Independent MPs, the Greens, human rights advocates and refugees have all slammed the bipartisan agreement which was made law without critical examination. Extraordinarily, the law allows the government to pay other countries to accept non-citizens and to absolve officials of liability for any harm caused to the people deported. The Department of Home Affairs said the legislation impacts about 6,000 people on bridging visas or in detention, but an inquiry revealed that more than 80,000 people could be affected.

Australia turns back on persecuted people
From Ingrid Jackson

Ingrid's parents Libby and Prof Henry Lowig (Mathematical Association of America)

I can’t help but reflect on what the Russians did in Czechoslovakia, in retribution, after they won the war against the Nazis.  2.4 million innocent Czech Germans were deported from their homeland in the Czech Sudetenland.  My non-political father didn’t get deported but was banned from working in his profession because he was of German extraction, even though he and his parents and ancestors were Czech nationals. Finally in 1948, my dad succeeded in getting a lectureship at the University of Tasmania and got away from being persecuted. When I see what is happening to innocent people around the world who choose to seek asylum in a safe country, I cannot be happy about the current Australian (and international) nationalistic Zeitgeist.

Photo at Daulo Pass triggers sad memories
From Bill Corden

The first photo is of my brother Ron's wife Margaret and me at the Daulo Pass in 1993. The next is of Ron and the spectaular view from Daulo. I was triggered to write this by the photo of Keith in 1964 at the exact same spot. Sadly both Ron and Margaret have since passed away but it might stir some memories for readers who might have met them.

For a while Ron was General Manager of the town of Goroka but returned to Australia to see out his final years. His two children with Margaret, William and Lorraine, have gone on to lead happy lives. Last time I heard, William Togu is an engineer with Snowy Hydro and is also a qualified pilot. The last news I heard about Lorraine was that she was happily married and still living in PNG.

I still have the gift of a bow and arrows that the villagers had made gave me as a leaving present.
They are mounted on my living room wall. The villagers sobbed uncontrollably as I left, saying that my leaving was just like I was dying. I quite often think of the bow and arrows as a touchstone for my time in PNG. This final photo shows some of the Daulo people we met in '93.

Climate change is a present health threat
From Medscape

According to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, “The latest Lancet Countdown report, to which WHO has been a strategic partner, makes it clear: Climate change is not a distant threat, but an immediate risk to health. Around the world, WHO is supporting countries to both adapt to and mitigate the health impacts of climate change by building climate-resilient and climate-friendly health systems.”