July 13, 2009

Navy intercepts Sri Lankan asylum seekers
MANY women and children are among more than 70 Sri Lankan asylum seekers now on Christmas Island after they were picked up at sea on Saturday.

A fishing boat carrying the group was spotted by a Customs and Border Protection aircraft about 80 nautical miles from Christmas Island and was intercepted by the navy patrol boat HMAS Armidale.

It has been anticipated that many Sri Lankans would try to reach Australia and other countries after the fierce fighting on their home island in which government forces crushed the Tamil Tigers' insurgency.

Australia, a massive island country sparsely populated, throughout the years has constantly had the media, the press, going to extreme lengths to publicize the fact that our country often has asylum seekers, refugees, boat people seeking, often fleeing their own country in the hope of resettling here.

Back in 2001 during an election year, the government in power at the time misled the Australian public over a boat filled with asylum seekers in order to manipulate public opinion enough, create a wedge issue, in order to win the election.

The Children Overboard affair was an Australian political controversy involving public allegations by Howard government ministers in October 2001, in the lead-up to a federal election, that sea-faring asylum seekers had thrown children overboard in a presumed ploy to secure rescue and passage to Australia.

Although reports indicated that the strain of being towed was the proximate cause of the asylum seeker boat eventually sinking[3], in 2007, Australian Prime Minister John Howard asserted that the asylum seekers "irresponsibly sank the damn boat, which put their children in the water".

Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock announced that passengers of SIEV 4 had thrown children overboard. This claim was later repeated by other senior government ministers including Defence Minister Peter Reith and Prime Minister John Howard.

So refugees from Iraq of all places, were used by the government IN POWER to sway enough people that these boat people were so inhumane they'd sacrifice their own children. This would have been a callous, opportunistic and irresponsible claim from a desperate opposition, but it was coming from the sitting government. The one and same government who very much supported and had sent Australian troops to fight in Iraq, the country these people were fleeing.

The article in the introduction occurred in July and the Australian government was endeavouring to deal with this group of asylum seekers fleeing Sri Lanka.

The most serious and far reaching policy change in Australias long term future is up for discussion in Australian parliament at the moment. The issue of dealing with carbon emissions from Australian industry including an emissions trading scheme, carbon pollution reduction scheme, things which will affect every Australian, are being debated in parliament right now.

The sitting opposition party back in June, the party which used refugees from war torn countries as a political prop, human beings as a talking point, used a fake email and with Newscorp's help, Rupert Murdochs support, endeavoured to distract the news cycles from reporting on this policy which was working its way through parliament. Below is an article showing the timeline of a constructed smear, one which came to be known as 'Utegate'.

An Aussie Visiting America - Adrenalin Media

This last weekend, Kevin Rudd made a speech to the Lowy Institute where he called out the climate change deniers for their failure to recognize the threat of climate disruption.

The truth is this is hard, because the climate change skeptics, the climate change deniers, the opponents of climate change action are active in every country.

They are a minority. They are powerful. And invariably they are driven by vested interests.

Powerful enough to so far block domestic legislation in Australia, powerful enough to so far slow down the passage of legislation through the US Congress. And ultimately – by limiting the ambition of national climate change commitments – they are powerful enough to threaten a deal on global climate change both in Copenhagen and beyond.

In response first Rupert Murdoch immediately weighed in.
Media magnate Rupert Murdoch says Kevin Rudd is too sensitive to media criticism and is more interested in strutting the world stage than running Australia.

Rudd too sensitive to criticism: Murdoch
"He doesn't like criticism," Mr Murdoch told Sky News.

"He expresses his complaints more vociferously and faster."

"He's different in that he's more ambitious to lead the world than to lead Australia," he told Sky News, but quickly added that the comment may be a "little unfair" though "there's some truth in it".

Followed remarkably by the previous Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard who is retired from politics.

Howard unleashes on Rudd over immigration
Former prime minister John Howard has lashed out at Kevin Rudd's handling of asylum seekers and accused his Government of wasting the nation's cash.

"The current handling of the 78 people aboard the Customs ship? I'll refrain from comment on that ... but speaking robustly in defence of our policy - we stopped the boats.

