My piece for the Guardian is up here.
My fellow Canberrans:
I stand before you today with a heavy heart and a steely determination. It is now abundantly clear that we must take drastic and definitive steps to secure our borders and defeat the threat we face.
There is simply too much at stake for us to do anything less.
For decades now, we Canberrans have been swamped with unwelcome visitors. The conniving UEAs (unfortunately elected arrivals) have taken advantage of our generous spirit. They will stop at nothing to come here: demonising and imprisoning refugees, bribing third world countries to build offshore hellholes, trampling on press freedom, discrediting human rights organisations, capitalising on voters’ xenophobic fears, commissioning propaganda, bleating three word slogans and even kissing unwilling babies.
Who knows how far they’re prepared to go? As I understand it, some of them are more than willing to throw all their principles overboard for the sake of success…