V.K.
February 23rd, 2011, 06:49 AM
Our comrades in the Kremlin are getting worried about the debate on multiculturalism/racialism and the mumblings of discontent in the Liberal Party............
Communist Party newspaper the Guardian:
The federal Liberal Party is said to be in turmoil with its “left” and “right” factions at war over a series of “regrettable” public statements and media leaks. The most recent “gaff” was by shadow immigration minister Scott Morrison who complained that the flying of asylum seeker mourners from Christmas Island to Sydney for the funeral of victims of December’s boat tragedy was a waste of taxpayers’ money. Before that it was Tony Abbott who was shown in a TV interview in Afghanistan with a group of Australian soldiers lamenting that “shit happens” after hearing of the circumstances surrounding the death of Lance Corporal Jared McKinney.
Both statements were later said to have been taken “out of context”. A number of media commentators lined up with Liberal Party spokespersons in Mr Abbott’s defence but the crass remark had caused offence in many quarters, including to members of Jared McKinney’s family.
Unfortunately for Mr Morrison, the media received a leak from a meeting of the shadow cabinet where the member for Cook said that the Coalition should try to capitalise on the anti-Muslim feeling growing in the broader Australian community. Shadow finance spokesman Andrew Robb was one of the few to stand squarely with Scott Morrison and his outlandish statements about the asylum seeker funerals. “I wouldn’t normally comment on shadow cabinet but I can confirm Scott did talk about the strong feelings in the general community about Muslim immigration and he said that we as a party had to engage with that sentiment,” Mr Robb said. It was a creative, if unconvincing, defence.
Joe Hockey said flatly that Morrison was wrong to question the funeral expenditure, that his statement lacked compassion. Most others, including Opposition leader Abbott, stuck to the line that Morrison had, perhaps, gone “too far”. Too far down which path?
Australia is still haunted by the ghost of One Nation – the party that sought to harness the racism to be found in significant sections of the Australian people. The election of 1998 gave the traditional parties a scare with solid votes going to the stridently anti-immigration party. The Liberals subsequently pulled the carpet from under Hanson and her cohorts with what became known as the Tampa election of 2001. “We decide who comes into this country and the circumstances in which they come,” Howard insisted at his Party’s campaign launch. At the last federal election, Abbott stuck with the apparently successful formula with his pledge to “stop the boats”.
Labor has also felt constrained to appear “tough” on refugees over the years and the Gillard government now oversees a mandatory detention system imprisoning over 6,000 asylum seekers. The centres are marked by substandard accommodation, punitive conditions and distress for already traumatised people. Self-harm is common.
The ALP has sought to walk both sides of the street in the debate over boat arrivals. It has been pressing simultaneously for a large regional detention centre in East Timor and for the release of greater numbers of asylum seeker families into the community. Immigration Minister Chris Bowen recently unveiled a new “national anti-racism partnership and strategy” aimed at cementing the multicultural underpinnings of Australian society.
Motivations are hard to guess and don’t appear to mean much in the politics of the major Australian parties. Scott Morrison is not known to be particularly xenophobic but that didn’t stop him seeking to tap into the vicious anti-Muslim campaign being waged by fringe elements in the community at the moment. One widely circulated email complained about the $448 million given by the Australian government to Indonesia to help with the running of schools, including moderate Islamic schools. It compared this to what it claimed was only $1 million pledged by the federal government for the reconstruction of flood devastated Queensland. Tony Abbott took up this twisted cause against the advice of colleagues like Julie Bishop.
The Liberals are captive to the Right on these questions. That much is clear. But the lack of an unambiguous commitment on the part of the government to the values of acceptance and solidarity upheld by the majority of Australians has also taken a heavy toll. Emblematic of this was the treatment of nine-year-old Iranian boy Seena who was orphaned by the boat tragedy off the coast of Christmas Island in December. He was brought with 20 others to Sydney for the above-mentioned funeral and promptly returned to the scene of his devastating loss despite the protests of relatives seeking to take him into their care. An uproar from the community forced a backdown on Seena’s fate and it is obvious that the major parties will have to be pushed to shake themselves free of the malign influence of forces like One Nation.
http://www.cpa.org.au/guardian/2011/1490/02-editorial.html
Substandard accomodation in detention camps? Punitive conditions? The Kremlin must've got the wrong report from the KGB!
