We are facing a tsunami of poverty and homelessness within a month. Home Affairs have two planned waves designed to hit the people in the community who are going through the visa process, first singles and then followed by a second wave to target families with children. This Dutton designed program of poverty is underway. Key dates for implementation cascade through May and the Tsunami is designed to hit on June 4 when families will be told that they have four weeks to “transition off SRSS”. This is Home Affairs speak for get out of your house and live on nothing. Please read briefing note from the Refugee council which provides the detail of this heinous policy. More Information on the numbers affected and detail is available here https://refugeecouncilms.sharepoint.com/:f:/s/Public/EhYidNjIuGVPgrwfR__zFBsB3RgPRsC6_Q1wnMWP4sIhBg?e=j4HP5i.
This policy change could affect 13,299 people including 4059 children under 17 years who can be made homeless and destitute at the stroke of the Ministers pen.
Not since the DEPRESSION in the 1930’s has an Australian government so deliberately set out to deliberately impoverish a group of people including children.
Of interest is that Dutton and Pezzullo, the instigators of the “starve ’em out” regime have not announced this loudly. The Information has dribbled out through agencies and the people affected. This is Home Affairs method of quietly undermining the decency of the community who would be shocked if they saw what is happening. Many Liberal MP’s are ignorant as to what is planned. This gives us a chance to make sure they hear what Minister Dutton is doing with his all expansive super powers.
People seeking asylum on the myriad of complicated processes are all to be hit but the ones who are likely to suffer most are the sick and vulnerable and parents with sick children as access to medicines and care is cut. People seeking asylum by boat or air are all to be included. The so-called Legacy Caseload who were denied the right to apply for a visa by successive ministers are being especially targetted by this cruelty, after waiting up to five years to be allowed to apply for a refugee visa,
In August 2017, 60 single men and women across Australia were cut off from all support on same day notice. They had been released from detention into Community detention but on this day they were given Bridging visas with no support. They had to vacate their shared houses in two weeks. This included the young women brought down from Nauru after violent attacks and the men from Manus because of need for medical care. Three girls told me how they slept in a car for three nights because they had no money and nowhere to go. The car was parked in the garage of their previous home because they were so scared. They had a friend still in Community Detention and she snuck them in to her house to wash and eat until they were forbidden. Nine months later they are still struggling to find work, They have each managed to find casual work in factories, shops and cafes but not enough to pay rent. Most of the work offered to people with Bridging Visas is cash in hand as employers know that they are desperate and take advantage of the situation. These are the facts of life for people on Bridging Visas.
The one thing that people are seeking is work, the most highly sought after is “work with tax”, a phrase used to denote legal work. As has been explained to me many times, ” if you have work you can stop thinking and worrying as well as eating”. The government has so demonised people on bridging visas that once a prospective employer sees the Bridging visa they say no. A young woman who applied for a job, cleaning the public toilets in a large hospital was on track for the job until they asked about her visa status. When she said that she had a BV, they replied sorry we only take citizens or permanent visas.
This is why people need the SRSS support to keep alive while they find work and wait for the interminable visa process to finish. In August last year, generous groups including the Victorian State Government responded finding safe homes for the single people. We managed then but this tsunami of literally thousands of people made destitute is beyond our capability.
Please contact your local member and your local media. We have to act now.
I’m sending this to my local Fed MP Russell Broadbent.
Evil, calculated cruelty against men women and children whom Dutton does not see as human, and equal before God. Deliberate negation of basic universal human right. Object, all citizens, or stand condemned by your acquiescence to inhumanity!
We need to look after Australians first. Thousands of Australians live on the street and struggle to exist. Look after then first before importing more people that we will end up looking after. This is Australia. Look after Australians first.
but if someone gets here seeking to be protected from persecution, what do you do? Kick them while they are down, or treat them decently?
Incidentally, our present policy involves spending billions of dollars to lock up a handful of people on remote islands (Manus, Nauru).
