Mission & Justice

Lenore Taylor; 22/8/08

The record immigration intake is delivering major economic benefits, according to research to be released today by Immigration Minister Chris Evans. As the Rudd Government seeks to maintain community support for the highest immigration intake since the 1960s, Senator Evans will release Access Economics modelling that “dispels the myth that new migrants impose a huge impost on the taxpayer”. The modelling comes as the Government expands its temporary worker scheme to take in up to 2500 horticulture workers from four Pacific nations - a move opposed by Brendan Nelson, who argues that unemployed Australians could take on the fruit-picking jobs. The modelling shows the immigration intake of more than 171,000 in 2007-08 will result in an economic benefit of $610million in the first year, $965 million in the second year and a massive $1.5 billion after the migrants have spent 20 years in Australia.

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14/8/08

Well may Philip Ruddock (”Ruddock’s detention regret: kids”, 13/8) be concerned about his “legacy”. For hundreds of innocent men, women and children, his legacy is a lifetime of psychological and emotional damage after wasted years in the horrors of the Howard government’s detention camps. Since the overwhelming majority of these traumatised people proved to be genuine refugees, the social and financial cost of trying to repair the damage will fall on the Australian taxpayer. Ruddock’s actions caused many people to be ashamed of our country. It is sad, but not surprising, that he feels none of that shame himself. Juliet Flesch; Kew, Vic

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Lex Hall & Nicola Berkovic; 13/8/08

Cardinal George Pell says it is “not entirely unexpected” that up to 20 World Youth Day pilgrims have claimed asylum in Australia. The Sydney archbishop said yesterday he expected “the normal laws of the land” to apply to those pilgrims who had claimed asylum. “I’m sure they’ll be treated sympathetically,” he said. “I don’t really know where they’re from, (or) how many there are, but we would expect that whatever the laws of the land are for asylum-seekers they would be applied justly.”

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John Lyons; 13/8/08

The man who was in charge of Australia’s immigration policy in the Howard government, Philip Ruddock, has expressed regret about how long it took for the government to release children from detention. In an interview about his legacy, Mr Ruddock said: “If I have any regrets, it’s not so much the question of the policies but the question of the speed and implementation.” He told The Australian that lack of funding for alternative detention arrangements meant children were not able to be released “sooner and earlier”. As immigration minister from 1996 to 2003 and attorney-general from 2003 to last year, Mr Ruddock was a central figure in many of the most divisive debates of the Howard years.

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Michelle Grattan; 11/8/08

A campaign to encourage Australian residents to take citizenship and an overhaul of the qualifying test have been proposed in a report to Immigration Minister Chris Evans. About 900,000 permanent residents, most of them British, New Zealanders and South Africans, are eligible to become citizens. The report is understood to call for the Government to promote citizenship, and also to sponsor a national education program on civics and citizenship. The citizenship test, introduced by the Howard government, has been strongly criticised, particularly for disadvantaging refugees and others from a non-English speaking background. In the six months to the end of March, 25,000 people sat the test and 95% passed. But while 99% of skilled migrants passed, only 82% of those from the humanitarian program did so.The number of people seeking citizenship has fallen since the test because people have been deterred by fear of failure.

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David Holdcroft; 4/8/08

The changes to Australia’s asylum policy announced last week by the immigration minister, Chris Evans, were as inevitable as they were sensible. They are also incremental: they remove some of the worst aspects of a cruel system but leave intact much of the deterrent apparatus inherited from the former government. The introduction of mandatory detention is generally regarded as the work of Keating Government immigration minister Gerry Hand in 1992, although the policy direction can be traced three years previously to 1989. The Howard Government strengthened it in response to what it saw as a sizeable increase in numbers of boat people making for Australia’s shores in the late 1990s.

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3/8/08

A refugee advocate attacked Australian authorities on Saturday for rejecting the application of a Palestinian asylum seeker who returned to the Gaza Strip and was killed as part of a clan rivalry. Akram Al Masri, who gained a high profile in Australia by challenging a government policy of keeping asylum seekers in prison-like detention camps, was shot Friday in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, police said. He was slain by a member of a rival clan as he was leaving a courthouse where he had been certifying documents, the official said. The two feuding clans often target members of the other tribe. Masri, 31, arrived in Australia in 2001 and was sent to an Outback detention camp while his claim for asylum was processed. He left in 2002 after the application was rejected, saying he preferred to face the dangers in his homeland than remain in detention.

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31/7/08 & 1/8/08 Letters

The reforms to the immigration detention system announced by Immigration Minister Chris Evans mark a fundamental and long-overdue change in Australian policy. Shifting to a risk-based model will ensure a more realistic approach to immigration processing, as well as the humane treatment of vulnerable immigrants, not least refugees and asylum-seekers. Detention has its place where there is a genuine danger to communities or national security, but it is a blunt instrument that is best used selectively, not reflexively. It is to the Government’s credit that it has introduced reforms to this effect. Bruce Baird Chairman; Refugee Resettlement Advisory Council

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Sarah Smiles; 29/7/08

Hundreds of detainees could be released into the community under radical changes to Australia’s mandatory detention policy to be announced today. Under the changes, only people who pose a risk to the community will be detained, The Age understands. Others will be released into the community while their cases are assessed. This is a significant departure from the laws introduced by the Keating government, and continued under John Howard, under which all unauthorised arrivals were detained.

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Yuko Narushima; 4/7/08

The Federal Government’s upgrade to the empty detention centre on Christmas Island cost $318 million - considerably more than the recent renovation of the Sydney Hilton and $120 million over budget. The revamp on the tropical island 2650 kilometres north-west of Perth was meant to cost $197.7 million for the “humane detention” of boat people offshore. But since it was handed over to the Department of Immigration in April, the 800-person compound has not held a single detainee and lies staffed and idle, draining taxpayers of $7.1 million a year.

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