Australia’s Labour Govt Sees No Illegal Immigrant Influx
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Gulf Times (Qatar), November 25, 2008
Australia’s Labour government said yesterday it remained on guard against illegal immigration, dismissing fears of an influx following softer laws and a plan to shut down the navy over Christmas to cut costs.
The arrival in recent weeks of three boats from Indonesia, carrying 36 people, has prompted accusations from opposition politicians that the government has reopened a gate firmly shut to refugees over more than a decade of conservative rule.
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Evans [Chris Evans, minister of immigration] in July said the centre-left government, elected last year, would dump a controversial policy of jailing asylum seekers, almost seven years after conservatives sent commandos onto a freighter at sea to block illegal immigrants.
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Former prime minister John Howard established the policy in late 2001, splitting the nation between critics and supporters, after a stand-off involving 439 mostly-Afghan refugees blocked from landing in Australia by special forces soldiers.
Howard’s so-called “Pacific Solution”, which included sending the navy to blockade Australia’s northern coast and processing asylum seekers in small Pacific island countries, was strongly criticised by the UN and rights groups.
But opposition MP Sharman Stone said the reversal ordered by Evans now threatened a fresh boat influx, with people traffickers likely to take advantage of a long stand-down by navy ships and personnel not on patrol. “Minister Evans . . . must try to convey that the Labour government has not gone soft,” Stone said.
Fears of an influx were reinforced last week after navy chief said chiefs said ships not on operations would be ordered to port and sailors sent on leave between December and February as the fleet grappled with serious personnel shortages.
Evans’ office said just three asylum boats had arrived this year, while five arrived in 2007 with 148 passengers. In comparison, nearly 30,000 boat people arrived on Italian shores over that period, while 19,900 landed in 2007.
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Jupp [James Jupp, an immigration expert at the Australian National University] said anger in Australia over illegal immigration had mostly subsided and there was no incentive to make it a public issue with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd riding high in opinion polls and Australians focused on current economic turmoil.
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(Posted on November 26, 2008)
Comments
…the centre-left government, elected last year, would dump a controversial policy of jailing asylum seekers…
It’s like a reflex for leftwing governments, isn’t it? Get into power, then throw the gates open. England 1997; Spain in 2004; Italy in 2006, and so on. It’s not about law enforcement, it’s not about human rights, and it sure isn’t about good public policy — it’s just the same kind of prideful leftist moral posturing that has had disastrous consequences for the West since at least the “symbolic” 1965 immigration act.
Posted by Dave at 10:35 PM on November 26
Our labour party are like your democratic party, they want to be everyone’s friend, especially the U.N.’s.
And boat people aren’t really talked about much anymore.
Posted by GenX in Oz at 7:00 AM on November 27
International Socialism driven by those in the EU & UN and supported by the international socialists in the leftist governments will always encourage minorities. In this way they can water down,control and disenfranchise the indigenous populations. It’s as clear as crystal that this is the motive. Why else would all leftist governments do it?
By the way these governments all implement UN or EU policies……….I don’t ever recall voting for anyone in the UN or EU…..do you? Somehow this trend has got to be stopped!
Posted by Graham R at 5:30 PM on November 27
To GENX in Oz, no they don’t want to be everybody’s friend ,just the Marxists, communists, and liberal one worlders. Never conservatives or CHRISTIANS.
Posted by at 12:52 PM on November 28
I had suspicions about Aussie Socialist PM Kevin Rudd when he was first elected as PM. His weak stance on mass immigration and his speech last week mooting a ‘Free Trade deal’ Union of Asian nations, dovetail in exactly with the NWO plans for One-world government. I am convinced he is another NWO stooge set to implement the Asian plank of this policy with the EU(SSR) European Union already in full swing and the North American Union, USA/Canada/Mexico all set to go. Of course our taxpayers will be made to pay for the fourth (African) part of the project.
Posted by dr dees brainwashing elixir at 5:32 PM on November 29