EVERY child is a miracle of life.
LAST week’s drama at the Woomera Detention Centre, where a group of asylum seekers sewed their lips together in protest at their long incarceration, has left another black mark against Australia’s humanitarian record.
Convicts and jails have been a harsh element of Australia’s history from the time the First Fleet arrived in Sydney Cove in 1788.
It is sad that this aspect of history is being repeated in the 21st century by the descendants of these ‘first settlers’.
This time the prisoners are asylum seekers. The only difference is that they have come to Australia in the hope that it is a land of freedom and opportunity.
How mistaken they must think they are. Is Australia destined to always be a country bent on imprisonment rather than freedom?
