Once upon time, the chorus of outrage over Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers included sitting Liberal MPs. Those who remember the Howard years will also remember Judith Troeth and Petro Georgiou — Liberal MPs who broke ranks over the government’s approach to refugees.

This week, Australia has again been confronted with the impact its border security policies have on real people, real families and real kids. The image of an unwell three-year-old Tharunicaa Murugappan, crying in a hospital bed, is hard to ignore.

And yet many within the Coalition are managing just that. As chief political correspondent Michelle Grattan writes, small-l Liberals are now more or less an endangered species. “Those that exist in the government’s most senior ranks … are rather like people who used to actively practise their religion but now have become nominal believers.”

Granted, border security is politically sensitive. But, in this case, why can’t the government take the logical course and allow the Murugappan family to go back to Biloela, where they want to go and where the community will welcome them? “The people smugglers are not going to snap back into action … just because a humanitarian exception is made for one couple and their kids.”

Meanwhile, Tharunicaa and her big sister, Kopika, remain the only two children in immigration detention in Australia.

And finally, if you value our work and haven’t already, please support us with a donation. With your help, quality information can reach more people.

Judith Ireland

Deputy Editor, Politics + Society

Biance De Marchi/AAP

View from The Hill: the Morrison government has escape hatch in Tamil family case — if it wants to use it

Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra

If the government is considering the release of the Biloela Tamil family, they may force the family to take a tortuous route rather than the simple one, writes Michelle Grattan.

Joel Carrett/AAP

If you don’t have a COVID vaccination certificate, could you be banned from restaurants, shops and theatres?

Maria O'Sullivan, Monash University

Australians will be able to show specific online proof if they have had two doses of a COVID jab.

Photo: Thomas Astell-Burt

People’s odds of loneliness could fall by up to half if cities hit 30% green space targets

Thomas Astell-Burt, University of Wollongong; Xiaoqi Feng, UNSW

For the areas of cities with less than 10% green space, increasing that to 30% could cut the overall odds of residents becoming lonely by a quarter.

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A history of blood clots is not usually any reason to avoid the AstraZeneca vaccine

Sant-Rayn Pasricha, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute; Paul Monagle, The University of Melbourne

If you have risk factors around blood clots, heart attack or stroke, this should actually be an impetus to get vaccinated sooner rather than later.

Shutterstock

Check your mirrors: 3 things rooftop solar can teach us about Australia’s electric car rollout

Bjorn Sturmberg, Australian National University; Kathryn Lucas-Healey, Australian National University; Laura Jones, Australian National University; Mejbaul Haque, Australian National University

The electric vehicle transition is about more than just scrapping petrol cars. We must also ensure quality technology, anticipate the future and make sure no-one gets left behind.

Warwick Bowen

A quantum hack for microscopes can reveal the undiscovered details of life

Warwick Bowen, The University of Queensland

Quantum microscopes reveal biological structures that would otherwise be impossible to see.

Researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (2017). AAP

The COVID-19 lab leak theory highlights a glaring lack of global biosecurity regulation

Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato

We may never know whether the pandemic began with a leak at the Wuhan lab. But even the possibility shows we need a universal biosafety code to prevent something similar happening in future.

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