This story is dominating if not saturating the Australian media at the moment, causing the government to effectively drop everything to deal with a crisis which the opposition party is opportunistically using as a wedge issue. It looks like a concocted distraction when a media boss and ex-prime minister speak out in order to create political pressure on a sitting prime minister.

So lets look at John Howards record on asylum seekers and immigration to see whether this really is just a distraction.

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John Winston Howard, AC (born 26 July 1939) was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007.

So the Liberal party which John Howard led was in power for 11 years.

Australia in perspective.

UK Population: 60,943,912 (July 2008 est.)

Land mass 242,514 km2

Australia population : 21,007,310 (July 2008 est.)

Land mass : 7,686,850 km2

US Population : 304,059,724

Land Mass : 9,631,418 km2

Comparative country size overlay - US, UK, Australia.

Immigration numbers (pink line) from Australian govt immigration site

In effect what we see from 1997 to 2007 when John Howard was defeated at the polls, was a doubling of immigration from around 75,000 to around 180,000 in 2007. Of course numbers fluctuated, but the final few years the trend line was up.

Howards claim that he had been successful in somehow reducing the number of refugees to Australia also needed review. When the numbers are considered, what actually happened was a levelling out in refugee numbers. Even after Kevin Rudd was in power, the numbers were stable and in fact lower for 2007/2008 after only a short 2 years in power than John Howards numbers at 7 and 9 years in power.

Year	2003–04	2004–05	2005–06	2006–07	2007–08	2008–09
Number	13 851	13 178	14 144	13 017	13 014	13 507

Actual numbers of Refugees/Asylum seekers to Australia

So this is in fact a concocted distraction as the numbers essentially haven't moved, although having opened this can of worms, lets examine a little more closely exactly how mocked up this controversy really is.

Comparison against the UK.

If you consider all the chest pounding from the Australian Liberal party which has gone on over this issue of asylum seekers to Australian shores, you would think that those numbers above would have reduced. Well the figures do not lie, and in fact in the United Kingdom, a country which is surrounded by countries with vastly greater numbers of people than Australia, this is precisely what happened. Reducing asylum seeker numbers to one third their levels in the same period of time from 2002 after John Howard won an election deceiving over this very issue.

Year	2003–04	2004–05	2005–06	2006–07	2007–08	2008–09
Number	103 080	60 050	40 200	30,500	23,520	23,430

UK Asylum seeker numbers over time.

Chart of Asylum seeker numbers in the UK

Like the Tampa episode, the Australian Liberal party along with the press of which Newscorp makes up a major part, are not representing the true effect of John Howard's tenure.

Visa Overstays

Along with the issue of people coming to Australian shores, often fleeing countries with civil strife, persecution or war torn villages, there are also those who apply through normal means and travel here on an Australian visa. If we are to compare apples with apples, consider then after two years what was happening to the trend lines on those whose Visas had expired yet wished to stay on.

Trend of Visa overstays.

As is shown above from the Australian Bureau of statistics from 2000, after one year in power, 1998, the number of people electing to simply stay in Australia after their Visa had expired, shot up dramatically. By the year 2000 the trend line had however turned down indicating that this in itself is an unpredictable statistic with multiple influences because human beings are involved.

This statement is on the link above.

Of the 58,750 estimated overstayers in Australia as at 30 June 2000

So we had by the year 2000, almost 60,000 people in Australia, those who would have been educated enough to stand in and compete in Australia's job market, who the government did not seem too concerned about. Rather choosing to callously turn Australians attention on people fleeing their own countries in the hope that a new better life would be found ANYWHERE else.

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Australias 'Green Card' - 457 Visas

Each year, around 50,000 immigrant visas are made available through the Diversity Visa (DV) program, also known as the Green Card Lottery to people who were born in countries with low rates of immigration to the United States (fewer than 50,000 immigrants in the past five years).

Although not exactly the same as the US Green card program cited above, the very first year John Howard got into government, he introduced what would be known as 457 visas, or work permit visa.

On 1 August 1996, the Howard Government formalised this process by introducing the Temporary Business (long stay) Visa (subclass 457).

