Summary

The article is an interview with Behrouz Boochani, a Kurdish refugee who has been detained by the Australian government on Manus Island since 2015. Boochani discusses his experiences of detention and the book he has written about those experiences.

Extract

I don't remember exactly when I started to write the first words but I remember that I thought my writing of this time was like a mission and duty ... to make readers aware of this prison camp. I imagined there would be unknown readers from around the world ... That's why I wrote it in a literary language. Not only for this historical period or those people who are involved in this plight ... I wrote this book so that it extends beyond geographical bounds and generational imaginaries.

This chapter about the way they exiled us to Manus was one of the hardest parts to write … If you remember, years ago, I wrote a letter to you and complained that I was scared of writing, that I hate writing. You answered me, saying: ‘Behrouz I wrote about my relatives who were killed.’ Your grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins … I knew that I had to do it to survive. I knew that I could expose this system through these words … I could get back my identity through writing this book and not allowing this system to reduce me to a number.

Link

https://www.theage.com.au/national/australia-s-barbaric-policy-confronted-by-boochani-s-prison-memoir-20180821-p4zyt7.html

Key points:

• The petition for a party room meeting of the Liberal Party got 43 signatures, so Turnbull allowed the meeting to be called.

• The party room voted 45:40 to spill the leadership.

• Three candidates nominated: Peter Dutton, Scott Morrison, Julie Bishop.

• Bishop was eliminated in the first round of voting.

• Morrison won the second round of voting against Dutton, 45:40.

• As the leader of the Liberal Party, Morrison becomes the new Prime Minister... probably. It now depends on whether their coalition partners, the National Party, support the new Liberal leader (but they probably will: the alternative is to lose government).

EDIT1: And Josh Frydenburg is the deputy leader of the Liberal Party. That does not make him the Deputy Prime Minister: that role goes to the leader of the National Party whenever the Coalition is in government.

EDIT2: The news: http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-24/scott-morrison-wins-leaderal-leadership/10160168

Follow live here: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-24/live-turnbull-leadership-challenge-looms/10159462

Some background on Scott Morrison: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-24/scott-morrisons-rise-to-prime-minister-of-australia/10160458