A leading refugee lawyer has issued a blunt ultimatum to One Nation supporters who celebrated Australia’s World Cup victory over Turkey while opposing immigration — telling them they have two choices: stay silent, or confront the contradictions in their own politics.
Sarah Dale, centre director and principal lawyer at the Refugee Advice and Casework Service, wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald that the Socceroos’ win embodied exactly the kind of multicultural Australia that One Nation’s policies would prevent. Nestory Irankunda’s stunning strike against Turkey, she wrote, was “a goal that began in a refugee camp,” pointing out that Irankunda and teammates Awer Mabil and Mohamed Touré were all born in refugee camps, while fellow Socceroo Milos Degenek and his family fled Croatia before settling in Australia.
“The Socceroos’ victory is what happens when we embrace, celebrate and foster a truly multicultural vision of Australia,” Dale wrote, before laying out her ultimatum. “Those who celebrate the Socceroos’ win while opposing the arrival of refugees and immigrants into Australia now have two options. The first is silence because there really is no counterargument to the proof that refugees and migrants are real Australians and do make noteworthy contributions to our country. The second is to argue that people like Irankunda came ‘the right way’. This is a false and toxic framing about what a person must do in fleeing for their lives, what parents must do to protect their children. There is no single static way to access safety in Australia. It’s legal to seek asylum. It’s legal to seek asylum in Australia — but it’s bloody hard.”
Dale argued the “untold story” behind Irankunda’s goal was “the heroism his parents demonstrated in fleeing Burundi and surviving a refugee camp in Tanzania,” and warned that One Nation’s policy of withdrawing Australia from the 1951 Refugee Convention would mean players like Irankunda, Touré, Mabil and Degenek “would probably never have made it to Australia, let alone be the sporting greats we are celebrating.”
Dale’s column followed similar interventions from figures in Labor and the Greens. Former ALP MP John Kennedy and ex-Greens candidate Hannah Thomas both posted messages suggesting One Nation voters had no claim to support the Socceroos. “One Nation would deport half the Socceroos and defund SBS so we couldn’t even watch them,” Thomas wrote. “Gentle reminder that if you enjoyed that win today, you shouldn’t be on team Pauline.”
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce pushed back against the wave of criticism, which intensified after the party’s Facebook page posted a message congratulating the Socceroos on the win. “I would suggest that every person in Australia at some stage has immigrant blood in them,” he told Sky News. “Unless you’re Aboriginal, and most Aboriginal people have got genetics from other places as well. It’s not about being an immigrant, it’s about being a person who’s going to fit into Australia and work within the guardrails of our expectations. Those guardrails are what protects the liberty and freedoms of other people, otherwise if you follow a philosophy that’s more attuned to where you came from and is not tempered by the fact you’re now in Australia, then it would be best if you had never left that place.”
