OPINION: No choice for terrorist's children

I'M GLAD to see eight Australian children being brought home from a Syrian refugee camp.

Ash Barty becomes world No.1. Picture: Morgan Harlow

FIVE MINUTES WITH FIELDING

BRING THEM HOME

I'M GLAD to see eight Australian children being brought home from a Syrian refugee camp.

Whatever you think about their parents, who clearly made bad decisions, these are Australian citizens who did nothing wrong.

Fair enough if they weren't.

So much for not visiting the sins of the father upon the sons.

The PM says "repatriating these children was not a decision the Australian government made lightly”.

I'd have thought it made perfect sense to repatriate vulnerable Australian minors. Of course it was difficult and people were put at risk, but what other choice did we have? Abandoning citizens?

Let's hope these kids are able to rise above their terrible circumstances.

WORLD-BEATING WOMEN

WHAT a day for women's sport in this country.

Ash Barty wins in Birmingham and becomes tennis world No.1, Sally wins in Rio and takes the world surfing title lead and Hannah Green, at 400-1 odds, takes out her debut tournament win - at one of golf's majors.

Barty is arguably the country's best athlete at present.

Women's sport often, often unfairly, cops a battering.

I've always been of the view that women's tennis, although different, is just as entertaining as men's tennis. And surfing and golf couldn't be that far behind.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

MUCH is made of the public service in Queensland and that government's supposed predisposition to growing it.

Therefore, it was interesting to see the UBS report that showed Queensland's public service grew less than the national average in the 12 months to May.

At 16 per cent, we were well under the 19 per cent national average and well behind Victoria (30 per cent), Tasmania (26 per cent), SA (22 per cent) and NSW (21 per cent).

The gist was public service hirings are masking economic weakness, and I agree, but the Queensland rate is noteworthy.

Originally published as OPINION: No choice for terrorist's children