Comrades, here are the correct reports that you should've gotten from the KGB officers.........
Daily Telegraph:
A HOTEL bill of almost $2.5 million a month is being racked up by the Federal Government to house some 500 asylum seekers outside detention centres as it struggles to find a solution to the record number of boat arrivals.
The Department of Immigration has admitted paying $60,000 a night in November last year to house up to 188 people, mainly families, a total bill of almost $800,000, for a fortnight's accommodation at Darwin's Airport Lodge.
The figures reveal that, based on the leases the Government had in place at the end of 2010, the average cost across motels, hotels and guest houses around the country was $2.36 million a month.
The Government had previously refused to reveal the true cost of its alternative accommodation policy to house families and unaccompanied minors outside detention camps - claiming the contracts with hotels were commercial-in-confidence.
During one 13 day period - from November 10 to November 23, 2010 - the cost of accommodation at the Darwin Airport Lodge was $778,000, including GST.
Only last week the Government revealed it would need an extra $290 million this year to cover the rising costs.
"They have a financial crisis on asylum seekers of their own making," Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said.
"This is a government paying five-star rates for roadside motel accommodation."
According to the documents, as at October 2010 there were eight motels, hotels or commercial accommodations housing a total of 461 asylum seekers, who the department refer to as irregular maritime arrivals or IMAs.
Refugee advocates claim that the perception that IMAs were enjoying a luxurious life by being housed in motels was ridiculous when some of the accommodation was no grander than a demountable camp. The majority of those in motels were families who were forced to live in small rooms with children for periods of up to six months with no cooking facilities.
The number of asylum seekers arriving by boat from war-torn regions abroad is at a record high, now total- ling 6200.
A spokesman for Immigration Minister Chris Bowen defended the cost of alternative accommodation, which was a humanitarian obligation to ensure families and children did not have to experience high security detention centres. "Immigration detention is expensive - whether it's onshore or offshore," the spokesman said.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/asylum-seekers-25m-hotel-bill/story-e6freuzr-1226005955902
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:
The federal government is defending a decision to house 79 asylum seekers in a four-star Queensland motel, saying they are vulnerable families with children.
"We don't think they should ever be put behind razor wire," Small Business Minister Craig Emerson told Sky News today.
The Palms Motel in suburban Brisbane has reportedly been awarded a $1.2 million government contract for at least six months to accommodate the group.
Advertisement: Story continues below A private security guard has been employed to protect them and other guests, the Nine Network said.
"These are very vulnerable families with children and it's something that needs to be done on a short-term basis," Dr Emerson said.
Such measures did not happen all the time, but had occurred under the Howard government, he said.
"Let's just have a little bit of space."
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison acknowledged the practice was not new, but said the latest move was due to an upsurge in boat arrivals.
"It happens when all of your detention centres are full," he said.
"That's why people are in motels."
The government's asylum-seeker policy was out of control, Mr Morrison said, adding that 16 boats had arrived since Labor announced it was suspending new claims by Sri Lankan and Afghan boat arrivals.
Family First senator Steve Fielding said the move would only encourage more unauthorised boat arrivals.
"First it was Hotel Christmas Island, now it's Hotel Queensland," he said in a statement.
"There is no way we should be detaining asylum seekers in hotels because it just gives the people smugglers an extra selling point."
The Immigration Department said the group was under 24-hour "monitoring and guarding".
"They're not allowed to come and go," spokesman Sandy Logan said.
"They've all been through full security and health checks before being transferred from Christmas Island."
Mr Morrison said the department should have consulted the local community about its plan.
