The Wire

‘Leaky boats’, ‘queue jumpers’, ‘Christmas Island crises’ and ‘getting tough on border protection’. Sound familiar? That’s because a repetition of quick quips and 30-second sound bytes promising to ‘stop the boats’ has been the response of both major parties to the issue of asylum seekers. But have slogans got in the way of a solution? Director of the Edmund Rice Centre spoke about the language dominating Australia’s refugee debate and the toll it’s taking.