Digging a hole for ourselves

India is outraged, and so they should, given the shabby treatment of Dr Haneef by the Australian authorities.

More worrisome is that polls in Australian online newspapers show about 50/50 support for the government’s stance to revoke the doctor’s visa. It just goes to show how deep the paranoia runs, and how hard the government is running to fuel the paranoia, a-la boat refugees a few years ago, when trailing in the polls.

Indians are not stupid. They are doing mission critical work for Australia. Some nationals may be in the States building the software for our fighter planes. Through the foolish actions of the Australian government overnight, we will all have to face retaliation by the Indians for years to come.

And it will come sooner than we expect. Already, our public hospitals (the free ones) and the rural community are extremely reliant on migrants from the Indian subcontinent. Expect these facilities to be stretched to breaking point. If Peter Beattie’s government falls because of this, let us just say he deserves every measure of it. If the Labour party loses the unloseable election, it is only due to their own karma.