On September 13, Pete and I tried to run away to Mandorah for the night, mainly to sleep, and hang out without doing any political organising. We've been there a few times before, have, in fact, blogged about it. You take the ferry across to the cox peninsula, and there within stumbling distance of the jetty, is the daggy Mandorah pub.
It's a large, mainly outdoor affair, simple concrete floors and a tin roof - feels a bit like a big converted garage, open to the elements on three sides. The meals blackboard proudly proclaims it the "no hot chips pub", and the guys who run it learn your name and offer free tea and coffee.
It's right on the beach, looking back over the water towards Darwin. We tried to ignore the sinister-looking navy ships slightly blocking the view (we learned on the TV later they were returning from multilateral war games).
It had been a busy few weeks - apart from me not being very healthy, this is what we'd been up to: Darwin refugee advocates condemn Pacific Solution . We spent the afternoon quite indulgently enjoying having a TV(a novelty that soon bored us), and I did some laps in the pool with blue and yellow peeling paint, feeling somehow like I was back in time at a holiday resort from an earlier era.
As we had dinner back at the bar, enjoying the sunset, I thought that I was finally relaxing, after a few months that have been rather anxious, for reasons I won't go into.
And then Labor's rotten, cruel new policy to send asylum seekers to Nauru intruded into our holiday, as we heard the first planeload of refugees was likely to leave for the island gulag that night.
The media calls came until almost 11pm, then started again at 6:30am.
We could have turned our phones off, theoretically. But how can we when our own government prepares to send some of the most vulnerable people on the planet far away from our support, from legal support, from adequate health facilities... When men, women and children in detention in Darwin can't eat or sleep, so anxious are they as they wait to hear if they'll be among those left to languish on Nauru - for up to five years, according to the government.
This is already a failed policy: it hasn't stopped the boats - more asylum seekers have arrived on our shores since the legislation was passed then there is capacity to accommodate at Nauru or Manus. It hasn't stopped deaths at sea- just days after the legislation passed, around 100 people died as their boat sunk after leaving Indonesia.
All the policy will do is destroy the mental health of refugees, whip up xenophobia and confirm what many around the world already know to be true: the Australian government is racist, cruel and has no respect for human rights.
With heavy hearts we pulled ourself back across the water, to Darwin and all that awaited us there. For now, it seemed, the asylum seekers detained in Darwin had escaped being sent to Nauru, but it's highly likely they will be among those transferred over following weeks.
It reminded me of the line to a song, "We who believe in freedom cannot rest ... until it comes."
Like a friend said recently, I hope Labor & Coalition MPs responsible for this new level of cruelty policy will cause are also not sleeping well at night.
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