There are always going to be people who hold the opposite values to you, the opposite beliefs, the opposite opinions. I think one of the best ways to know you’re doing okay is to find out that one of these people disagrees with what you’re doing. It’s like an unintended endorsement; and acknowledgment that you’re sticking to your own course.

There’s this woman who’s pretty well known in the U.K. called Katie Hopkins. She’s famous for basically being an unpleasant piece of work, first hitting the small screen in the reality show, The Apprentice. I first heard about her when she got into a stoush with the late Peaches Geldof over a parenting style:

She has popped up on my radar a few times, like when she criticised what she deems”lower class” names for children and also parents who gave their children ‘place’ names (despite having named her daughter India- apparently India is “not related to a place.” Ermmm…)

I also remember her making disparaging remarks via twitter about a Scottish aid worker who had the Ebola virus, being reported for racial hate crimes when she linked Pakistani men and sexual abusers and more recently criticising dementia patients for taking up beds and not just “being euthanised”.

Then there was that time that she made a “reality” show where purposely gained weight and lost it to prove how “easy” it is and to justify her criticism of overweight people. Nice, huh?

The comments about the aid worker raised the ire of Aussie comedian Adam Hills which resulted an absolutely epic rant. Quite a few people I know hadn’t even heard of her before this.

As you can see, Katie Hopkins, who has been labelled a professional troll and a rent-a-gob in the media, is nothing if not controversial in the most negative sense of the word and she is not someone whose approval I would seek. In fact, if I gained it, I’d probably be pretty concerned. So when I read her remarks on the Australian Government’s action on asylum seekers, I had to wonder how they felt.

The list of people attacking @KTHopkins over this Sun article is truly impressive http://t.co/ZEBpyR7SE5 pic.twitter.com/u1jFRLBr0E

— HuffPost UK (@HuffPostUK) April 18, 2015

Katie Hopkins’ article is about North African asylum seekers coming into the UK- something she is clearly not in favour of. She has high praise for the current policy on asylum seekers here in Australia. She refers to Australians as having “balls of steel” and “tiny hearts”. She believes our method of “threatening them with violence until they bugger off” is the way forward for England. Her sickening, hateful column has provoked widespread outrage from many corners.

Although her language and rhetoric is terrible- the methods she is talking about? They are the methods being employed by our government in dealing with some of the most vulnerable people on the planet.

One of the most objectionable media personalities I’ve ever heard of has nothing but praise for our government’s policies on asylum seekers. As objectionable and hateful as she can be, she has held up a mirror here and shown us how we appear- tiny-hearted and violent. She likens migrants to cockroaches. Is that because that is how we treat them here in Australia? As a pest, a nuisance to be shooed away, hidden, treated with contempt?

I can only hope that the response to her column (including this petition to have her removed as a Sun columnist- that is how outraged people are) shows her that the current policy on asylum seekers is not one supported by all Australians or all people in general.

Poster art by Peter Drew Arts and Photo via @NoxMorsLux

In fact, it’s one of the most shameful things about being Australian at the moment. I can only hope this government sees the likes of who is supporting these policies and comes to it’s bloody senses.

Linking up with Essentially Jess for IBOT & Brilliant Blog Posts at Honest Mum.