Mission & Justice

Paul Toohey; 3/9/08

On Achmad Olong’s people-smuggling vessel, children travelled for free but their parents paid a price. When officers from HMAS Dubbo intercepted the KM Haparan Satu off Ashmore Reef on November 1, 1999, they were confronted by a hideous stench. Rubbish was strewn on the decks and the wet season tropical heat was pressing. A woman was miscarrying, another was in labour and a man was lying on deck with an intravenous drip in his arm. The crew from the patrol boat needed to set up a makeshift infirmary in the vessel’s wheelhouse.

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29/8/08

Australia’s citizenship test set-up by the Howard government is set for a major overhaul after a review found it to be flawed and discriminatory. Richard Woolcott is the head of a committee commissioned to review the test said the 2006-document needs reform, News Ltd reports. The committee is believed to have forwarded its opinion to Immigration Minister Chris Evans in a report. The standout recommendation would be that the present test is flawed and seen by some as intimidatory and needs substantial reform,” Mr Woolcott told News Ltd.

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Elisabeth Wynhausen; 23/8/08

Every time computer engineer Faisal Shaikh failed his English test — as he did four times — James Packer was a little richer. Mr Packer is the non-executive chairman of a company that profits each time someone sits the sole English language proficiency test for visa applicants accepted by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. The International English Language Testing System is the most widely used English language proficiency test in the world. But migration agents say Immigration guidelines mean most people fail it at least once, forcing them to sit for it again, for another $280. “The problem is that you generally have to get a score of at least six out of nine in each of four bands - reading, writing, speaking and listening,” said migration agent Mark Glazbrook.

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Elisabeth Wynhausen; 16/8/08

A few months ago migration lawyer Michael Clothier rang the Adelaide offices of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship to complain that cheques for visa application fees he had written on his trust account hadn’t been cashed in three months. The Adelaide office processes applications from skilled migrants who wish to settle in Australia. Clothier was aware there was a backlog. “People are waiting for these visas for more than 12 months,” he says. But he was startled nonetheless. “They said they couldn’t find the file to give me a receipt or even tell me whether they had cashed my cheque because my client’s file was in a pile with 7000 others on the floor.”

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Nicola Berkovic; 12/8/08

At least 18 pilgrims who arrived in the country for World Youth Day have applied for asylum. Most are from African nations, including Zimbabwe, Burundi and Kenya, but there are also some Pakistanis. The Asylum Seekers Centre of NSW, which is providing assistance to the pilgrims, is struggling to deal with the surge in claims. “Eighteen people with serious concerns might not sound like a lot, but for us as an organisation trying to manage that, it’s impossible,” director Tamara Domicelj said. “People are presenting to us having slept outdoors and with the weather in Sydney lately being so cold and wet, it’s a real concern.”

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Sarah-Jane Collins and Miki Perkins; 5/8/08
Riding home from his part-time job at KFC last October, 17-year-old Sudanese refugee Ajang Gor was attacked by a group of youths who shouted racist taunts at him. In an unprovoked assault they called him a “black c–t”, punched him and hit him over the head with a Bacardi Breezer bottle, before leaving the Melton resident unconscious on the road and stealing his mobile phone.

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Michelle Grattan; 3/8/08

When Chris Evans, now Immigration Minister and Senate Leader, gave his maiden speech in 1993, he spelled out principles he would bring to issues before the Parliament. One was that “there exist fundamental inalienable human rights that must be paramount in our considerations … those rights must be protected and enhanced by any legislative action we take”. He recalled while studying in London in 1988, seeing a large anti-Australian rally against the treatment of Aborigines. Although that speech didn’t deal with asylum seekers or other illegal immigrants, it gives an indication where Evans, on the left of the Labor party, is coming from in the major change of direction in Australia’s immigration detention policy which he announced a few days ago. He was, of course, implementing a policy on which Labor had gone to the election, but how it has come out also very much reflects his own values.

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Paul Kelly; 1& 2/8/08

Kevin Rudd’s reforms to refugee policy have exceeded election expectations and pledges, with the latest being this week’s softening of mandatory detention as devised and implemented by the Keating and Howard governments. This break from the past is a significant reassessment of Labor values. It constitutes not just a rejection of the Howard cabinet’s punitive approach but shows the Rudd cabinet has rejected the Keating government’s outlook. There is one burning question: Is this new outlook sustainable? The answer is that nobody knows. The reform of detention testifies to the transformed political climate since 2001, with few boat arrivals in recent years. But Immigration Minister Chris Evans knows that more boats will come and this is Australia’s permanent challenge. In an interview with The Australian, he argued the new detention policy is geared to this reality.

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Dewi Cooke; 19/7/08

The settlement needs of young refugee children require immediate attention to stem the family and social dysfunction that can occur later in life, early childhood and welfare workers say. A forum hosted by the Brotherhood of St Laurence yesterday heard that some kindergarten and preschool-aged children are arriving in Australia so traumatised that they acquire severe emotional or developmental issues that hamper their settlement. In other cases, young children who learn English faster than their parents will often become default interpreters for their family, exposing them to adult “concerns and anxieties” and placing them under undue stress.

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Connie Levett; 10/7/08

An independent report has recommended the discretionary powers of the Minister for Immigration be reduced, while questioning the Immigration Department’s confidence in its own decision-making ability. The report, by the businesswoman Elizabeth Proust, said that where possible, the minister’s discretionary powers should be delegated to the department or a tribunal, and where the powers belonged to the minister alone, regulations could be changed to allow greater delegation. The minister’s discretionary powers were introduced in 1989, and were intended to be limited. In recent years, the number of applications to the minister has surged, with more than 4000 requests for ministerial intervention lodged in the 2006-07 financial year.

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