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Publicised Cruelty: Scott Morrison Visits Christmas Island
Kampmark, Dr. Binoy
http://countercurrents.org/2019/03/12/publicised-cruelty-scott-morrison-visits-christmas-island/Date Written: 2019-03-12 Publisher: Countercurrents Year Published: 2019 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX23530 Australia is reopening the immigration detention centre on Christmas Island. The prime minister made a public tour of the facilities. Abstract: -- Excerpt: There are parallels with atrocity and jail tourism (fancy seeing concentration camps?) in a man being filmed going through such facilities, though this time, they are intended for full use rather than being a site for instructive purposes or moral outrage. Should Australians ever wake up to the full implications of what their government does in their name, such camps might become appropriate measures of a gulag mentality that paralysed any sensible discourse on refugees for a generation. Being a man obsessed by the moving image (once and adman always an adman), Morrison ensured that cameras never left their focus; the prime minister was keen to push the credentials of the North West Point Detention Centre. He made a pit stop at a library. (Cue necessary movement of arms to bookshelves; expansive hand movements). He even found himself gazing at a lavatory. “It was short,” recalled a disgusted resident, John Richardson. Small businessman Troy Watson was also a touch bitter. “It’s got be some sort of publicity stunt.” Subject Headings |