Ship of Fools: Boycott Australia

Thread: Boycott Australia Board: Purgatory / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Ian Climacus (# 944) on :

Over our treatment of refugees

Tourism and sport are suggested.

quote:
What would a boycott against Australia look like? Because it’s unlikely that any countries would refuse to play Australia in cricket, football, hockey, netball or rugby (as these nations are themselves involved in abuses against minorities), it’s up to engaged citizens to put pressure on teams and their corporate sponsors to take a public stand against Australia’s refugee posture.
...
Australians could encourage potential tourists, with the aid of a helpful website, to back local communities and economies with no connection to corporations complicit in some way to Australia’s refugee policies.

Sports teams boycotted South Africa. Could it work again? Or was that a product of the times?

My feeling is not enough people will give a stuff here. And I'm guessing, seeing tourists in other countries indulging in iffy practices, that if a tourist spends big to get here they will do what they want.

If a boycott is considered useless or ineffective, and protests have not had any effect, what is left? (Knowing our 2 major parties both support the current policy.)

Posted by Dark Knight (# 9415) on :

I think we well and truly deserve it, and nothing else seems to be working.

A solid trade embargo would bring things grinding to a halt very quickly - but as I argued myself not long ago, nothing ever stops trade. As long as we still have shit to dig up, China and others will continue to buy said shit, no matter what unspeakable things we put people on Manus through.

Posted by Stetson (# 9597) on :

The difficulty with a boycott like this is, in order to join, I should probably make sure that my own country has a record on refugees that is better than Australia's. Because otherwise, the question becomes "Why am I supposed to be so worked up about Australia, when I haven't even done anything about what MY OWN government is doing?"

From what I've seen, Canada probably has a better record on refugees than Australia does, but that's largely by comparing Australia Puts Refugees On Island Camp articles to Canada Accepts Some Refugees from Trump's America articles, which is probably not the most comprehenvie examination of the issue.

Posted by stonespring (# 15530) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Dark Knight:
I think we well and truly deserve it, and nothing else seems to be working.

A solid trade embargo would bring things grinding to a halt very quickly - but as I argued myself not long ago, nothing ever stops trade. As long as we still have shit to dig up, China and others will continue to buy said shit, no matter what unspeakable things we put people on Manus through.

My worry is that if an effective economic boycott of Australia by people in more human-rights-oriented political systems would drive Australia even more into China's sphere of influence, potentially further eroding Australia's democratic institutions. And, as said above re: Canada, as citizen of the USA, I live in too much of a glass house to be throwing stones like a boycott at Australia.

Posted by Arabella Purity Winterbottom (# 3434) on :

I couldn't believe it when Turnbull turned down NZ's offer to take some of the refugees. Unfortunately, with family and very close friends in Aussie, I don't think I can entirely boycott visiting.

Posted by simontoad (# 18096) on :

There is no chance of an effective boycott in the current climate. We just have to keep plugging away at the politics, either inside the parties (and there are liberals who are doing that, although the famous ones have gone) or via involvement with advocacy groups, or indeed both.

Interestingly, or perhaps that is not the right word, the Liberals are claiming the high moral ground against McKim, the Tassie green senator who was recently on Manus. They accuse him of inciting the prisoners on Manus to violence and resistance to the authorities. They claim it on the basis that nobody is being killed at sea (how would we know) now, and that there are less people in detention now than under the ALP. McKim is getting in their faces by moving motions about Manus. I haven't so brazen an attempt at the high moral ground from the sewer before.

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