Bi-Partisan Support
It’s one of those issues that cuts across party lines. New polling confirms the fact that the vast majority of Australians want David Hicks brought home, irrespective of whether or not it is to face trial.
Richard Merkel might be right when he says that the Socialist Alliance presence at recent David Hicks protests might have kept away some sympathic Liberal voters, but sympathy for Hicks goes well beyond the sterotype of “doctors wives” he chooses to highlight.
The majority in favour of bringing Hicks home isn’t built on solid support from Labor and Green voters with a margin of conservative voters (how most majorities on left wing issues are formed in this country). Quite inexplicably, new polling commissioned by GetUp suggests that 67% of Liberal voters and 51% of Nationals voters want David Hicks brough home to Australia.
It seems that the majority of Australians can look beyond the terrorist label, and empathise with a son of Australia who went off looking for adventure and got caught up in the wrong crowd. At least this was the speel I heard from a Family First supporter, disgusted with our governments neglect of David Hicks.
Stories the server thinks are related:
Posted: by Kieran December 13th, 2006 under Politics, Human Rights.
Comments: 1
Comments
Comment from Phillip
Time: December 17, 2006, 3:34 pm
“It seems that the majority of Australians can look beyond the terrorist label, and empathise with a son of Australia who went off looking for adventure and got caught up in the wrong crowd”.
Are you serious? The crowd he got mixed up in aren’t just a few hoodlums spraying graffiti on railway carriages. The Taliban is an evil, murderous regime that violates the human rights of Afghan citizens who fail to comply with their twisted view of the world. People in Afghanistan can be murdered for simply having a university degree, or for failing to dress appropriately by strict Islamic standards. Perhaps you can “emphathise” with him and call him a “son of Australia”, but it would probably help if you were to speak to an Afghan who has fled his or her country because of the “crowd” Hicks was hanging out with, before you write about how hard done by Hicks is. I acknowledge that there are issues about how long Hicks has been in custody without the matter being resolved, but don’t use that an excuse to portray him as a poor, innocent victim. He is the author of his own misfortune, and a disgrace to his country, as opposed to being a “son of Australia”.
Write a comment