The Australian shock jocks and even ABC
and SBS TV are running with a headline story about Pirates.
A Norwegian car-carrier ship en route
to Singapore from Fremantle, MV Parsifal, responded to an Australian
search and rescue organisation which had received a distress call
from a refugee boat supposedly sinking. The Parsifal took the 67
refugees on board, but when they were informed that they were heading
for Singapore and not an Australian territory (Christmas Island) they
understandably became 'agitated'. The Captain decided to change
course and take them to Christmas Island. Christmas Island is a slight diversion from the Fremantle-Singapore route.
Then came the media beat up... Pirates
story. The Captain later stressed that there was no piracy, the
refugees threatened self harm. There was no threat to his crew.
It is
most likely that the ship's owners advised the Captain to land them
on Christmas Island as there would have most certainly been costly
delays in Singapore whilst that government wrangled over who was to
take them.
The
Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, said he would have sent in the
SAS.
What a
load of codswallop!
Keel haul 'em and hang 'em from the yardarm.
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