Please don’t let the Medevac rumours be true

With Scott Morrison’s renewed mandate from the public in his hot little hands after an election victory, things are looking precarious for those in desperate need on Manus and Nauru, writes Eliza Barr.

When I was four years old, I split my head open.

I was making a cubby house under a table, and I hit my head, just above my eye. It bled, I cried, but we went to the medical centre and a few butterfly bandages did the trick.

In the end it was no big deal ­— because I grew up in Australia. I won the cosmic lottery. I was born — through no merit of my own — in a safe place.

This is the Lucky Country, as they say.

But in Australia’s offshore refugee processing centres, folks aren’t always so lucky.

On Manus Island and Nauru, even the smallest illness or injury can snowball into something extremely serious.

The Medevac Bill passed in February facilitated emergency medical transfers to Australia for sick refugees with the recommendation of two doctors.

It represented a historic defeat for the Coalition government, but with the country’s renewed mandate in their hot little hands after their election victory, rumours of the bill’s demise are already abounding.

Following the election, rumours that Morrison’s government will reverse the Medevac bill are running rife. Picture: AAP/Lukas Coch

This is terrible news for our refugees, because Medevac is saving lives.

I am a journalist. I deal with facts. I prefer to see things with my own eyes, rather than hear about them from other people. So here is how I know Medevac is essential for the wellbeing of Australia’s refugees.

In recent months I have been spending time with a refugee couple who had their first son on Nauru.

He is a gorgeous, cheeky boy with a smile that melts you ­— and he knows it too.

When he was around six months old he developed a sore arm. His parents took him to the doctors on Nauru, who repeatedly sent them away. The baby’s arm kept swelling, and he kept screaming in agony every time they touched it.

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Finally, they were evacuated to Australia for medical treatment, where he was diagnosed with a bone infection.

He only had eczema, but without diagnosis and treatment, the relatively mundane skin condition devolved into something far more sinister.

For many children on Nauru, small medical issues can become huge if not treated properly. Picture: AAP/Lukas Coch

This sweet boy is one now, and he laughs as he runs in dizzying circles around his Sydney backyard. He has been on antibiotics to treat the lesion on his bone all this time, but he is a happy little kid who has the freedom he so deeply deserves — for now.

I have seen with my own eyes that Medevac saves lives. It would be a tragedy for refugees if this contingency was no longer available.

Just for a moment, I wonder if the people in charge could reflect on the immense privilege it is to be Australian.

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Could they call to mind their broken bones, their bouts of flu, the blood they have dabbed from their babies’ cuts and scrapes over the years?

Or perhaps, they couldn’t — because those medical mishaps of years gone by pale with the passing time because it was just so easy to fix, they barely think of them at all.

Wouldn’t you want someone to help you if the shoe was on the other foot? If you were nursing a desperately ill child on a tiny island, wouldn’t you want someone to rescue you?

Former crossbench MP Dr Kerryn Phelps introduced the Medevac bill in February 2019. Picture: AAP/Lukas Coch

Some years ago I spoke to an Australian federal politician — who still serves in the parliament now — about their support for strong borders.

They insisted they had “great compassion” for refugees who had fled persecution, poverty and war overseas.

“We’ve seen a tragedy in Syria,” they said. “I couldn’t think of anything worse and I would be doing everything I could to resettle my family in a Western democracy as well.”

Perhaps that is exactly the problem.

They would save their own children from oppression and danger in a heartbeat, and they would certainly save themselves — but their fellow man in offshore limbo is just a bit of a question mark.

But we can’t lose our compassion when people’s lives are at stake. So when our leaders take a seat at the table and talk about the future of Medevac, I hope they remember how lucky they are. I hope they give refugees the kindness they deserve; the kindness they would want if the shoe was on the other foot.

I hope they think of a little boy born on Nauru, singing and squawking in his backyard, not sick, but full of life and joy, because we as a nation interceded. Because we were kind. Because we cared.

@ElizaJBarr