We have chosen the most expensive way imaginable to mistreat them. It costs us more that $500,000 per refugee per year to mistreat them the way we do.
That money might be much better spent looking after the people you are worried about.
Thank you for this information I will contact the appropriate member.
Those seeking protection should…..
1)Denounce any violent, hateful belief system they have.
2)Be cared for by refugee advocates who pledge to be held accountable for ‘refugees’ in every way.
Indeed Manus and Nauru are pricey but far less expensive than what what is happening in Western Europe.
Hi Julian,
I am wondering if there is a way to contact you regarding a policy proposal I am writing for a university assignment? I have heard you speak about your proposal for an alternative to offshore detention and I would like to make reference to this in my proposal. I have a news article from 2014, but I am wondering if there is anything more recent, and not a news article?
Many thanks for your help.
Best Regards
Lisa
What I said in 2014 is still fairly applicable, but here is a more detailed plan:
Close offshore processing. Assume boats will start arriving. If boats carrying asylum seekers start getting here again, detain the asylum seekers when they arrive. But limit the detention to one month and at the end of the month release them into the community while their refugee status is assessed. But give them an interim visa that deals with that. The interim visa would have a number of crucial conditions:
– one is that they have to stay in touch with the Department of Immigration;
– the second is that they are allowed to work;
– the third is that they are allowed access to Medicare and Centrelink benefits;
– the fourth, crucially, is that pending refugee status determination, they have to live in a specified regional town or city.
Now the benefits of a system like that are:
– first: instead of damaging people who’ve risked their lives to get to safety we would be actually treating them like human beings by giving them a chance to adjust to a different society and to live properly.
– second: they go to a regional town or city – regional cities are doing it pretty hard at the moment because they are losing population and they’ve got empty shops and so on.
Now: make some assumptions about how it would play out: The peak number of refugees ever to arrive by boat in a year becomes a new normal. Round it up to say that 25,000 people will arrive in Australia by boat each year, under this new system; and let’s assume (against all the evidence) that all of them stay on full Centrelink benefits.
On those assumptions, it would cost the federal economy about $500 million each year, but of course it would all be spent in rural economies and that would be good for regional Australia. At the moment we’re spending up to $5,000 million dollars a year mistreating refugees. Now, if you can treat them properly and help the countryside for 10 per cent of what we’re spending now, why wouldn’t you do it?
Thank you so much, Julian!
Refugee activists only feign interest in cost-effectiveness, in order to advance their agenda:
– JB says that “if you can treat them properly and help the countryside for 10% of what we’re spending now, why wouldn’t you do it?”
– harbi says that “if you can treat them properly” in their own country “for 10% of what we’re spending now, why wouldn’t you do it?”
But the agenda of refugee activists does not include reducing the flow of asylum seekers:
– JB says “that 25,000 people will arrive in Australia by boat each year, under this new system”
– harbi says that “Australia must determine who is permitted entry into Australia.”
But refugee activists do not recognise Australia’s sovereignty over its own borders.
– JB recoils at a government proposal to admit a limited number of “white South African farmers” into Australia yet happily advocates 25,000 random, mostly Muslim boat people per year.
– harbi says that hard working South African farmers will benefit Australia more than the followers of an ideology which is demonstrably incompatible with “Australian laws, values and mores”.
But benefiting Australia is not at the forefront of the refugee activist’s agenda.
Jan, homeless people here have access to many many services and benefits. We are a rich and stable country. We can manage both, easily. Be generous.
Looking after refugees is not exclusive of looking after Australia’s homeless. Everyone wants all people to have the safety and security of their own home and good health. It is only the will (and warped priorities of recent governments) that lead to situations like we have today. Australia is a wealthy enough nation to look after ALL of its most vulnerable people, whether they come to us for help or haven fallen through the cracks of our society. Looking after one shouldn’t exclude the other. We are all one human family… if one is in pain, all are in pain.
