“Operation Sovereign Murders”: Scott Morrison Delivers Momentous Gaffe, Accidentally Says Something True
Sometimes the world just works, you know?
Good morning, Australia. There are important things happening on the internet today.
Click over here, for instance, and you’ll find the first issue of The Saturday Paper: the new weekly newspaper published by the folks behind The Monthly and The Quarterly, with a focus on longform and investigative pieces. The Saturday Paper is offering you three free articles before you make the wise decision to pay for a subscription, and I recommend you start with this one by Sophie Morris: a comprehensive look at the origins of Operation Sovereign Borders, covering exactly how we got to our offshore detention policy, who is to blame for the recent riots on Manus Island, and what happens next to the asylum seekers in limbo.
Once you’ve finished with that, click over to The Guardian, who have just published the first piece of footage from the night of the Manus Island riots. It’s a shocking and chaotic scene that feels more like a warzone than anything else, as frantic staff rush to treat brutally injured asylum seekers — many unconscious, and some in audible pain.
As we now know, one man was left dead that night, and 13 with serious injuries. If Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has been privately referring to his policy as “Operation Sovereign Murders”, a habit that resulted in this wonderful slip-up on ABC News yesterday, he has good reason.