As I watched the dog jump at the Huon Show (what a great rural show)\u00a0today\u00a0I was reminded of the term ‘underdog’.<\/p>\n
Australian concern for the ‘underdog’ clearly comes from the Australian passion to give those with lesser possibilities a better chance at getting over life’s hurdles. Back to the dog jump! The greatest cheering from the crowd arose as the smaller dogs made valiant attempts to leap across the increasingly higher\u00a0hurdle. We cheered wildly as the ‘underdogs’ made it and groaned in sympathy as they one by one failed to make it; but we\u00a0sent them off with a great round of applause. There was and is a genuine concern in Australian culture (well at least at the Huon Show in Tasmania) for the ‘underdog’. And may it be ever thus! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
In this frame of mind, cheering on the ‘underdogs’,\u00a0I reread this week’s Australian\u00a0High Court decision eliminating the extra hurdle that asylum seekers arriving by boat\u00a0had to vault if they landed on Australia’s so called ‘excluded territories’ (always a lot of gobbledygook in my humble opinion) and in this way they were excluded from Australian\u00a0legal processes under the Migration Act.<\/p>\n
I applaud the decision to eliminate this hurdle to boat people and trust that the Government and Opposition will take the opportunity to enact a more humane approach to asylum seekers who arrive in Australia\u00a0by boat.<\/p>\n
See, Ruling a blow to asylum strategy<\/a>.\u00a0 Also, When it comes to boat people: whatever happened to ‘concern for the underdog’?<\/a>\u00a0 and \u00a0Roman Catholic Bishops welcome High Court Ruling on Offshore Detention<\/a>\u00a0 and\u00a0 Govt ponders new laws on asylum seekers<\/a>\u00a0 and\u00a0Refugee mythbusting animation – GetUp!<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As I watched the dog jump at the Huon Show (what a great rural show)\u00a0today\u00a0I was reminded of the term ‘underdog’. Australian concern for the ‘underdog’ clearly comes from the Australian passion to give those with lesser possibilities a better … Continue reading