Immigration, refugees
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Asylum cases in Australia for first time exceed 100,000
In February 2023, the number of asylum cases in Australia for the first time exceeded 100,000. Continue reading »
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Independent occupational shortage body for employer sponsored visas would not work
This editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald suggests an independent body should determine which occupations are in shortage for employer sponsored visas rather than using labour market testing. That would be a mistake. Continue reading »
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How will we know the migration system has been fixed?
The Minister for Home Affairs, Clare O’Neil, has declared Australia’s migration system is “broken. It is unstrategic. It is complex, expensive and slow. It is not delivering for business, for migrants, or for our population”. Continue reading »
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No basis for temporary protection visa scare mongering
Opening up access to permanent residence for long stay refugees on temporary visas is right and inevitable. The decision will not set off a major new surge of maritime asylum seekers. The Coalition and their supporters have selective memories. Temporary protection visas were never a deterrent anyway. Continue reading »
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Asylum Seeker policy: compromise has finally led to decency
Six years ago, John Menadue, Robert Manne, Tim Costello and I agreed that Australia’s refugee and asylum seeker policy was in a complete mess. The trouble started with the 2013 election campaign when Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott tried to outdo each other, pledging that the boats would be stopped and that anyone headed for Continue reading »
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Overseas student policy: too important to get wrong
Overseas students are a key source of export income and a tool of Australia’s soft diplomacy. Whether for good or bad, they have also become a major funding source for university research. Continue reading »
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Syria under the American whip: sanctions that kill
The western sanctions weapon is not new to Syria, but since 2019 it has become a lethal one, destroying entire Syrian sectors and killing its people. Continue reading »
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Australia needs a royal commission into immigration detention
Australia needs a Royal Commission into its heinous, wasteful, privatised immigration detention policy. This is imperative in order to uncover immigration detention’s secrets, racism and appalling costs, to change public attitudes and to explore humane alternatives. Continue reading »
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Legacy boat arrivals: Is a decade of policy paralysis about to be addressed?
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says the Government will shortly announce a ‘humane resolution’ to the situation of 31,000 legacy boat arrivals who have been living in Australia for over a decade. Continue reading »
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Are allegations of bogus asylum claims valid?
Hannah Dickinson, an asylum lawyer from the Asylum Seeker Rights Centre, is reported in The Canberra Times to “have rubbished suggestions people are seizing on huge backlogs of asylum applications to lodge bogus claims for protection”. Continue reading »
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Interpreting Treasury’s latest population statement (Part 1)
Treasury’s December 2022 Population Statement has received more media attention than any of its previous statements. This is predominantly due to Treasurer Jim Chalmers promoting the statement extensively in contrast to his predecessor who largely treated these statements as business as usual. Continue reading »
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World gives cold shoulder to people from Gaza
The Netherlands appears to discriminate against Palestinians based on where they live. Continue reading »
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Australia excoriated over refusal to allow UN torture committee to visit places of detention
Australia is a party to the United Nations Convention Against Torture. Pursuant to the terms of the Convention, the UN has established a Sub-Committee for the Prevention of Torture (SPT). The Committee’s mandate is to prevent torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. It pursues that mandate through visits to member states. Member states are obliged Continue reading »
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UK chaos: Hong Kong emigrants duped by false prospectus
In 1711, Alexander Pope, the English poet, wrote that “fools rush in where angels fear to tread”. Continue reading »
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Overseas students visa criteria – a new approach needed
One of the most important issues the Migration System Review must address is the overseas student visa system and associated pathways to permanent residence. Continue reading »
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Denying trafficking not the way to protect the Asylum system
Hannah Dickinson from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) has penned an article in this Journal that is full of distraction and denial of the massive labour trafficking scam that started in 2014-15. That approach does nothing to help genuine asylum seekers nor help the over 70,500 unsuccessful asylum seekers currently living in Australia with Continue reading »
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The Australian immigration system is broken. Who knew? Who cared?
Mainstream media organisations apparently had neither the expertise nor the desire to recognise that the system was broken. Continue reading »
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Abuse of Australia’s asylum system grinds on
While we await a government decision on the 31,000 legacy boat arrivals in Australia, asylum applications from people arriving by air continued an inexorable rise to 1,448 in October 2022. Continue reading »
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A migration system for Australia’s future
A three-member panel to review Australia’s migration system – former PM&C Secretary Martin Parkinson, academic Joanna Howe and businessman John Azarias – has been set the task of producing “a holistic strategy that articulates the purpose, structure and objectives of Australia’s migration system to ensure it meets the national interest in the coming decades”. Continue reading »
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Is the Pacific Engagement Visa Australia’s first climate change humanitarian visa?
The new Pacific Engagement Visa (PEV) has more similarities to a humanitarian visa than a labour supplementation visa – at 3,000 permanent resident places per annum, it could be Australia’s first climate change humanitarian visa. Continue reading »
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The link between immigration and recessions
If Australia experiences a major economic slowdown in 2023-24 and a weaker labour market, what would happen to migration and recently arrived migrants? Continue reading »
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On immigration integrity, the Labor government must not fail
The Australian Border Force was not created from a platform of honesty and transparency, quite the opposite. Double talk and trickery underlie the political slurs used to dehumanise and criminalise boat people resulting in needless deaths, agony and brokenness. Labor must return to truth. Continue reading »
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How will our stretched housing market cope with surging immigration?
Respected ABC commentator Alan Kohler has recently raised this issue in an article provocatively titled Labor’s immigration and housing policies are an explosive combination. Continue reading »
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Bringing Australian children here from Syrian refugee camps is just the start
Our government is doing the right thing. But bringing Australian children in Syria to Australia without an individualised long-term plan of support for each child will achieve little. The complexity of the task to help these children must not be underestimated. It will be a long process and a long-term investment, but it will be Continue reading »
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COVID-19 border policies strengthen Japan’s Insular mindset
From April to August 2020, Japan implemented a re-entry ban for all foreign nationals, including permanent residents, with some exceptions. This came as a shock to many who considered Japan ‘home’ since they found themselves either trapped outside the country or unable to leave to see sick family members or attend funerals. Continue reading »
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Repatriation of Muslim families from Syrian camp
What? Let those terrorists’ spawn and their sly “Australian” mothers sneak out of that Syrian camp, and into our country? Never! Continue reading »
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Massive shortage of early childhood teachers demands skilled migration reform
Increased availability of high quality and affordable early childhood education is central to the Albanese Government’s strategy to increase labour force participation rates, particularly participation of women. Continue reading »
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Liberal candidate supports US-style abortion ban ahead of state poll
The parties of the right in Australia are changing faster than their voters might recognise. It is increasingly the case that a vote for the “conservatives” is a vote for the radical or religious right. Continue reading »
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Death penalty: Singapore’s ongoing killing spree
Singapore continues to risk its reputation as leader in arbitration in the region through its use of the death penalty, primarily, for minor drug offences. This goes against the overwhelming global trend towards abolition of the death penalty and tarnishes Singapore’s reputation as a jurisdiction committed to upholding fair trial guarantees. Continue reading »
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Pro-population increase advocates blind to sustainability crisis
Any new inquiry into Australia’s migration program needs to assess the full costs and benefits of population growth, especially the costs to our environment and the risks of collapse. Continue reading »
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