Cheers

Venise

I was wearing my ‘Andrew Bolt is a dickhead’ T-shirt today, and my medico, bless her, asked, “Who is Andrew Bolt?” Made my day.

I think you write so well, and you have a similar, mordant sense of humour to me.

It is a great pity about being ‘moderated’ because It isn’t until well after the event that I may be printed, thus rendering my comments to be out of context. Still, it’s their website and I just have to put up with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. (apologies to Will Shakespeare)

I hear that the RBA is raising interest rates because the Rudd stimulus packages were excessive.

Alan Greenspan was under pressure to admit to having been wrong about keeping the interest rates so low. I expected him to withstand the pressure, but he admitted that he was wrong.

It would be worth looking further into it.

James, Wow! That would be quite an achievement if the government changed its policy based on Crikey.

Being government, they couldn’t help themselves going one better. The Oceanic Viking passengers will be fast-tracked for asylum applications within six weeks, and will receive settling-in assistance in the meantime. (There are folks in Chistmas Island waiting six months.) The anti queue jumper hawks will just love that.

61 The Refugees Convention is a part of conventional international law that has been given legislative effect in Australia: see ss 36 and 65 of the Act. It has always been fundamental to the operation of the Refugees Convention that many applicants for refugee status will, of necessity, have left their countries of nationality unlawfully and therefore, of necessity, will have entered the country in which they seek asylum unlawfully. Jews seeking refuge from war-torn Europe, Tutsis seeking refuge from Rwanda, Kurds seeking refuge from Iraq, Hazaras seeking refuge from the Taliban in Afghanistan and many others, may also be called “unlawful non-citizens” in the countries in which they seek asylum. Such a description, however, conceals, rather than reveals, their lawful entitlement under conventional international law since the early 1950’s (which has been enacted into Australian law) to claim refugee status as persons who are “unlawfully” in the country in which the asylum application is made.
62 The Refugees Convention implicitly requires that, generally, the signatory countries process applications for refugee status of on-shore applicants irrespective of the legality of their arrival, or continued presence, in that country: see Art 31. That right is not only conferred upon them under international law but is also recognised by the Act (see s 36) and the Migration Regulations 1994 (Cth) which do not require lawful arrival or presence as a criterion for a protection visa. If the position were otherwise many of the protection obligations undertaken by signatories to the Refugees Convention, including Australia, would be undermined and ultimately rendered nugatory.
63 Notwithstanding that the applicant is an “unlawful non-citizen” under the Act who entered Australia unlawfully and has had his application for a protection visa refused, in making that application he was exercising a “right” conferred upon him under Australian law.”

Marilyn, reading again your answer to my questions, I wonder if I misunderstood your earlier statement about those most at risk coming from the UNHCR. Is this due to an Australian policy of being choosy about those referred to us, or is it because no one in real danger relies on the UNHCR to save them?

Venise and Peter, it seems I’m outvoted, although Bob Burtonagreed with me in the SMH, and I still find it very plausible that they would have initiated and underwritten the show under the PR budget. Hardly the sort of thing the ABC would touch.

Michelle.K, it certainly is pretty rough when cheaper labour is imported to do away with loyal workers. In the long run, general immigration is an economic stimulus measure and results in the rest of us having more jobs, not less. But that’s an aggregate effect, it’s cold comfort for the one that loses his/her job to the boss’s nephew or others working for half the wage.

The problem is, abuses of a migration system are unavoidable. Any migration program will be abused, either by the government (currently using migration to boost home prices and to avoid having to spend money educating young Australians), or by sponsors (the organisation you said you worked for), or the migrants themselves. Generally the more rules there are, the more they will be abused. But I guess, there are others who put the program to really good use. And I get bored these days if I have to hang out only with my own cultural group. Worth the price of a few rackets and temporary job losses?