Petro Georgiou gave his valedictory in Parliament this week. He will be missed. A moderate Liberal, politicians like him are very much needed. I wrote to him once, about six years ago when he challenged his own Governments
asylum seeker policy, the Pacific Solution, the introduction of temporary protection visas and the instigation of detention centres. Cruel, barren places. I thanked him for simply saying something. If I had been at work on the day of his speech this week, I would have taken the short walk through the car park to the seat of our Government and applauded him.
This is some of what he had to say:
"Until a few months ago I believed that the reforms made by Howard and the Rudd Government meant that we had irreversibly turned the corner. I wrote that we were closing a dark chapter in our history. This chapter had seen men women and children seeking refuge in our country incarcerated; innocent people imprisoned for periods longer than convicted rapists, robbers and kidnappers. Escapees from persecution were demonised... That chapter has now been re-opened.Regression has become the order of the day. With an increase in boat arrivals, asylum-seekers are being subjected to increasingly virulent attacks. The Labor Government has frozen the processing of Afghani and Sri Lankan asylum-seekers, and is reopening the Curtin detention centre, historically the most notorious detention centre, a place of despair and self harm.The fact is, Australia's punitive approach did not deter people seeking to come to Australia. Mandatory detention, charging asylum seekers for the cost of their detention, the introduction of temporary protection visas and the Pacific Solution did not deter.
After mandatory detention was introduced, boat arrivals increased. After temporary protection visas were introduced, boat arrivals increased. Most of the people subjected to the Pacific Solution were found to be refugees and resettled in Australia and New Zealand. We have not lost control of our borders. People smugglers do not determine who comes into Australia and who doesn't...Petro
Georgiou said he he once said to journalist Michael Gordon that
“in life there are many things that you'd like to walk past and not notice. Lots. But sometimes you do notice and when you notice, you have to do something”. Well I have noticed some things, and I have tried not to walk past."My mind is brought back to the period between 2002-2004 when I corresponded with an Iranian woman who, with her husband, was in detention - firstly in
Curtin, then moved to Baxter. When I first began to write I was horrified to know that I had to address the envelope to their "numbers": 42 and 43. People given a number? People locked behind fences. It reminded me of another time, another place. Another history that should be burnt in all of our minds.
She is a couple of years younger than me. She was a dentist in her home country, her husband a
pharmacist. At the time we first exhanged letters they had already been in detention for two years. She wote "
after running and escaping for almost 2 months and then after wandering in ocean for 25 days we came here and are stuck to these fences and razor wires". At the end of that first letter she wrote of Curtin: "You can feel the anger and tension and frustration in the air. My only hope is to get out soon. With lots of love. Convey my regards to David." then; "if we are moved to Baxter I will let you know my new address".I sent her cards with lovely pictures on them. She copied me Iranian poems. I printed poems from her favourtie poets and sent them back. She would ask me how my holidays were - did I enjoy my New Years? In one letter she poignently wrote in reference to the war in Afghanistan
"Is it not horrible? We people here have experience about it. We know how its gonna be. When it's far from you, you never understand but when it comes to your home then you feel it with your whole being."In another letter:
"This little person in me is growing fast. Another four months and he/she will greet life. Hope it brings blessing and some change and some joy to us... [husband] is very angry and sad about everything. I feel he can't tolerate any more. He takes care of me a lot and swallows his tears."I cannot imagine spending years confined to one place, without freedom to do anything. She tells me in one letter:
"You asked whether we can cook here or not. Not. We don't have any activity but knitting." I smile now, knowing that I certainly would not manage if all I could do was knit!! At times I sent her dried fruit, and tobacco for her husband. I know that her birthday was last week and that this year she will be 36. I wish I knew what became of them. I wish we had maintained contact. I know her baby was born, a little girl. She later wrote of her to me:
"My only joy is [name], she is full of joy, curiosity and mischief. I love her. Now she is on my lap watching the computer and saying hello." I sent her baby magazines and clothing. The end of my last letter from her she writes
"hope to see you out of these iron gates and kiss you tones of thanks."I know that they did receive a bridging visa (as did the majority of asylum seekers) and were living in Adelaide.
I could have cried when I heard Petro Georgio's speech. I have long mourned the loss of compassion in our Government, the fear mongering and the use of the vulnerable as a political football. I am disappointed in the "new" Government - a watered down version of the previous one.
