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- 4 September 2003
Refugee Detention Policy
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Page: 3169
Ms SYLVIA HALE [4.18 p.m.]: Australia's treatment of refugees is nothing to be proud of. The Federal Liberal Government's policy is shameless: It breaches the 1951 International Refugee Convention, to which Australia is a signatory, and has been condemned by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Despite acknowledging them as genuine refugees from countries such as Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, the Federal Government fails to grant asylum seekers the enduring protection to which they are entitled. Instead, after years of mandatory detention, refugees are released into the community on temporary protection visas [TPVs]. TPVs must be renewed every three years. Each time, holders must prove that they are still refugees. Each time, they face deportation if they cannot do so. Their lives continue to be fraught with anxiety and uncertainty. TPVs can be revoked at any time if the Federal Government determines that the holder's country of origin is no longer a "risk". This is despite the fact that most TPV holders are Afghans and Iraqis who have escaped from situations that the Federal Government acknowledges are oppressive, unstable and life threatening.
Denied family reunion rights and adequate government assistance, they are expected to struggle on and yet somehow integrate successfully into the Australian community. The Federal Government may be heartless and illiberal, but State governments have the opportunity to do something positive. Indeed, Labor governments in Queensland and Victoria have seized that opportunity. Just yesterday 21 refugees, including 14 from the infamous Tampa, arrived in Brisbane. They had been incarcerated on Nauru for two years. Queensland Labor Premier, Peter Beattie, commented, "We want to extend support and the hand of friendship to the new arrivals." And the Queensland Government does just that. It provides TPV holders with assistance with tertiary and TAFE education, rental bond loans, public housing, on-arrival accommodation, employment training, and English language classes.
But the same goodwill has not been shown by the New South Wales Labor Government. Indeed, the Premier showed his true colours three days ago in an article in The Australian titled "Carr backs Howard on Boat People". His earlier blaming of the problems of western Sydney on immigrants and his call to "send them elsewhere" because "Sydney is full" mimic and reinforce the racist and divisive policies of the Howard Government. TPV holders in New South Wales are excluded from funded English language classes, TAFE studies and job programs, accommodation for their first night out of detention, and access to public housing. Their plight is often made worse when employers are reluctant to give them jobs because of the risk that they could be deported at any time. Currently 49.5 per cent of all TPV holders live in New South Wales. That is all the more reason for this State to show leadership in assisting them, but we do not do so and lag well behind Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria. Ours is a dismal display of inhumanity towards some of the most vulnerable members of the community who are clearly in need of help.
The New South Wales Government claims that its aim is to protect the financial interests of the State: If it provides TPV holders with the services that they so desperately need it will only entice more refugees to our State! But the long-term financial cost of denying TPV holders access to essential services will significantly outweigh the immediate costs of a more humane approach. The costs of failing to assist traumatised and marginalised people will eventually come home to haunt us all. It is not as though we lack concrete evidence of the contribution that asylum seekers have made to this State. We need only to look at Young, where the local abattoir employed 80 Afghan TPV holders. They did not displace Australian workers, they filled jobs that no-one else was prepared to do. Their impact on the local economy has been documented by Professor Frank Stillwell in a research paper, "The Economic Impact of Afghan Refugees in Young, New South Wales".
Over an 18-month period, the BMP meatworks paid Afghani refugees about $2.8 million. Stillwell estimates that between $1.35 million and $1.57 million of the net wages paid to them have been recirculated into the local economy. The remainder was paid to the Government in tax. Over the 18 months, the refugees received $75,000 in welfare payments, that is, about 3 per cent of the total amount they have contributed to the economy. Ironically, many of the Afghan refugees currently living and working in Young face deportation this year, upon the expiration of their TPV. It is clear from the Young example that, given half a chance, asylum seekers are able to make important social and economic contributions to New South Wales. But such a contribution is made all the harder when the New South Wales Government refuses to provide them with vocational training, public housing, English language classes or other basic community services. The Greens call upon the New South Wales Government to help those in need and to address this shameful state of affairs immediately.
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