Aus. passports vs citizens

It’s some concern when both our foreign and prime ministers seem to place more value on the appropriation of an Australian passport than they do on protecting the life and freedom of Australian citizens.

Where the foreign minister claimed that the usage of such Australian passports would not be an ‘act of a friend’, Kevin Rudd is reported to have said that:

When it comes to Australian passport fraud or the use and abuse of Australian passports, this government has an absolutely hard line on defending the integrity of our passport system.

He further added that:

Any state that chooses to do this in relation to Australian passports, frankly, is treating the Australian people, the Australian government and the Australian nation with contempt

As an Australian citizen all too often travelling abroad (‘all too often’, as the so-called ‘security’ measures are increasingly becoming a reflection of draconian totalitarian regimes), I’m far more concerned about the apparent lack of ‘hard line’ this government is taking in protecting the integrity of Australian citizens!

Of recent events includes the jailing of Shapelle Corby on what would likely be insufficient evidence in European, Canadian, New Zealand and Australian courts; the state murder of some of the so-called ‘Bali 9’, and further death sentences by yet other countries on Australian citizens. And these acts by nations that Australia still explicitly considers ‘friends’!

Whether or not any of those individuals are guilty of trafficking is only one part of the problem: the issue here is whether the Australian government is concerned more with protecting the integrity of its citizens or, instead, its documents.

A further problem in the case of the Dubai assassination of a known terrorist is that accusations, without evidence, have been publicly pointed or implied by our government: it is as yet unknown who the perpetrators of the killing of the arms smuggler were, and whether or not they had any assistance from any country. Of course Israel is going to be considered in this undertaking: the felon killed is one of its enemies, and Israel has both the capacity and motivation for undertaking this crackdown in its ongoing need to defend itself from individuals and other nations that only seek its destruction.

Frankly, under such duress and under the shadow of an ongoing war, it would have been better had Australia, in my personal view (and one obviously not shared by the ruling political party that is very unlikely to get my future support), be in support of Israel’s actions should it be behind this or other similar actions. In exactly the same way that, I would suggest, it also would have been in support were a struggling Ally nation during WWII ‘misuse’ an Australian document in order to ‘eliminate’ a known felon who has previously used his capacity to potentially kill thousands of civilians.

Nazi passport issued to foreigners