"I just like cats" said John Laws, Australia's most influential broadcaster. Honey the little cat, who was Aladdin Sisalem's only companion in his isolation on Manus Island, had touched the heart of the radio mega-star. As Aladdin was flying toward Australia and freedom last week John Laws opened his show on 2UE with his famous callsign 'Hello World' and listeners to over 60 radio stations throughout Australia started to learn about Honey, refugees and The Pacific Solution.
Because John Laws 'just likes cats' he instinctively felt for the tiny white and tan stray who had chosen Aladdin Sisalem to be her friend and he understood how she would pine for him. He needed no one to tell him how much Aladdin loved Honey or how devastated he was being ordered to leave her behind. He did not know the guards on Manus Island had kicked or injured the tiny cat but he knew Honey and Aladdin belonged together.
Maybe John Laws had seen Olivia Roussett's SBS Dateline Story 'THE LAST MAN ON MANUS ISLAND' maybe he noticed one of the news items that showed him with Honey and reported she was still on Manus. But because he 'just likes cats' John Laws knew with utter certainty that Honey had kept Aladdin Sisalem sane in his isolation and had given him love when he thought no one else in the world cared whether he lived or died. And when the most famous voice in Australia said "Give the man his cat" everyone listened in the cities in outback all over the continent.
In an election year politicians would gladly kill to get on the John Laws Show. Laws beautiful modulated voice, which has the press referring to his 'Golden Tonsils', can be heard in every one of the crucial marginal seats unlike his bitter rival Alan Jones. While claiming a slight ratings lead Jones is transmitted to a much smaller area. Swinging voters are also less likely to listen to Jones because he is so clearly and openly aligned with the Howard Government.
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone seemed as excited as a prom queen to finding herself talking to Laws. John Laws describes himself simply as and entertainer but he is much more than that. Vanstone flirtatiously tried to go for gags as she stone-walled with the familiar and wholly unbelievable government line. Nobody gives John Laws the run-around and he adroitly and eloquently called her at every turn.
The Minister might have thought she was winning in this deceptively lighthearted banter but no doubting she had experience a humiliating failure rapier steel edged through velvet tones as he dismissed her with a simple pun suggesting .......she.... pussy footing around Minister." She responded with a laugh that seemed false and nervous and it seemed Laws had no wish to waste a further ounce his intelligence in this conversational loop. To hear the interview go to http://www.johnlaws.com.au no transcript appears to have been posted on the Minister's website.
John Laws vowed to reunite Honey with Aladdin Sisalem in Australia and long before Aladdin Sisalem had finally arrived in his destination of Melbourne Honey's Cause was officially listed on John Laws website. Over the next few days, through his advocacy for Honey, John Laws discovered the horrors and frustration that refugee advocates have faced for the last few years. The man who could pick up the phone and speak to anyone from Prime Ministers to captains of industry Oscar winners to opera stars was unable to get past the bureaucracy IOM in Canberra were unco-operative and the detention centre on Manus Island unreachable. After half a century of broadcasting John Laws name seemed to count for nothing.
First the claim was made that Honey was missing. That only created alarm and fury amongst Laws loyal listeners. Then it was said that Honey was not Aladdin Sisalems cat, she was the Island's cat. Again the audience was angry and all the time they were learning more and more about the way the Pacific Solution worked and like John Laws they were not buying the lies anymore. Concurrently another storm was heading up as in Senate Estimates the deception about who knew what and when about the Abu Graibe atrocities was falling into place and it was clear Australia was in breach of the Geneva Convention and Laws was firing.
The listening audience were surprised and horrified by the middle of the week when an entirely new and repugnant sort of caller rang in to the show. The professional haters were lined up and attacking Laws one as good as insinuated his remarks were seditious. Others making offensive personal remarks suggesting among other things he was 'over the hill' but the Grand Master of Australian broadcasting had never been better. He made it crystal clear he found the Prime Minister an amiable person but that did not mean he would be letting up on falsehoods exposed in Senate Estimates and he was not giving up on Honey.
Although he did not refer to it he was already in possession of the internet exchange between Aladdin Sisalem and Matt Hamon on the night of Friday May 28, 2004. 'Aladdin had been notified of his freedom late in the afternoon with these words "You have been granted a visa and you will be here next week." in an email from the Australian Immigration Department. He immediately thought of the welfare of his tiny and loyal friend HONEY.
