Scott Morrison cooks up a Sri Lankan curry for his family – but his seemingly innocent selfie by the stove triggers a furious response
Prime Minister Scott Morrison shared a series of snaps of a Sri Lankan lamb baduma with godamba rotis he cooked up at The Lodge in Canberra
Source:Dailymail
- Prime Minister shared his lamb baduma with godamba rotis on social media
- But it sparked controversy over a Tamil family held in immigration detention
- Murugappan family used to cook same curry for hospital staff before their arrest
- Now held on Christmas Island for past two years as they fight deprtation
Scott Morrison has again sparked controversy with an innocent photo of his Saturday night kitchen creations.
The Prime Minister shared a series of snaps of a Sri Lankan lamb baduma with godamba rotis he cooked up at The Lodge in Canberra.
‘Girls and Jen loved it,’ he wrote of his wife Jennifer and daughters Abbey, 12, and Lily, 10, whom he cooks curries for every weekend.
Mr Morrison’s choice of a Sri Lankan dish quickly drew comparisons to a Tamil family who have spent the past two years in immigration detention
‘Still thinking of everyone in Melbourne. Hope you’re finding ways to make the best of it in lockdown. You’ve turned the corner.’
The weekly insight into his family life is a benign attempt to humanise the national leader, but is frequently hijacked by politics.
Mr Morrison’s choice of a Sri Lankan dish quickly drew comparisons to a Tamil family who have spent the past two years in immigration detention.
Priya and Nades Murugappan and their two young daughters lived in the small Queensland town of Biloela where they were beloved by locals.
Priya and Nades Murugappan and their Australian-born daughters Kopika and Tharunicaa are fighting deportation
Left-wing activist and Change.org director Sally Ruggs pointed out that the same curry Mr Morrison made for his family was a staple of the Murugappan household.
‘Before the Morrison Government raided her house before sunrise, bundled her husband and babies in separate vans and detained them for the last 2.5 years, Priya would make Sri Lankan curries – the homeland she was forced to flee from – for the local hospital staff,’ she wrote on Twitter.
Instead of feeding beleaguered health workers during the pandemic, they are the only people detained on Christmas Island at a cost of $20,000 a day.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton wants them to go back to Sri Lanka – where they fear persecution – and claims the parents are being ‘unfair on their children’ for fighting deportation.
Scott Morrison’s cooking backlash
Prime Minister Scott Morrison previously faced backlash when he shared a different culinary creation a few weeks ago.
He cooked up a ‘lamb rhapsody from Rajasthan’ but it was the comments attached to the photos that sparked controversy.
‘It’s been another very busy day as we work to help Victoria get on top of the outbreak as well as working through some issues in WA,’ he wrote.
‘And while we don’t always get there, whenever I’m home on a Saturday night, I try to make it a family curry night.’
Western Australians appeared to take offence to the prime minister’s suggestion there were ‘issues’ with their state.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison previously faced backlash when he shared a different culinary creation a few weeks ago
The state’s hard border closures have been a contentious topic, with Queensland billionaire Clive Palmer launching a challenge in the High Court, claiming the move is unconstitutional.
WA Premier Mark McGowan stubbornly refuses to lower the border wall, even to states that haven’t had a coronavirus case in months.
Many were seen in the comment’s section box of the prime minister’s post, as they demanded Mr Morrison ‘leave the state alone’.
Mr Morrison the next day addressed the concerns with his own comment: ‘Last night I said I had been working on some WA issues.
‘For those who commented, you can see from my attached letter to the WA Premier what we were working on.
‘We will not be continuing our participation in the High Court case. A lot has changed and we have found a better way to deal with this.’
He also accuses them of ‘wasting’ $10 million of public money in court costs and detention fees.
‘This case has gone on since 2012 I think, and it must have cost now… probably over $10 million,’ he told 2GB radio last month.
‘That’s money that should be going into… communities and helping Australian citizens.
‘They are not refugees and they have used every trick in the book to make sure they can stay.
‘This is a situation of their own making, it is ridiculous, it’s unfair on their children, and it sends a very bad message to other people who think that they can rort the system as well.’
Nades (left with his family) has claimed he will be persecuted in Sri Lanka because he was forced to join the militant group Tamil Tigers in 2001
Their lawyer Carina Ford said it was actually Mr Dutton who was costing the taxpayer by refusing to let the family come back to the mainland while their case is pending.
‘Can you justify spending this amount of money on keeping a detention centre open that no-one else is using?’ she told Daily Mail Australia last month.
‘I don’t think you can. Maybe that’s something the government can re-consider.’
Mr Murugappan was gainfully employed at the local abattoir and the family was not receiving any significant welfare benefits while living in Biloela.
Priya was last month flow to hospital in Perth to be treated for severe abdominal pain, as she needed a CT scan which doctors could not carry out on Christmas Island.
Refugee advocates claimed she was told she would be returned to the detention centre after being monitored for two additional days in a hotel.
However, Tamil Refugee Council spokesman Aran Mylvaganam said she wasinstead forcibly removed from the hospital two days earlier by as many as 15 Border Force personnel, and flown back to Christmas Island.
The couple’s two children are pictured – Kopika and Tharunicaa (in grey)
Priya was last month flow to hospital in Perth to be treated for severe abdominal pain, as she needed a CT scan which doctors could not carry out on Christmas Island – but she was dragged out of hospital two days early by Border Force
Priya and Nades came to Australia by boat separately in 2012 and 2013, alleging they were escaping the Sri Lankan civil war.
Priya claimed she watched her former fiance get burned alive and was raped during the Sri Lankan civil war which lasted from 1983 to 2009.
They met in Sydney before getting married and settling in Biloela, Queensland where they had two children, Kopika, four, and Tharunicaa, two.
While her husband put food on the table, Priya looked after the children and attended Biloela Baptist Church craft group where she made dozens of friends.
But they were kicked out in March 2018 when their home was raided by police at 5am, the day after Priya’s bridging visa expired.
Locals started a petition for the family to be allowed to stay and it has been signed by 350,000 people across the country.
The United Nations has also requested the family be let off Christmas Island but the government has ignored those calls.
Minister Dutton does not believe the family are legitimate refugees and wants to deport them – but the courts have ruled they cannot be sent home until their legal proceedings are over.
The family lived in the small Queensland town of Biloela where they were beloved by locals – until they were detained on Christmas Island
Priya and Nades Murugappan and their two young daughters are the only people being detained on Christmas Island at an estimated cost of $20,000 a day
A Federal Court judge in April ruled their deportation must remain on hold after determining the youngest daughter had been denied procedural fairness in her bid to apply for a protection visa.
The government was also ordered to pay the family more than $200,000 in legal fees.
The family now faces a long wait for their next hearing, which could be late this year or early next year.
Ms Ford says she believes there is a ‘good prospect’ of her winning the case, which centres on two-year-old Tharunicaa, whose visa claim was never assessed.
She will also be arguing that Nades should have his application re-assessed because new evidence has emerged proving he will be in danger if he is sent home.
Nades has claimed he will be persecuted in Sri Lanka because he was forced to join the militant group Tamil Tigers in 2001 and was harassed by the Sri Lankan military.
The Immigration Assessment Authority rejected the claims on the basis he frequently travelled between Sri Lanka, Kuwait and Qatar for work between 2004 and 2010 during the civil war, something that a Tamil Tigers member would not be allowed to do.
No Comments