Australia Card Is On The Cards

All this business about Cornelia Rau, a mentally ill woman who was locked up in the Baxter Detention Centre for four months without mental health care because she pretended to be a German migrant who had lost her visa, can only lead to one thing. The reintroduction of debate surrounding the Australia Card. If all of her personal details were known they would have discovered who she was a lot sooner and there wouldn't be the public uproar that there has been.

Perhaps Australians are better off because of this incident or perhaps they are worse off. The Australia Card, which the Hawke Government tried to introduce in the '80s I believe, would have your Medicare details, perhaps licence details, all sorts of personal info contained within and people would be left with less privacy than they have now.

Or maybe the government needs to introduce some mental health facilities into the detention centres. Leave the rest of us alone.