What happens to the politicians who built and ran the Manus Island prison?
In a just world, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Dutton and all their predecessors - including the Labor prime ministers and immigration ministers - involved in the creation and maintenance of Australia's mandatory imprisonment of lawful asylum seekers would be charged and convicted of crimes against humanity.
Just because it will never happen, doesn't mean that it shouldn't.
The crude ugliness and criminal negligence of our policy was never primarily about stopping the boats.
Photo: AAPThe grotesque and abysmal scenes playing out in our abandoned concentration camp on Manus Island would seem to meet many of the criteria for a successful prosecution at the International Criminal Court, specifically the "imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law".
On a good day, you might even get them on the "enforced disappearance of persons", as well, although that would be a stretch.
It's not a stretch to imagine a conviction being recorded against Turnbull and Dutton for their wilful persecution of 600 lawful asylum seekers, where persecution as defined by the ICC encompasses "the intentional and severe deprivation of fundamental rights contrary to international law by reason of the identity of the group or collectivity".
Having imprisoned these men in a tropical hellhole, to then abandon them there without food, water, power or medical supplies, would seem to tick all the boxes, wouldn't it?
Refusing New Zealand's offer to immediately resettle 150 of the men gravely compounds the offence.
And for what?
A tranche of votes in a handful of seats that Pauline Hanson can probably put in her back pocket anyway.
The crude ugliness and criminal negligence of our policy was never primarily about stopping the boats. It was more about seeking electoral support from bigots and idiots.
It was a very successful policy in that regard.
The remote locations of our prison camps and the servile compliance of the host governments made it easy for successive administrations, both left and right, to keep the problem out of sight and out of mind.
But now the consequences of running a tropical gulag system are starting to leak out. Or at least the consequences for those we banish there.
The consequences for the men and women - lookin' at you, Julia Gillard - who built and ran the camps?
There probably won't be any.
John Birmingham is a columnist and blogger for the Brisbane Times. He is also an award winning magazine writer and the author of Leviathan, the Unauthorised Biography of Sydney, which won the National Award for Non-Fiction. He amuses himself in his down time by writing novels which improve with altitude.
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