Majority of Australian voters expect fair and humane approach to refugees, poll shows
www.theguardian.com
Exclusive: Research in lead-up to federal election shows more than half of those surveyed want asylum seekers to have more rights while they await visa decisions

Alternative title: Around half of all Australians are brainwashed ghouls 😬

Almost a third supported deporting asylum seekers to their country of origin, regardless of the risk of persecution or violence, while 42% opposed it somewhat or strongly.

The polling also showed voters felt strongly about punitive measures for those in immigration detention, with 50% backing powers to conduct more invasive searches compared with 22% against the measure.

The control group supported offshore detention at 51% while 24% opposed. Support dropped marginally to 49% and 50% after messages against offshore detention, while the group exposed to pro-offshore detention increased to 57% support.

😬😬😬

  • Australis13@fedia.io
    9·
    5 days ago

    No wonder we keep voting in the LNP and ALP. They’re both as bad as each other when it comes to the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers.

    Sounds like basically half the population doesn’t have empathy.

    • NaevaTheRat [she/her]@vegantheoryclub.orgOPEnglish
      5·
      5 days ago

      The media is intensely, dystopically, centralised and people are bombarded with offensive horror.

      Australians also have pretty broken community because of isolating cities and a highly urbanised population, plus lots of working. I think both of these stunt empathy, as you primarily see people in contexts where they are something to be endured.

      This nation was a horrible colonial project, but many of the people who were forced to come or decided to had some pretty wonderful dreams about a welcoming egalitarian society. I am saddened by where we ended up.

    • Australis13@fedia.io
      4·
      5 days ago

      I should also add that the Guardian seems to be making this more of a positive than it is. Apparently:

      Jana Favero, the ASRC’s deputy chief executive, said the results showed voters had “compassion” and “a desire for humanity” when it came to people fleeing danger

      But only 42% oppose “deporting asylum seekers to their country of origin, regardless of the risk of persecution or violence” and 32% oppose “the government’s powers to pay other countries to take asylum seekers or non-citizens Australia wants to deport”.

      I would argue only around ~40% of respondents met Favero’s descriptor.

  • Lodion 🇦🇺MA
    2·
    5 days ago

    Not sure how I should feel that the bubble I live in seems far more accepting and empathy towards asylum seekers.

    I don’t think the people I live/work/socialise with are particularly extreme… but according to this we’re collectively not representative of wider Australian views.

    I choose to believe their sampling was flawed and somehow only sampled the worst of us.

    • joelfromausEnglish
      2·
      4 days ago

      Unfortunately, I have the opposite experience. Living in rural Australia I often come across people who treat any non-white person as “other”.

      A good example of this is an ex-coworker who refused to eat Indian food because she’s not a “curry muncher”. I pointed out that she likes butter chicken and that’s curry. She admitted that she did indeed like butter chicken but not curry.

      That’s the logic we’re dealing with. It’s hostility driven by a lack of exposure to other cultures and people and the demonisation of those cultures and people in media.