What happened to our compassion, Australia?

From next week, children in many countries across the globe will be able to bring a complaint of a rights violation to the United Nations.

But Australia hasn’t signed the relevant Protocol, which means that while kids in even developing countries like Albania, Bolivia, Costa Rica and Thailand will be able to bring complaints, those in Australia won’t be able to.

One possible reason the Government may have chosen not to sign this tool of international law?

The UN has previously criticised Australia’s appaling treatment of children in detention – as well as indigenous children and those with disabilities – and if Australia signs the complaints mechanism, all three groups could take action against Australia.

In other words: the Government may be trying to protect itself from legal action from the children still stuck behind bars, in horrific conditions known to cause mental illness.

On a week like this, it’s worth thinking about the children stuck in dentition centres across our countries, and beyond our shores but in our name. One Mamamia reader writes…

Over the last few years, and even more recently with the change of Government, I’ve come to realise two things about our country: (1) we lack compassion for others and (2) we have an inability to accept difference.

Just look at how we treat asylum seekers in comparison to the rest of the world. We ship poor, innocent people off to PNG and Nauru, virtually relinquishing all responsibility for processing them as refugees, and then turn a blind eye to poor living conditions, despite the endless amounts of riots and reports of violence that have been made.

“Why should we house them here?” “Send them back to where they came from.” “They’re going to take our jobs.”

Sound familiar? I’ve certainly heard these phrases time and time again. It’s basically the unified chorus of our national anthem if you look at our past and present governments. It’s also quite funny to think that the second verse of our national anthem has the following lyrics:

For those who’ve come across the sea.
We’ve boundless plains to share,
With courage let us all combine,
To Advance Australia Fair.

But no-one ever sings that part, do they?

I’m not sure how we got to a point where locking people up was seen as a solution to an ongoing issue. I would have thought we would have learnt a thing or two from history in that respect, or somehow evolved since our cavemen predecessors. Where is the humanity in a prison-style detention centre for innocent people? Did we go to war? Am I missing something?

I think as a country, we’re all forgetting what the term ‘refugee’ actually means: A person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster. The key word there being people. People like you and me, not animals. We actually treat our animals with more respect.

In December last year, Amnesty International reported on the degrading conditions in which asylum seekers are forced to live in. Overcrowded conditions with little or no privacy, less than 500ml of water per person a day, no shade, insufficient health services and no shoes were among the top complaints from asylum seekers.

Many other countries in the world treat their refugees better than Australia does, offering shorter detainment periods and freedom of internal movement. Some countries actually understand that asylum seekers have risked everything in fear of their life, arriving only with the hope of starting afresh somewhere safe.

Sweden offers Syrian asylum seekers permanent residency and the same rights as everyone else. Pakistan has granted mostly freedom of movement and international travel. Even poorer countries such as Kenya allow refugees to attend higher education institutions and receive specialised medical care. But no, in Australia, we believe our refugees only come here with the agenda to steal our jobs, attack our children and hold up petrol stations wearing burqas.

It’s far too easy for us to sit back each night, eat our dinner in front of the TV in our comfy lounge rooms and watch those ‘stupid boat people’ trying to gain refuge in ‘our’ country (which I might point out, we stole from the Indigenous people anyway). It’s just so simple to say ‘turn the boats back’, as we furiously munch away on our delicious first-world dinner – most probably introduced to us by a migrant, otherwise we’d all just be eating chops and three veg.

At its deeply rooted core, a lot of this stems from Australia’s inability to accept difference – especially when it comes to race. It’s no secret we’re seen as a racist country abroad; a character trait sadly used to describe us. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve cringed when someone abroad has brought up our horrible treatment of Indigenous Australians and refugees. It’s an utter embarrassment.

It’s this way of thinking that makes me wonder if the situation involved a western country such as America seeking refuge, would we be locking Americans up in detention centres? Does our lack of compassion only extend to specific nationalities? And, at what point did being different become a bad thing?

Those ‘boat people’, ‘towel heads’, ‘illegal immigrants’ or whatever derogatory comment you choose to use, are people too. They’re mothers and fathers and children and babies, all with a purpose in life. Just like us. It’s only they happen to speak another language and live in a country that isn’t as fortunate as ours. Shame on them for trying to make a better life for themselves.

So maybe the next time you see a news bulletin about ‘another boat’ or hear a story about another refugee being killed or bashed, take a moment and just think about the fact that had life dealt you another hand, that could have been you. Then take another moment and explain this to your children, so they’re not going to school and breeding more hate to pass down for generations to come.

I don’t know where Australia is headed. All I can say is I hope there are significant changes by the time I have children, because these days I’m not proud to say I’m an Australian. I’d actually prefer to say, “My parents are migrants, I was just born here.”

Take a look through a selection of pictures drawn by children in detention. They paint a heartbreaking picture of why these children need legal recourse:

Stefanie Reilly is a freelance writer and copywriter based in Melbourne. She has an all-consuming obsession with food and believes the world would be a better place if everyone sprinkled Cadbury marvellous creations onto their cereal in the mornings. You can follow her on Twitter at @stef_reilly and find her blog here.

Do you think Australians lack compassion? Do you think we could be doing more for asylum seekers?