Doing so would have taken the heat out of some of the reaction to the move, he said.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/asylum-seekers-put-up-in-4star-motel-not-new-20100511-uqcq.html
Communist Party newspaper the Guardian:
The federal Liberal Party is said to be in turmoil with its “left” and “right” factions at war over a series of “regrettable” public statements and media leaks. The most recent “gaff” was by shadow immigration minister Scott Morrison who complained that the flying of asylum seeker mourners from Christmas Island to Sydney for the funeral of victims of December’s boat tragedy was a waste of taxpayers’ money. Before that it was Tony Abbott who was shown in a TV interview in Afghanistan with a group of Australian soldiers lamenting that “shit happens” after hearing of the circumstances surrounding the death of Lance Corporal Jared McKinney.
Both statements were later said to have been taken “out of context”. A number of media commentators lined up with Liberal Party spokespersons in Mr Abbott’s defence but the crass remark had caused offence in many quarters, including to members of Jared McKinney’s family.
Unfortunately for Mr Morrison, the media received a leak from a meeting of the shadow cabinet where the member for Cook said that the Coalition should try to capitalise on the anti-Muslim feeling growing in the broader Australian community. Shadow finance spokesman Andrew Robb was one of the few to stand squarely with Scott Morrison and his outlandish statements about the asylum seeker funerals. “I wouldn’t normally comment on shadow cabinet but I can confirm Scott did talk about the strong feelings in the general community about Muslim immigration and he said that we as a party had to engage with that sentiment,” Mr Robb said. It was a creative, if unconvincing, defence.
Joe Hockey said flatly that Morrison was wrong to question the funeral expenditure, that his statement lacked compassion. Most others, including Opposition leader Abbott, stuck to the line that Morrison had, perhaps, gone “too far”. Too far down which path?
Australia is still haunted by the ghost of One Nation – the party that sought to harness the racism to be found in significant sections of the Australian people. The election of 1998 gave the traditional parties a scare with solid votes going to the stridently anti-immigration party. The Liberals subsequently pulled the carpet from under Hanson and her cohorts with what became known as the Tampa election of 2001. “We decide who comes into this country and the circumstances in which they come,” Howard insisted at his Party’s campaign launch. At the last federal election, Abbott stuck with the apparently successful formula with his pledge to “stop the boats”.
Labor has also felt constrained to appear “tough” on refugees over the years and the Gillard government now oversees a mandatory detention system imprisoning over 6,000 asylum seekers. The centres are marked by substandard accommodation, punitive conditions and distress for already traumatised people. Self-harm is common.
The ALP has sought to walk both sides of the street in the debate over boat arrivals. It has been pressing simultaneously for a large regional detention centre in East Timor and for the release of greater numbers of asylum seeker families into the community. Immigration Minister Chris Bowen recently unveiled a new “national anti-racism partnership and strategy” aimed at cementing the multicultural underpinnings of Australian society.
Motivations are hard to guess and don’t appear to mean much in the politics of the major Australian parties. Scott Morrison is not known to be particularly xenophobic but that didn’t stop him seeking to tap into the vicious anti-Muslim campaign being waged by fringe elements in the community at the moment. One widely circulated email complained about the $448 million given by the Australian government to Indonesia to help with the running of schools, including moderate Islamic schools. It compared this to what it claimed was only $1 million pledged by the federal government for the reconstruction of flood devastated Queensland. Tony Abbott took up this twisted cause against the advice of colleagues like Julie Bishop.
The Liberals are captive to the Right on these questions. That much is clear. But the lack of an unambiguous commitment on the part of the government to the values of acceptance and solidarity upheld by the majority of Australians has also taken a heavy toll. Emblematic of this was the treatment of nine-year-old Iranian boy Seena who was orphaned by the boat tragedy off the coast of Christmas Island in December. He was brought with 20 others to Sydney for the above-mentioned funeral and promptly returned to the scene of his devastating loss despite the protests of relatives seeking to take him into their care. An uproar from the community forced a backdown on Seena’s fate and it is obvious that the major parties will have to be pushed to shake themselves free of the malign influence of forces like One Nation.
http://www.cpa.org.au/guardian/2011/1490/02-editorial.html
Substandard accomodation in detention camps? Punitive conditions? The Kremlin must've got the wrong report from the KGB!
