• unenlightened
    8.7k
    Very briefly, the PM accused the opposition of "backing the rapists" over demands for action over detained NZ citizens (by Australia). Next day several women MPs by way of protest, revealed that they had been themselves sexually assaulted. Demands for apology/withdrawal were refused by the speaker and much fun was had by all. More here.

    So kudos to the ladies of NZ for their bravery and resistance to the use of rape in this offensive way. But it seems to me that they missed the opportunity to take the argument on, and take the moral high ground.

    Why not rejoice in the opportunity to defend the rights of those whose behaviour one finds abhorrent? Of course the right to liberty is lost by the convicted, but not all rights. The Australian Government needs to be held to account for its abominable policies and practices on immigration, and the stronger protest would be to say, not that the insult should be withdrawn, but that it is fully accepted even by those who have been the victims of similar crimes. It is no insult to be accused of defending the rights of an oppressed other - ever.
  • BC
    13.1k
    Something is definitely cuckoo in Kangerooland but I can't quite figure out where cuckoo and proper begins and end.

    a. Australia has the usual and customary collection of dehumanizing practices to use on detainees.
    b. Australia has always been kind of fussy about who moves there, and who stays there too, apparently.
    c. The detainees may or may not have committed rape.
    d. I can't see the connection between the guilt or innocence of the detainees and the insult the sexually assaulted MPs experienced.
    e. I don't see how the self-proclaimed sexually assaulted MPs were heinously abused by the speaker or the PM. On the other hand, I don't quite get why it was found necessary to evict the MPs, either.

    Sounds like a SNAFU.
  • ssu
    8k
    I hopefully won't anger or annoy anobody, but really?

    It might sound offensive, but New Zealanders are what I term "annoyingly old-school British" and far more upper-lip-stiff than the merry Australians (that indeed have had racist immigration policies). Ok, rape of women in NZ is by some statistics a bigger problem in that country than here (in Finland), but is that the question here? The parliamentary debate here tells the formality of the New Zealanders quite well. That a speaker of the house finds some remarks inappropriate and that is inappropriate or what??? Sorry, but I'm confused.

    The video is simply absolutely hilarious when you look it as an outsider. Ok, it's obvious that in NZ it's a difficult subject. And there quite formal when speaking in the Parliament. I reckon that there haven't been many fist fights in the parliament in New Zealand.

    Perhaps the problem is that New Zealand doesn't have many severe problems to face. It seems so when the parliamentary debate is like this. Perhaps NZ is so far away from everything that it has to invent it's own problems. Because whatever NZ does, it doesn't mean much. For example, when NZ walked away from the Anzus defence pact in 1986 and made the islands a nuclear weapon free zone, the reply from the US was "uhh, whatever...".

    Perhaps China ought to bomb NZ, send some cruise missile there. Or make claims and thus demands on the maritime territory New Zealand declares it's own. Then the Parliament would have another topics to discuss and disagree so vehemently. ; )

    I know this wasn't my best responses at all, but I couldn't restrain myself after being once in NZ and experienced that upper-stiff-lip way New Zealanders behave.

    Sounds like a SNAFU.Bitter Crank
    Indeed.
  • ArguingWAristotleTiff
    5k
    I am not sure if this is widespread knowledge or not but I have followed this link daily news feed and you don't need to be a member of Facebook to read the atrocities that DO happen and are STILL happening to immigrants to Australia, at detention centers such as Nauru and Manus Island.
  • Baden
    15.6k
    Thanks for that link, Tiff.
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