Pundit

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Don't walk away, in silence

Last year, John Key said New Zealand might send any refugee claimants who arrive by boat over to Australia's detention camps. That's not still a thing, is it?

Have a read of this NZ Herald article by Greg Ansley about the conditions in the off-shore asylum seeker camps that Australia has set up to "deal with" refugee claimants who try to get to Australia by boat.

Then revisit this Pundit post I wrote a year ago about New Zealand participating in a "regional solution" to the issue, which could potentially include us sending any boat-bourne arrivals on our shores over to Australia's camps for processing. A post in which I quoted John Key as saying:

I haven't inspected the camps obviously but I accept the prime minister at her word. ... Our expectation is that the camps would be at the world standard we would expect from a developed economy like Australia.

I wonder if, given recent developments and news reports from those camps, our PM still thinks this? And is it still on the table for NZ to send any (hypothetical) future "boat people" over to places like Nauru and Manus Island? And if so, how do we feel about that?