weeks after the election we have spin doctors from the Liberals come out and try and sweep under the rug any suggestion that they had used the 'boat people crises' as a tool to get themselves realected.
What this country needs is a sensible debate about the level of imigration that we allow into the country.
There are many reasons why we should let people into this country. They are willing to work and make a contribution to society, they will pay taxes, they will need to build houses hence stimulating the economy. They will need to send their kids to school and in the whole intergrate into society as a whole.
That is if we let them, however we feel that it is best to put these people into prison camps and hold them without trial. Apart from breaching 'the right of a refugee' as set down by the UN even people that we send to jail in Australia are first charged by police and are given a chance to defend themselves in court.
If we take a look at Canada for example they have a system (a bit like when you go for a drivers test certain 'items' are worth 'points') well if you are young, have kids and are skilled you would score very high and be able to get into canada. I welcome correction from my Canadian friends if your immigration policy has changed from last time i looked. Another reason why we need immigration,and this is a global thing as well as an Australian thing is the population rates. As we all know people in the developed world are now living longer and we have an aging population as a result. There is not enough young people to either have babies which would mean that in terms of the population balance would see an evening up in the generational agebrackets. And who is going to look after all these old people that are comingthrough the system? some people will argue that by letting in people we will have terrorist traning camps in Australia and that we will be over run by "nasty yellow people." This is far from the case as it has been proven that 90% of the people that we eventually process turn out to be refuges who are ligitamte. To those who say why do 'they not have any papers' or 'theypaid to get out' i say look at recent history - the jews in Nazi Germany did exactly the same thing. They paid people money to get them out they did not have proper papers. It was hardly like you could wonder down to your favorite Berlin travel agent and book your ' dream holdiay' to England.
The only reason that we keep boat people out oF Australia is fear. We had the same fear when the 'white Australia policy' was introduced in the early years of Australia being a nation. However the white Australia policy was founded on an idea of wanting to keep Australia 'pure English'. Which is tandamount to racism and similar to what was going on in Sout Africa in the 1960s.
I feel that the refugee issue has divided Australia and hasbrought out either the best in people or the worst. We see compasion for the plight of the refugee on one hand and racism and 'the white Australia policymark 2' on the other. I can only hope that Australia wakes up to what we are doing. And that we see that our reputation not just overseas but in Australia has taken a real battering.
I do not believe there is a short-term fix to this issue. I do not even pretend to have any of the answers. I have opinions on what i feel could be done, but these are just opinions.
I would like to hear what you all have to say on this issue.
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