"Children must not be put in jail without just cause"
- Malcolm Fraser
One of the greatest ironies of the current Government came during budget week. We all remember Treasurer Costello telling us to go forth and multiply, claiming that our ageing population desperately needed young people to boost the economy. We needed workers to support the retirees. Of course, the first irony one notices is the fact that babies don’t usually work for an employer. But the real irony of this “bonk for the economy” policy was that it came days after the Government had spent thousands of taxpayer dollars fighting a court case to keep refugees out of the country or in detention. Many previous Governments (since Chifley) have realised that immigration is important to our economy, not a threat, as some xenophobes would suggest.
For instance, let me tell you a story of Sri Lankan refugee Nirinjana Julian. This is based on an article by Athena Dennis. Nirinjina fled Sri Lanka during the Civil war in 1981. When she arrived in Australia in 1996, she got a Bridging Visa A and worked at Inghams Chickens. She was delighted to have her independence and a sense of self-worth that is often delivered to people who appreciate their jobs. She went to a lot of trouble to keep her job, travelling four hours a day six days a week by bus.
“I had five hundred dollar every week. Good job, I love it. They gave me letter to give to the Immigration Minister. They say ‘good worker’, ‘we need more like these workers’”
Yet the Minister Ruddock rejected these letters from Inghams and Nirinjina says this is their typical response. In 2002, Nirinjina was suddenly demoted to one of the Coalition’s infamous Bridging Visa Es. That means she’s not allowed to work, she is ineligible for government benefits, ineligible for education, ineligible for Medicare. She has been forced to rely on charities such as the Trinity Uniting Church. She wants to contribute to our workforce. She wants to be a functioning member of Australian society. But the Government won’t let her because of their post-Sep 11 paranoia about a woman who has lived here for a long time. Their justification is that Nirinjina worked in Bahrain in between fleeing Sri Lanka and coming to Australia. Yeah that’s a good reason!
Nirinjina has had an accident with her foot and had to scrounge together 50 bucks to pay the doctor. Remember she has no income and no Medicare. Under the current Government, decisions about whether her application to get a permanent visa has blown out to years. And if she tries to get a job, then you can dob her in using that dob in line set up by Vanstone, or Ms Snow White Australia Policy as I have previously called her.
The reality is that refugee applicants create a demand for goods and services, therefore stimulating the economy, not creating a strain on it. In the USA, the UCLA estimates that unauthorised immigration boosts the economy $300 billion a year! That is what we’re missing out on with Howard’s Pacific solution bullshit.
Even the Herald Sun recently carried a story about an Iraqi man who sought refuge here and was thrown in detention with his family, but then went on to get a job at a vineyard, whilst receiving a housing commission house, unemployment benefits and free school. Bludging off the system right? Wrong! Within a year, they were self-sufficient. They just needed a hand up. Within two years, Ahmed Saad built a thriving contracting business that employs over 100 people. Overseas settlement programs suggest that if refugee applicants have access to employment and education, the chances of them absconding are minimal, just as they are for any one of us. After all, why would they blow their one chance of making a good life here?
And Nirinjina? Well she’s been deported back to Sri Lanka!
And for one more beautiful story brought to life may I reccommend that people see Letters to Ali, a docco about an Australian family who became penpals with a child locked up in one of our detention centres.
Don’t get me wrong. I like Costello’s idea of Australians having more sex. Sex is great. But in the mean time, we are spending millions of dollars keeping out people who could actually solve a lot of the problems that Costello is worried about.
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