed off requests for her to be taken to hospital. Instead she was given Panadol and Nurofen.
“Priya says she was also handed a piece of paper that explained common flu symptoms,” Ms Fredericks said.
“When Tharnicaa’s temperature eventually topped 40 degrees, she was given medical attention.
“That’s what we are outraged about – that the parents weren’t able to get their child proper medical attention – just the powerlessness in that situation.”
Family and friends are scared about what will happen next. This is the first time Tharnicaa has been separated from her sister Kopika and father, Nades.
Angela Fredericks, who has been leading a grassroots campaign to bring the family back to Biloela, said there has been a history of poor medical care during three years in detention.
“During that time she [Tharnicaa] has suffered vitamin deficiencies due to lack of sunlight and fresh fruit and vegetables,” Ms Fredericks said.
“She later suffered concussion after an improperly secured whiteboard fell on her head, and was not taken to hospital until hours later when she started vomiting.
“Now, her needs have been dismissed until she was vomiting and falling over.
“This is just not good enough.”
Care and protection is what the “Biloela family” has been seeking – with the support of many Australians.
Last December, health concerns prompted the Australian Medical Association to call on the Federal Government to release the family from detention.
Asked by ABC News Breakfast today whether she would allow the Tamil family to return to their home in Biloela, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said “the matter is currently before the courts, so there is nothing I am prepared to say or do at this point in time that would jeopardise the positions of the government or the family concerned.”
Pressed further, about whether she had compassion for this family, the Queensland-based minister said: “I am a very compassionate person by nature. I will never walk away from that. But compassion takes many different forms.”
Social media has “lit up” over the issue.
“Just so we’re clear. A stroke of a pen by new Home Affairs Minister @karenandrewsmp is all that’s needed to bring family #hometobilo,” a supporter, Kon Karapangiloti wrote on Twitter.
Health workers at Perth Children’s Hospital will hold a silent candlelight vigil in support of Tharnicaa tomorrow night.
More than 360,000 Australians have signed a Home to Bilo petition started by Biloela locals.
