With Abbott at controls, Australia's reputation has nose-dived
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Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has reacted to criticism from the UN Human Rights Council of his country's treatment of asylum-seekers by saying, "Australians are sick of being lectured to by the United Nations."
A new report from the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture found that aspects of Australia’s policies on asylum-seekers violated the convention against torture. It mentions that Australia has failed to provide adequate detention conditions or end the detention of children and escalating violence and tension on Manus Island off Papua New Guinea, where it sends asylum-seekers arriving by boat.
I would suggest instead that Australians are sick and tired of Tony Abbott and his right-wing Liberal government. In 18 months they have managed to diminish the country’s credibility on the world stage, damage relations with Indonesia and create division in Australian society unknown since the tumultuous events surrounding the dismissal of Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1975. Abbott has become an embarrassment for Australia and has seriously tarnished that country’s reputation as a beacon of democratic rule and high moral and ethical standards.
Edward B Duhigg
