If Mandela had been a refugee.

At last I have established the name of my one loyal reader – he wants to be known as Archie. So Archie it is.

Now Archie asked me a very valid (if hypothetical) question. What would have happened, Archie wanted to know, if the late Nelson Mandela had arrived on a boat in Australian waters under the new government’s (rather grandiosely named) operation “Sovereign Borders” policy? What if Nelson Mandela had also arrived, on this boat, with no documentation or identification?

Would he have been immediately categorized as an “illegal” immigrant; would he have been immediately transported to an “off shore” detention centre on Manus Island or Nauru? Once there, of course, on these “off shore” detention centres, as has been widely advertised, the Australian Government has sworn that no “illegal” will ever come to Australia or become an Australian citizen.

What would Australia have done with this “undocumented” Nelson Mandela? Make an exception and give him a visa; put him on a plane straight back to South Africa; keep him waiting, possibly, for years before making some determination about his character and “worthiness” as a human being?

Archie knows as well as I do that this is a hypothetical question because the very well-known and widely respected world leader Nelson Mandela is no longer with us. But it is valid for three reasons:

Firstly: the current “Sovereign Borders” policy is allegedly costing us (the taxpayers) about AUD$1.00 billion to implement (but the Australian government is claiming “poverty” and will be making drastic cuts to the budget), and

Secondly: there is currently a paucity of people prepared to do the more menial and manual jobs in the aged and disability caring roles, in the hospitality and service industries and in the agricultural sector (fruit picking etc).

Thirdly: if “Sovereign Borders” is so important why not spend the AUD$1.00 billion on foreign aid to support the countries the “illegal” boat people are fleeing from?

So to get back to the original question, if someone did arrive without identification papers and was of a similarly high calibre moral standing as Mandela how would anyone know?

What would Australia have lost? What has Australia already lost with their “Sovereign Borders” policy? Many possibly, intelligent, well educated, high calibre people desperate to leave a dangerous country and who are prepared to make the arduous and possibly life threatening voyage from Indonesia to Australia in a small, ill-equipped fishing boat?

Not only is the current “Sovereign Borders” policy incredibly wasteful in monetary terms it is also wasteful in that most important aspect of all – Human Capital. Many Australian country towns are dying – young people are moving to the “big smoke” for education and more fulfilling work.

Archie suggests, and I concur, that we should let these people in with the stipulation that they spend at least three years in a country town and work!

Don’t waste any more money or “Human Capital” (Vale Mandela).