Those of you who are regular readers know that I am not one to mention politics etc. It's not that kind of blog. But today, I just couldn't let this story go by as I find the actions of the Australian government to be so morally wrong that I feel embarrassed to be an Aussie!

The story concerns a young man named Stefan Nystrom, who born in Sweden while his mum was on holiday here, but who left when he was 3 weeks old and has lived with his family in Australia for his entire life. He was not a happy child, drifted into a life of crime, involving drugs and violence, being convicted on many occasions and spending time in jail. Though for the last five years, he seems to have matured somewhat, cleaned up his act and gone on the straight and narrow. But his earlier life of crime had caught the attention of the immigration department, who saw that owing to an oversight, his parents had never registered his birth in Australia. Therefore, technically, he was a Swedish citizen and on that flimsy pretext, knowing he had never set foot in the country, could not speak a word of the language and had no connections or ties here, he was deported to Sweden on the weekend and told never to return to Australia.

I suspect that this is a big test case and that the real reason he was deported was money. If Mr Nystrom was allowed to stay, the government would face a payout totalling millions of dollars in damages to the hundreds of others who have been deported.

I share the disquiet expressed by their Honours concerning the circumstances in which a man who has spent all of his life in Australia, who has no knowledge of the Swedish language, will be removed to Sweden and banished from Australia because of what must be characterised as an accident of history and an oversight on the part of his parents.

Can you imagine the outcry from Vanstone and her henchmen if the reverse were true - if someone in the same circumstances was forcibly returned to Australia? I can hear them already complaining about being a dumping ground for other's problems. What a bunch of heartless hypocrites.

I can't imagine how awful it must have been to arrive in a strange land - scared, friendless and alone. This is not the way we Australians are brought up to treat people - we have always prided ourselves on giving a person a fair go and we laud the image abroad of a relaxed, friendly, welcoming and above all forgiving country. Mr Nystrom has served his time for his crimes - there is no need to punish him all over again in such a callous manner.

I saw in today's ABC that his lawyer is lodging an appeal to the Human Rights commission with the UN. I hope something good comes out of that, but how sad that we have to shame the government into accepting their responsibilities. When you remember that modern Australia began as a dumping ground for Britain's "inconvenient problems", it is unbelievable that we have not learned a thing in over 200 years.

I know this man is no angel, but he is Australian! No amount of mincing words and splitting hairs over semantics will make him a Swede. I agree with his sister's statement "Why should Sweden have to put up with a problem that Australian society so clearly has caused and refuses to accept?"