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Last updated on August 8th, 2017 at 01:10 pm
Kevin Rudd wants to help a travelling Australian who has somehow run into trouble with the law:
An Australian arrested in Iraq on suspicion of conspiring to commit terrorist acts should be given the full support of the federal government, Labor Leader Kevin Rudd says …
Mr Rudd said the Australian government should be giving the man as much support as possible.
“Every Australian abroad who finds himself in trouble deserves legitimate consular support from the Australian government,” Mr Rudd told reporters on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.
“That’s partly why we pay our taxes, to make sure that when you’re overseas at any given time you run into trouble with the law or other sorts of trouble, that there are appropriate levels of Australian government support abroad.”
What an astonishing thing to say. He merely ran into trouble with the law? Also, as dodgybob notes, the fellow in question doesn’t seem to be the tax-paying type:
Warya Kanie, 39, an Iraqi Kurd, came to Australia about three years ago with his young daughter as part of the humanitarian refugee program to join his three brothers, who were already living in Adelaide.
Mr Kanie, who had divorced his wife, was living in a housing trust apartment on unemployment benefits and receiving additional benefits as a single father …
To lightly paraphrase Rudd: “That’s partly why we pay our taxes, to make sure that when suspected terrorists run into trouble with the law or other sorts of trouble, that there are appropriate levels of Australian government support abroad.” Keep this up, Kevin. See how far it gets you.
UPDATE. Geoff comments:
According to the latest DFAT Annual Report there were 752 Australians arrested overseas who received Australian consular assistance. At 30 June 2006 there were 291 Australians known to be in custody abroad and monitored by DFAT officers. Of the 5,000,860 Australian travellers in the year, 132,923 required Consular assistance in one form or another including hospitalisations, medical evacuations, deaths, general welfare and guidance, financial assistance and emergency loans. The current year is of course business as usual.
The total number of Australians arrested abroad that prompted a Federal Opposition leader to publicly remind DFAT officers to do the jobs they are paid to do?
One. And he is being held on suspicion of conspiring to commit terrorist acts.
