This is 100% spot-on Julia. You have just GOT to refute the ridiculous idea that immigration is causing the overcrowding in cities/schools/trains.

I’ve seen fairly prominent articles in The Australian about all those “anxious” voters in Lindsay and those other outer-metro marginals. The comments from these “anxious” voters are worrying.

There are people out there who seem to be freaking out about immigration when they have absolutely no reason to be upset.

In the Weekend Aus from 10 July (p11) there was a quote from a Hywel Blake saying “we don’t have the infrastructure or the jobs or the transport to support a big population here at the moment”. And yeah, I reckon Hywie’s right. There probably is really bad infrastructure out there — I would confidently say that’s the result of the poor planning mentioned in the groupthink article I’ve linked to. But this was in an article about immigration and asylum seekers and border protection. Not an article about infrastructure.

Then then there was this other quote, from another “anxious” Lindsay voter that was in The Oz yesterday — the Monday after your Regional Cities / roads and drains speech — and the quote that they printed was (… and, Julia, gosh, did I read this correctly? I would be glad to be corrected here …) that she didn’t want “more Islamic schools built” in her neighbourhood.

Well … That’s what I think she said. I don’t have it in front of me … And I didn’t read it again so that I could remember it better because I was so upset that I had to walk away from the paper to avoid scrunching it up (it was the café’s paper so it would’ve been bad to scrunch it up).

So if that’s not the right quote or the right context then please correct me.

But if it was the right quote… Well. Damn. And, well… There really isn’t a right context for that kinda thing, either — is there?

As I said the other week: I think you’re totally right that we can’t call people names for being “anxious”.

But, reallytrulyhonestly, Julia: you need to correct their misunderstandings — not bow to their ignorance.

You need to. You HAVE TO.

The best way to attack TAbbott and his “4. stop the boats” business is to prove it wrong. Not try to go lower to beat it.

You mentioned your optimism for this country last night on The 7.30 Report: you need to be optimistic about the welcoming, understanding, warm and caring nature of Australians. Not give the benefit of the doubt to the mean-hearted and selfish ones.

Give the benefit of the doubt to the ones who misunderstand — look to their capacity to understand and accept by getting out there and pointing put the facts and explaining the real situation.

Obviously there’s a right and a wrong way of clearing up the misunderstanding, but I know you’ve got the tact to not be snobby or condescending about it. And I think people have the humility and wisdom to understand.

I honestly can’t believe that the majority of Aussies would be “anxious” if they knew the facts. Sure, there are always going to be horrible people who will put “FOWF” bumperstickers on their utes. But the mums and dads in Lindsay and elsewhere surely can’t all be like that.

And once they understand that refugees aren’t the reason why the peak hour traffic jams are getting longer (that’s because of the shitty public transport) and that’s it’s not international students who’re causing unemployment (they’re the ones cleaning our offices and attending our petrol stations because no one else wants to…), that it is PERFECTLY LEGAL to seek asylum in this country even if you came on a boat (and that then you can go and own a fruit shop and be a tops citizen) and that more migrants come from England and New Zealand (than other you know… Brown places)…

Surely once they understand these things they won’t be “anxious”, right?

Right?

Oh, Julia, I’m not sure I can handle being corrected on this point…

The author says:

“Labor treats its left-leaning voters with contempt. It assumes that even if they leave Labor for the Greens or “others”, their votes will always flow back to Labor through preferences.”

It certainly feels that way. Is it true, Julia?

Are you “just not that into me”?

And when you imagine Rhys Muldoon reading it out loud, it’s even better!

Cheers Sunili

You’re not even the fairy godmother who can wave a magic wand and fix everything.

When I said you were my last modicum of hope yesterday, what I meant was that you’re a change for the better.

You’re a breath of fresh air in the stifling world of scary ALP policy-making.

I am looking forward to the consultative style of leadership you’ve mentioned, and to you listening and talking about things before going out and doing something, or announcing a policy. I am looking forward to you being sensible and rational; to you hearing out everyone; and not letting fears and the lowest-common-denominator populism get in the way of the principles of fairness, compassion and the “fair go” you mentioned on 24 June.

I was glad to read that you’re welcoming open and honest debate over the asylum-seeker issue.

You are totally right in saying that people who want more compassionate boarder-protection solutions aren’t “soft”. It’s a shame that the media didn’t focus on that sound bite all day.

And I agree totally that we can’t let political correctness lead to name-calling in lieu of a reasoned, rational, sensible debate that’s appropriate for Australia as well as in accordance with our international obligations.

The thing is, you know, that it seems like “political correctness” ends up being a scapegoat used by people who really just want to be mean. You know, like the lawyer joke about using “My Learned Friend” to the idiot who’s opposing counsel.

The other interpretation, of course is that “political correctness” could be poll-based. But who are the people that are even being asked in these polls? And who are doing the asking?

I wonder if they know the facts. Surely they can’t because they wouldn’t be anxious if they didn’t have anything to be anxious about. Of which, on the facts, there is nothing!

So let’s talk about this issue; let’s debate it. And I really hope than when you listen to what people are saying, and hear them saying things that are incorrect, inaccurate and unfair, you have the courage to correct them, and set them straight.

Mia Friedman had a great post up today with some key facts about the asylum-seeker issue which I’m sure you’ll find very useful when talking about this issue in the a reasoned, rational, sensible debate we need to be having. I’ll post the link up later in case you haven’t seen it.

Til then, Julia, ta ta!

Warm regards Sunili