And think about this: we spend more than $500,000 per refugee per year locking them up on Nauru and Manus.
If we brought them to Australia and gave each of them all $50k in Newstart or other benefits, we would have lots left over to help Australian homeless people.
We would also have 1000’s more sailing here bringing their backwards culture with them.
We can and should care for both. Your argument is made of straw and racial prejudice.
Yeah? Tell that to the Aboriginal “slaves” whose wages were kept aside and stolen!
He been investigated as being a Director of child care centres that receive a Commonwealth benefit yet?
It is truly sickening to live in. Country which acts in this cruel and miserable way. How did we end up with a heartless set of politicians like this.
Same thing is happening to those born here – THIS is why I do not advocate for any immigration, who wants to see anyone treated as badly as the governmentS treat their own citizens? I really do not understand why anyone wants that!
Unfunded services, community volunteers and church groups are under increasing pressure trying to find the resources to keep these families and individuals alive. We are only too aware of the tsunami. Vulnerable children are at high risk as their families face homelessness destitution food insecurity and deteriorating physical and mental health. How can politicians or anyone for that matter sit back and allow this situation to continue; allowing policies that deliberately and unashamedly force people into such dire circumstances? The inhumane cruelty underpinning these policies is like a festering sore eating away at the heart of this country. The impact of these policies is far reaching for this country but more so for the child who has lived through the horrors of our detention system, the father who cannot sleep because of past traumas now exacerbated by the constant worry of how to support his family, the mother unable to reconcile how her family have been treated in Australia and not knowing how she will feed her children, the man desperate to use his skills to support himself but facing constant rejections wondering where he will sleep tomorrow night, the woman who survived untold abuse only to face a life as a rough sleeper in one of our parks. There are no services funded to support these people; there are no safety nets for them. Where do they go when they fall through the net? Dutton, Turnbull and all the other ambivalent politicians what is your answer to this? Sadly I don’t think you care a scrap.
I’m truly terrified at what this current government has done, is doing and plans to do. I am proud to be a First Nations man who is a single father. I live with a disability and have two teenage daughters. I’m scared for their futures. More so their futures than my own.
How does Dutton get away with it? Is Turnbull blind to it or does he agree with Dutton doing it? Where is Labors’ voice? All these politicians and not a humanitarian amongst them. This is something for World Health Organisation, the United Nations. Bring it out from under Dutton’s rock and reveal this fascism to the world. We just had the President of France in the country but the media focussed on his incorrect use of a word in English. The country has fallen into a sewer of immorality. My heart goes out to these people who are living in ‘detention’ and ‘community detention’ in the name of aid, fleeing their country of origin. I am ashamed to be an Australian.
Good point: Where’s Labor’s voice?
Why doesn’t Labor call out the lies told by the Turnbull government?
Why doesn’t Labor point out that boat people are not illegal
They don’t commit any crime by coming here asking for protection from persecution.
Why doesn’t Labor point out that “Border Protection” is another bit of Coalition dishonesty?
We don’t need to be protected from people fleeing persecution.
Why doesn’t Labor point out that the Coalition’s stated concern about people drowning is a lie?
If the Coalition was genuinely concerned about people drowning, they would =n’t punish the people who don’t drown.
Agreed Julian Burnside: Years ago, in the early 2000s, I met with both Liberal and Labour Fed MPs and specifically asked about refugee and asylum seeker policy, prior to an election; the Lib talked all the usual guff loudly over me and I quickly determined he was a waste of time. The Labour chap said “Yes, we’ll go along with the Libs, so as not to lose votes, but as soon as the election is over, you’ll be hearing from ‘Labor For Refugees’.” Still waiting.
What this will invariably lead to is crime. Desperate people do desperate things. Think of the children convicts who were brought over here for stealing as little as a loaf of bread. Dutton knows this and he will point to it to promote his agenda. He is a sick man. Heaven help us all if he becomes Prime Minister