More rights for asylum-seekers
Patricia Karvelas; 31/7/08
Asylum-seekers will be refused the dole but given greater rights to work and access to Medicare while they wait for their cases to be resolved. In a radical departure from the Howard government’s hardline policy, the Rudd Government will dramatically increase the rights and support granted to asylum-seekers. Under the changes unveiled by Immigration Minister Chris Evans yesterday, detention would be used only if department officials could show a person posed a security risk. If not, they would be released into the community until their status was determined. Senator Evans said he was aware of concerns that the current bridging visa arrangements can leave people in the community “without the capacity to work and earn a living or be in receipt of Medicare”.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24104583-5013404,00.html
Racism ‘holding Africans back’
Rick Wallace; 31/7/08
African Australians often experience direct racism and are also subjected to more subtle discrimination that prevents them getting work even with high-level qualifications. Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, whose electorate of Melbourne contains several communities of African migrants, said in a speech last night he had faith in Australia’s ability to accommodate Africans eventually, but at the moment they were doing it tough. “Black African Australians experience petty racism often. Some also have to cope with antagonism towards Muslims,” he said. “People who have fled from war and persecution and settled in a new, very different country inevitably feel extremely vulnerable.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24104585-5013404,00.html
Africans face racism: Tanner; Brendan Nicholson; 31/7/08; http://www.theage.com.au/national/africans-face-racism-tanner-20080730-3ng4.html
National stain cleansed
Mike Steketee; 31/7/08
Philip Ruddock, architect of Australia’s brutal policy towards refugees in the Howard years, says the Rudd Government has the luxury of now taking a different approach. That is because of his success as immigration minister in reducing the number of boatpeople, he adds. So would a re-elected Howard government have softened the policy? Apparently not. Ruddock tut-tuts that the changes announced on Tuesday by Immigration Minister Chris Evans will encourage people-smugglers, and Opposition immigration spokesman Chris Ellison worries that hundreds of “unlawful non-citizens” could disappear into the community.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24103306-7583,00.html
Detention changes right for the times; Editorial; 20/7/08; http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24099533-16741,00.html
Protection should be paramount
Petro Georgiou’; 31/7/08
For more than a decade, the treatment of asylum seekers arriving by boat has been gravely at odds with the strongly held commitment to justice and compassion that this nation has demonstrated repeatedly at home and abroad. The policy of mandatory detention of unauthorised boat arrivals was introduced by the Labor government in 1992. It was toughened during the Howard government, and new measures were introduced, such as the temporary protection visa and the excision of Australian territory.
See: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/protection-should-be-paramount-20080730-3ncr.html
Tags: Australia, Migrants and Refugees, Racism, Stain, Work