Former Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone Used An Analogy Comparing Refugees To Ants On ‘Q&A’
First it was skittles, now it's insects.
It would appear that another politician is struggling with the difficult concept that refugees are actual human beings. On last night’s episode of Q&A, former immigration minister Amanda Vanstone recalled an analogy comparing people fleeing conflict and persecution with insects.
Skittles (And The World) Have Responded To Donald Trump Jr. Comparing Refugees To Poisoned Candy
Vanstone, who served as immigration minister under John Howard between 2003 and 2007, was responding to a question, originally put to Coalition MP Simon Birmingham, about Australia’s indefinite detention of refugees on Nauru and Manus Island.
“One of the Indonesian ministers said to me, ‘if you take the sugar off the table the ants will stop coming’,” said Vanstone.
Host Tony Jones interrupted by saying “best not to refer to refugees as ants, though.”
“Well no, but he’s, he’s not, he’s not ah…doing that,” replied Vanstone. “He’s trying to make the analogy, and I think quite effectively, that if you make it easier for people to choose you as – there’s no right for refugees to choose where they go. They don’t have that right. They’re entitled to get asylum, and it should be from the first country. We’re a long way away from most of these countries.”
Labor disagrees with indefinite detention, says @SenatorWong. @amandavanstone wants strong borders #QandA https://t.co/bzovnZuRvb
— ABC Q&A (@QandA) September 26, 2016
For the benefit of anyone reading who is still unclear on this point: refugees are people. Not ants. Not skittles. Not peanuts. People. It really shouldn’t be this hard guys.