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AUSTRALIA

Red tape leaves Australia with compassion deficit

  • 20 October 2014

As if it is itself a virus, Australia’s compassion deficiency in connection with asylum seekers has spread. Our government is now unwilling to send health care workers or Defence personnel to join the fight against Ebola in West Africa.

It has its reasons. Officials have advised that a return flight to Australia would take 30 hours, long enough for a health care worker with symptoms of the disease to die. Australia has been unable to secure an ironclad guarantee from the US, UK or a European country that they would treat an Australian worker. 

But what does an ‘ironclad guarantee’ mean when the context is one of compassion between citizens of different nations? If these nations are willing to open their hearts and resources to West African victims of the Ebola crisis, why would they not be willing to also help Australian Ebola victims? The Government’s thinking defies the logic of compassion, which says that if there is a will, there is always a way.

Australia is prepared to risk the lives of Defence personnel by sending them to face danger and uncertainty in the Middle East, where the motivation is essentially border protection rather than compassion. Aside from any deaths or injuries, many members of the Defence forces will return to Australia from the Middle East suffering post-traumatic stress disorder and place a strain on mental health services for decades to come. 

This is a price Australia is willing to pay to put down threats to the existing system of international sovereignty. We label those threats ‘terror’ and are quick to wage war against them. At the same time, we are oblivious to what terrifies human beings elsewhere on the planet, when it comes to providing the help that is most needed. We have lost the ability to reach out to others in need. To use the obvious analogy from the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Australia is the priest who passed by on the other side of the road.

Upon assuming office, the Government announced that Australia was ‘open for business’ and that it would ‘cut red tape’ to ensure that international investors regard us as a good place to put their money. It’s all about making Australia – already one of the richest nations on earth financially – even richer. But when asked to reach out to people in need in other parts of the world, the Government is prepared to impose
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