This extract of internet chat confirms how accurate John Laws first analysis of the importance of Honey had been:
Aladdin Sisalem: the bad part here is that they are not allowing me to take Honey
Aladdin Sisalem: she's feeling upset today
Aladdin Sisalem: when i ask the dimia officer to help me take her she was playing with him like she was saying to him please
matt_hamon: oh!
matt_hamon: that is sad
Aladdin Sisalem: he said he could try but it very hard and take more than month
matt_hamon: quarantine
Aladdin Sisalem: you know am afraid that the people here could hurt her
Aladdin Sisalem: i mean they hate me and they hate her because she is staying with me always
matt_hamon: I told you before cats are a very good judge of character
Aladdin Sisalem: last time someone hurt her so bad and almost broke her arm
matt_hamon: oh!
Aladdin Sisalem: the problem there is no one here to take care of her
Aladdin Sisalem: i have only one day left and i will be leaving on sunday
matt_hamon: maybe it can be arranged for the Honey to be transported
matt_hamon: she may have to stay in the quarantine in Australia for several weeks but that is okay
Aladdin Sisalem: yeah sure
Aladdin Sisalem: i know this already every refugee come to australia have to stay in detention
matt_hamon: not if they have tpv
Aladdin Sisalem: honey is a refugee now
matt_hamon: sure she is
Aladdin Sisalem: if i left her some gonna hurt her or maybe kill her
matt_hamon: quarantine is only to check that she doesn't have dease
Aladdin Sisalem: she very clean and healthy
matt_hamon: I bet she is
Aladdin Sisalem: would you try?
matt_hamon: yes
Aladdin Sisalem: i have only tomorrow left
matt_hamon: I'm on it
matt_hamon: we will get Honey to Australia, we have too
Aladdin Sisalem: well thats sound good
matt_hamon: we got that beautiful footage of you and Honey from Olivia's story on you
Aladdin Sisalem: the problem i have only one day left
matt_hamon: Just spoken to Mary and she is calling everywhere she can
matt_hamon: and we will resume in the morning
matt_hamon: but it's important we get on to someone tonight before you leave Manus
Aladdin Sisalem: the animals protecting organization sound helpful
matt_hamon: for sure
Aladdin Sisalem: am leaing manus sunday morning
matt_hamon: okay that gives us time
Aladdin Sisalem: if it success i would need some document to show it to dimia
Aladdin Sisalem: and in the airport of course
matt_hamon: for sure
Aladdin Sisalem: believe me honey can become star if i film what she doing i can sell films about her
Aladdin Sisalem: the way how she dealing with people looks like shes human not animal
Aladdin Sisalem: shes almost talking now
John Laws and his listeners had been on an enlightening, infuriating journey by the time John Laws interviewed top silk Julian Burnside QC. Burnside a member Aladdin Sisalem's legal team is known worldwide for his court appearances in 2001 as counsel for the 433 asylum-seekers rescued by the merchant ship Tampa which Australia denied entry. And earlier this year he was admitted to the National Trust's list of one hundred living national treasures for his work in human rights.
Generally, the shockjocks and lightweights of radio have filled the airwaves and the minds of ordinary Australians with vitriol, hatred and fear. John Laws dedicated fans probably expected animosity from the two men. After all, Burnside was the counsel assisting the Australian Broadcasting Authority and John Laws was giving evidence in the famous Cash for Comment inquiry in 1999. Those who did not recall Burnside's question "Do you feel cut adrift and hung out to dry?" but they would not have forgotten John Laws reply, "With respect, Mr Burnside, this to me is a 46 year career which up until now has given me a great deal of pleasure."
Laws often has a light touch but he is no lightweight. The interview with Burnside was dazzling. It was non-combative and utterly compelling as the audience was drawn into a stimulating and very personal conversation between the two articulate men who are each leaders in their field. It was comfortable, entertaining and informative It was broadcasting as it should be with a respect for the intelligence of the listeners which is rare now in Australia's dumbed down media. And even more unusual was John Laws genuine interest in the reasons that refugees ended up on Australian shores. While asking the questions he was aware his audience needed answered Laws was prepared to listen to Burnside's well informed explanations. John Laws, it seemed, had heard enough lies while seeking help for a cat called Honey. He wanted the complete truth.
From Honey to Burnside, the whimsical to the wise, what a journey of understanding. Honey, the most unexpected ambassador for human rights, had done what no human advocate had been able to do since the Tampa incident. With the help of John Laws she touched the hearts of Australians who before might have had little interest in the plight of refugees.
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