The Christmas spirit is yet to spread across the halls of parliament, with the last joint sitting week of the year very much business, business … ugly business.
The parliamentary year has been brutal. This last week was no different, as both the major parties duked it out over the indefinite detention decision. As is often the way in politics, forgotten in the parliamentary battle are the people in the “middle”. At times it seemed it was forgotten that the refugees and migrants released by the high court decision are people. The Coalition only refers to them as “hardened” or “hardcore criminals”, which is not true, while Labor’s Clare O’Neil wished she had the power to “lock them all back up again”, criminal record or not.
