Peter Dutton Escaped The Worst Of Today’s Twitter Shitstorm On ‘7.30’

First, there was the High Court’s decision that the whole practice of detaining refugees offshore is totally legal. Then, the realisation the Australian government will likely be sending asylum seekers who are on our shores for medical treatment – and 37 babies who were born here – back to detention on Nauru in the next three days.

Following that, a chance for the public to speak out: ahead of tonight’s 7.30 on ABC, the channel asked social media if they had any questions for the night’s guest, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton. The answer was yes. They did indeed.

The nation’s explosion of vitriol towards the Minister and his department’s doings might just have deterred Aunty from letting the public’s arguments off the lead, as the minister’s appearance went by with barely an inkling of the veritable shitstorm that had brewed online just hours earlier.

Still, in response to the plight of those refugees currently in Australia, Dutton said his department would look at their claims against returning to Nauru on a case-by-case basis, and that they were seeking the most “compassionate arrangement” possible. It’s not entirely apparent how far compassion can stretch when discussing placing children back in detention centres where sexual abuse is reported at least once every 13 days, but oookay. 

Dutton: There is a lot of misinformation and there’s obviously a lot of emotion around this issue at the moment. #auspol #abc730

— abc730 (@abc730) February 3, 2016

Elsewhere, Dutton commented on the plight of Save The Children staff who were found to have been wrongfully turfed from their work on Nauru. The begrudging implication was that the department did indeed fuck up, and would be working towards compensating them.

Compensation for Save The Children staff forced off Nauru is being discussed after review found Govt allegations against them were unfounded

— abc730 (@abc730) February 3, 2016

His interview directly followed a piece on paediatricians who had called out conditions in detention. Dr Hansantha Gunasekera said “we really hardly ever see young children and adolescents so traumatised by life that they would want to take their own life.”

“That’s a medical emergency and it’s catastrophic and we just do not see that very often.”

Hearing that, it’s obvious why we all got so worked up; while the vast majority of Australia’s misgivings about our current asylum seeker policies weren’t aired to Dutton tonight, it’s comforting to know such powerful sentiment still exists. 

Source: ABC. 
Photo: ABC iView.