The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
— Emma Lazarus
The Canberra Times reports that Mr Stanhope would love to have an immigration detention centre here in Canberra. (Presumably to set an example to those unpleasant yokels of the hinterland who’ve been yahooing it up for the cameras at their community meetings on the subject.)
Canberra playing host to a diplomatic corp, a press gallery, a population of bleeding hearts, and the Parliamentary Greens we’re pretty much the very last place in the world the Department of Immigration would like to put a detention centre.
But is this the same Chief Minister under whom rents have skyrocketed and accommodation for anyone not in the senior ranks of the public service is now perforce shared?
The same Chief Minister waging campaigns against the “slum” housing which is now all the city’s young and vulnerable can afford?
It’s all “aspirational” I’m sure.