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Australia is currently living through a crisis that no one living has really seen before and on Monday night's Q+A, how we live through it as a nation was the main topic of discussion.
Key points:
- Former deputy prime minister John Anderson sparked a debate over asylum seekers when he suggested we simply had to get through the coronavirus crisis first
- There were calls for more to be done when it comes to a potential upswing in domestic violence during the pandemic
- Senator Jacqui Lambie raised concerns over whether regional Australia would be properly looked after when it comes to COVID-19 testing
While many were in agreement that more can be done on domestic violence and social distancing, it was the topic of asylum seekers and how to deal with them right now that saw members of the panel divided.
Primarily, the contrasting viewpoints of former deputy prime minister John Anderson, comedian Julie McCrossin and former Socceroos skipper turned human rights activist Craig Foster took centre stage.
A question put to the panel by western Sydney doctor Iyngaranathan Selvaratnam on the need to release asylum seekers from immigration detention centres into community detention was then put to Mr Anderson, who was deputy PM to John Howard, and his answer caused a stir due to him saying it may be practical to look after Australian citizens first and refugees second.
"If we get this wrong then coming out of this … can I make two points? Mr Anderson said.
"We won't be able to afford to help anyone, needy or unneedy.
"We are really talking about our economic future. And I'd be the first to say we ought to look after the marginalised and the disadvantaged, but we need to focus on the need to pull together and accept our responsibilities and to do what we can to rebuild, and to be good international citizens.
"Refugees are always a problem, and I pay tribute, for example, to Craig [Foster] for some of the work that he's done there but the way this may play out globally could result in vastly more dispossessed and troubled people looking for escape.
"We need to be active on the ground and to do that, we have to be a well-enough-resourced country.
"I'm sorry to have to say it, but I think we've spent a bit of time focusing on the concerns of various people in the community who we need to be cognisant of but, frankly, we're not going to be able to do anything for any of them if we don't find a way through this that ensures that we're able to recover our economic and social cohesion as a nation."
His comment drew the ire of McCrossin, who recalled being a member of the gay community through the HIV/AIDS crisis.
She said an all-encompassing approach was needed to tackle the current issue and excluding those on the outer of society was not the way to go.
"I was alive when HIV/AIDS began, and we grappled with this pandemic," McCrossin said.
"Certain wonderful things were done in Australia and I think our nation at the moment is doing many of these things.
"But one thing they're not doing — so, how we overcame HIV/AIDS and reduced it in our country was that it became a bipartisan issue — so the different parties came together.
"Political leaders came together with the medical and health sector, and they also came together with the most at-risk people.
"Our political leaders and our health leaders engaged intimately with those groups, they overcame the stigma, and why did they do it? Because they weren't going to defeat HIV/AIDS and stop it spreading into the broader community unless they engaged with those groups.
"And that's why I'd say to John Anderson — this isn't about a mob over there we don't have to worry about while we look after the bulk of Australia. If we don't look after the most vulnerable … then we will not lower the curve so low that we can eliminate this.
"We have to care about these people."
Mr Anderson then hit back, claiming he was simply advocating a pragmatic response to the issue.
"I'm not advocating that we don't care about them," he said.
"If you doubt it, look at the struggles that are going on in poorer countries — countries that can't get their act together politically."
The issue was then turned over to human rights advocate Foster and the SBS presenter was emphatic in his response, calling on those in power to release asylum seekers and refugees "into the community immediately".
"If this is about all being together now, and it certainly must be and building community social cohesion — it's a wonderful term — but then, no-one can miss out," Foster said.
"The way that we've demonised and treated asylum seekers and refugees in the last decade is horrendous.
"It's been deeply politicised and Australia has turned ourselves in contortions in order to not just, you know, provide these people — human beings — with their basic human rights.
"They have a right to seek asylum. Many of them have been medically evacuated to Australia.
"Underlying chronic health conditions and compromised immune systems are two of the main risk factors for COVID-19, that's exactly what these people have.
"So, in an alternate world where Australia hasn't been through the last decade where we've put these people in a horrible position — they would be out already. They would be out like that. Of course they would.
"And for the wellbeing and health of these human beings, as a country, surely it must be time to say, 'Come on, we're part of the international community here'."
Warning domestic violence could rise
While the issue of asylum seekers and refugees took centre stage, a major social issue of concern for those on the panel was that of domestic violence during the pandemic. In a disturbing moment, Christine Morgan, the CEO of the National Mental Health Commission, revealed that there were not enough services available for those suffering through abuse during the pandemic.
The concerns were initially raised by McCrossin who, when answering a question from a viewer about abuse, lashed out about bottle shops being deemed an essential service given the role alcohol can play in abuse.
McCrossin also called for personal protective equipment to be made available for police so they can do checks and she and Foster suggested the issue was likely amplified in a pandemic when people also have to spend more time in the house.
But it was when host Hamish Macdonald chimed in to ask Ms Morgan about domestic violence that she laid the sad truth bare.
Macdonald was pointed in his question, asking whether simple access to hotlines for women and children was sufficient.
Ms Morgan said it was "not enough in and of itself", before imploring people that if they suspect something, to check in as best they can, without risking potential exposure to COVID-19.
"The biggest thing we can do is be alert … and I call on all Australians to look out for each other and look at what is going on behind closed doors.
"I think what is happening with domestic violence is we have pressure-cooker situations in homes, people under more stress than normal and a sense of losing control of our lives, so that can be a trigger factor."
Lambie makes plea for testing honesty
Someone else who may have been triggered on Monday evening was Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie, who called in from her northern-Tasmania home in Burnie to discuss news that two hospitals in the region had been forced to close due to a coronavirus cluster.
That led to up to 5,000 people being displaced and put into quarantine for 14 days.
Ms Lambie chastised her constituents for flouting social distancing regulations and suggested that they had brought a full lockdown on themselves.
"I think after the behaviour last week going on in Bunnings and Kmart and not self-isolating and things like that, it's now come to the crunch and the Premier has no other choice but to put us in full lockdown," Ms Lambie said.
"So, unless you're an essential service worker, then guess what — you're staying at home."
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While that comment was somewhat expected given Ms Lambie has been an advocate for stricter distancing measures, she also made an allegation that there are not enough testing kits in Tasmania.
"The other problem that we have down here is testing," Ms Lambie said.
She said there is one testing area 30 minutes away from Burnie but another can not be set up in Burnie until the end of the week, a comment which led to more commentary.
"That would tell me that there are not the testing kits down here that need to be down here, and nobody is being honest about that.
"And they need to come out and be honest," she said before adding: "I doubt if there's any rural and regional area in Australia right now that are prepared for this."
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Topics: health, diseases-and-disorders, infectious-diseases-other, human, immigration-policy, domestic-violence, government-and-politics, covid-19, australia
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