Comrades, here are the correct reports that you should've gotten from the KGB officers.........
Daily Telegraph:
A HOTEL bill of almost $2.5 million a month is being racked up by the Federal Government to house some 500 asylum seekers outside detention centres as it struggles to find a solution to the record number of boat arrivals.
The Department of Immigration has admitted paying $60,000 a night in November last year to house up to 188 people, mainly families, a total bill of almost $800,000, for a fortnight's accommodation at Darwin's Airport Lodge.
The figures reveal that, based on the leases the Government had in place at the end of 2010, the average cost across motels, hotels and guest houses around the country was $2.36 million a month.
The Government had previously refused to reveal the true cost of its alternative accommodation policy to house families and unaccompanied minors outside detention camps - claiming the contracts with hotels were commercial-in-confidence.
During one 13 day period - from November 10 to November 23, 2010 - the cost of accommodation at the Darwin Airport Lodge was $778,000, including GST.
Only last week the Government revealed it would need an extra $290 million this year to cover the rising costs.
"They have a financial crisis on asylum seekers of their own making," Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said.
"This is a government paying five-star rates for roadside motel accommodation."
According to the documents, as at October 2010 there were eight motels, hotels or commercial accommodations housing a total of 461 asylum seekers, who the department refer to as irregular maritime arrivals or IMAs.
Refugee advocates claim that the perception that IMAs were enjoying a luxurious life by being housed in motels was ridiculous when some of the accommodation was no grander than a demountable camp. The majority of those in motels were families who were forced to live in small rooms with children for periods of up to six months with no cooking facilities.
The number of asylum seekers arriving by boat from war-torn regions abroad is at a record high, now total- ling 6200.
A spokesman for Immigration Minister Chris Bowen defended the cost of alternative accommodation, which was a humanitarian obligation to ensure families and children did not have to experience high security detention centres. "Immigration detention is expensive - whether it's onshore or offshore," the spokesman said.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/asylum-seekers-25m-hotel-bill/story-e6freuzr-1226005955902
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:
The federal government is defending a decision to house 79 asylum seekers in a four-star Queensland motel, saying they are vulnerable families with children.
"We don't think they should ever be put behind razor wire," Small Business Minister Craig Emerson told Sky News today.
The Palms Motel in suburban Brisbane has reportedly been awarded a $1.2 million government contract for at least six months to accommodate the group.
Advertisement: Story continues below A private security guard has been employed to protect them and other guests, the Nine Network said.
"These are very vulnerable families with children and it's something that needs to be done on a short-term basis," Dr Emerson said.
Such measures did not happen all the time, but had occurred under the Howard government, he said.
"Let's just have a little bit of space."
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison acknowledged the practice was not new, but said the latest move was due to an upsurge in boat arrivals.
"It happens when all of your detention centres are full," he said.
"That's why people are in motels."
The government's asylum-seeker policy was out of control, Mr Morrison said, adding that 16 boats had arrived since Labor announced it was suspending new claims by Sri Lankan and Afghan boat arrivals.
Family First senator Steve Fielding said the move would only encourage more unauthorised boat arrivals.
"First it was Hotel Christmas Island, now it's Hotel Queensland," he said in a statement.
"There is no way we should be detaining asylum seekers in hotels because it just gives the people smugglers an extra selling point."
The Immigration Department said the group was under 24-hour "monitoring and guarding".
"They're not allowed to come and go," spokesman Sandy Logan said.
"They've all been through full security and health checks before being transferred from Christmas Island."
Mr Morrison said the department should have consulted the local community about its plan.
Doing so would have taken the heat out of some of the reaction to the move, he said.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/asylum-seekers-put-up-in-4star-motel-not-new-20100511-uqcq.html