http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-15/abbott-regrets-baby-situation-but-wont-apologise/5095364
Prime Minister Tony Abbott says he “deeply” regrets that an asylum seeker was given limited access to her sick baby, but won’t apologise “for what happens when people come to Australia illegally”.
Latifa, a Rohingyan woman from Myanmar, gave birth in Brisbane’s Mater Hospital last week but was returned to a detention centre while her baby remained in the neonatal intensive care unit.
For several days the Immigration Department only allowed Latifa to visit her baby at the hospital between 10:00am and 4:00pm.
Mr Abbott says he has read reports about Latifa’s case and “deeply” regrets that she was separated from her child.
“But we’ve got to ask ourselves, why have any of these things happened?” he said on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka.
“They’ve happened because people have come to Australia illegally by boat and if you want to avoid these things, you’ve got to stop the boats.
“I don’t, as it were, apologise for what happens when people come to Australia illegally by boat, because I am determined, as the new Government is determined, to stop this dangerous, this horrible business.”
The baby was discharged from hospital yesterday.
A spokesman for the Immigration Minister Scott Morrison yesterday said doctors at the hospital had advised that it is common for mothers not to stay overnight because of bed restrictions.
Latifa
Photo: Latifa was only allowed to visit her baby between the hours of 10:00am and 4:00pm. (Supplied)
But in a statement, the Mater Hospital suggested Latifa should have been allowed to visit her child whenever she wanted.
The hospital says it encourages new mothers to be involved in the baby’s care wherever possible to help establish a strong bond, and does not place restrictions on visiting hours.
“Mater places no restrictions on women and they can visit their baby anytime where possible,” the statement said.
In his weekly media briefing today, Mr Morrison revealed he has asked his department to investigate the matter.
“I have requested my department to look at the arrangements that were put around that particular instance to ensure that a mother would have as much access to their child as they would request and consistent with the standards and opportunities that would be otherwise available to any Australian at that hospital,” he said.
“The issue here was also bed restrictions and bed restrictions don’t apply only to people who might be transferees in this situation, they apply to Australians as well.”
“I’m sure no-one is suggesting that anyone who found themselves in this situation as an asylum seeker should be receiving preferable treatment over, to any, Australian in that situation.”
Former Liberal leader John Hewson this morning accused Mr Morrison of arrogance and condemned the decision to limit the woman’s access to her baby as inhumane.
“It’s inhumanity in the extreme in my view, I mean a mother in these circumstances is normally given 24-hour access to a child in intensive care,” Dr Hewson told Sky News.
“I mean for heaven’s sake, Morrison can go make all the short-term points he likes out there, but this is something I think that sends absolutely the wrong message.”
Where’s Cariz? This article answers all of his questions from the previous G.O. article!
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Too busy with semantics Big M. Maybe he’s walking the dog or entertaining schoolies.
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Just looking for the truth. I got there in the end of course. Despite your kicking and squealing.
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I always liked Hewson, and thoroughly agree with him. However one has to stick to the true events.
Algernon made a mistake, and I just had to point it out. You know how dogged I can be.
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I didn’t make a mistake Julian. You just like arguing with yourself in a vacuum.
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Both Abbott and Morrison have religious affiliations. They both lie and are as devoid of empathy as an empty sardine tin left out in the sun. You can just imagine Morrison in a nativity play, dressed all in white wearing a plastic wreath of thorns, telling the heavily pregnant Mary to fuck off with her baby with a refrain from Abbott, eyes all cast heavenly . Yea, fuck off, this our good country and that’s what you get, you bloody illegal.
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What we have here is a Minister out of his depth and totally lacking in empathy. He’s been caught out lying. He has made the claim that hospital wont allow the mother to stay with their newborn. The hospital has refuted this. Morrison simply does not know when to stop being the attack dog.
I have said before and I’ll repeat it again Abbott is not fit to be the leader of the country. Once a bully always a bully. He abusive and this just demonstrates that he is. The Liberals were inhumane under Howard. Nothing has changed under Abbott.
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The ramifications of what is involved in this story are so far reaching. To see the issues discussed regarding the importance to a woman and her child of each other is so restorative of some faith in our social response. Sanity instead of insanity. The importance to the individuals of each other in a stressful situation as they are in cannot be measured. What malevolent things may happen to either one of them without the comfort of the other. To see people standing up and howling at and about this outrage is witness of social aspiration to be better than this. To hear what Tony Abbott said went through me like a knife. I thought he could demonstrate an outlandish lack of humanity but to stoop so low as to make the link he did between this situation and the alleged illegality of seeking refuge…only to be made bereft of any humanity or dignity. Don’t these people have any capacity with intellectual logic, sheer thought processing at ALL!?
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One has to assume that all his Liberal/Nat colleagues in parliament agree with him. I wonder if they can put up with this for the whole three years. Do they think that all asylum seekers are mass murderers?
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Abbott;“I don’t, as it were, apologise for what happens when people come to Australia illegally by boat, because I am determined, as the new Government is determined, to stop this dangerous, this horrible business.”
Abbott is clearly saying, that in order to try and stop boats we punish mothers by separating them from their babies.
This is stuff straight out from the Nazis.
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What a poor excuse. Abbott: When people come to Australia ‘illegally’, that’s what happens. What bastardy, what bullying.
Any woman, any where, should have access to her baby.
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