By Jennifer Robinson, The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia- Australia is up in arms over Indonesia’s execution of the Bali Nine pair Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.
And rightly so: the death penalty is abhorrent and must be abolished. Australia agreed to this long ago: we abolished it in 1973. My thoughts and sympathy are with the families of the two Australians executed on Wednesday. I cannot imagine how I would feel if it had been one of my brothers.
Australia is right to raise an objection – and right to exercise diplomatic protection over Australians in trouble abroad. Both Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, typically, unanimously, expressed their outrage. We even withdrew our ambassador to Indonesia in protest.
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