These allowed an organization which claimed it could not find local workers to fill a particular employment role, to import labor from overseas provided certain criteria were met. It was intended to bring in skilled personnel where these could not be found in Australia, but was open for vast expansion and abuse.

The 457 visa is the most commonly used program for Australian or overseas employers to sponsor skilled overseas workers to work in Australia temporarily. The full title of this subclass of visa is Temporary Business (Long Stay) - Standard Business Sponsorship (Subclass 457).

Holders of this visa may be employed for a period of between three months and four years, and may bring any eligible family members, including same-sex partners, who have unrestricted work and study rights in Australia. Holders of the Subclass 457 visa have no limit on the number of times they travel in and out of Australia.

So an employer could get around any obligation to train staff, the government could also avoid becoming involved in creating opportunities for willing Australians by creating training programs, by importing what we needed from overseas. This program was an instant success and the number of 457 visa holders flocking to Australia increased exponentially in a very short time.

The number of 457 visas granted in 2005-06 is projected to be around 40,000 (primary applicants only), a massive increase of over 40 per cent in just one year.

More than 110,000 457 visas were issued in the past year alone and the number has grown significantly each year.

The exploitation of some workers under Australia's temporary workers visa program has led to a Government review.

So what sort of exploitation could a program which meant instead of outsourcing and shifting production to countries with a lower paid workforce, they could look at bringing the people they needed here?

The Howard Government’s 457 visas were touted as a response to skills shortages in the labour market – to fill jobs where there were no local takers.

Fletcher International runs a multi-million dollar abattoir in Narrikup, about 35 kilometres from Albany in southwest WA. It uses 457 visa workers extensively.

Among the latest victims are five Filipino meatworkers in WA, sacked in what their union suspects was a move to ensure a union-free enterprise agreement by an employer already in trouble for breaches of its obligations to 457 visa-holding workers.

“I’ll give you an example. Workers there are not entitled to Medicare benefits. The employer deducts money out of their wages for private insurance. The private insurance doesn’t cover the bills because of all the exemptions, etc. The workers are then left with substantial bills in the order of $1,500-$2,000 for fairly simple procedures done at the local public hospital.

"The workplace watchdog commenced its investigation into a Darwin petrol station following reports in the media regarding potentially unlawful treatment of workers by the new owner United Petroleum," the ombudsman said in a statement.

"Allegations included unlawful dismissal and exploitation of 457 visa workers."

So abbatoir workers and petrol station workers being exploited is bad enough, however more at issue is how these imported laborers are necessary. Are they really highly skilled professions which no Australia is available to do?

Further, aside from the over-inflated fear of 'them taking our jobs' which the media has conveniently shifted onto people genuinely fleeing harsh conditions, the other thing which has been beat out of proportion in the asylum seekers saga is the people who are accused of organizing these boats which asylum seekers travel on. They have been labelled with the term 'people smuggler' which instantly creates ire in most people.

Well this was happening with John Howards 457 program it seems. People were paying someone to arrange a job and a 457 visa for them in Australia. Taking money from desperate people in search of a better life. Precisely what the people smugglers were doing.

Workers are routinely forced to pay migration agents’ fees — up to $20,000 — and threatened with the sack and deportation if they complain or attempt to join a union.

We are not talking small numbers of people either, as you can see from the chart below of the number of 457 Visas issued under the Howard government reign.

Number of 457 Visas issued

Now you would think with the accusations that this system was being abused by unscrupulous opportunists, the government would look at the vast increase in 457 Visas being issued and either put a hold on increase intake or at the very least conduct an internal review to identify if these allegations had substance.

AUSTRALIA: HOWARD GOVERNMENT BLOCKS PUBLIC INQUIRY INTO 457 VISA

So when John Howard comes out of retirement swinging and sniping at our democratically elected PM (at the same time as Rupert Murdoch), trying to claim he was some form of miracle worker when it comes to handling Australia's immigration, the facts do not support this. In fact one could say that a review was indeed necessary when allegations of the abuse of this system surfaced. Instead the government of the time not only blocked any form of inquiry into the program, in the last 3 years they were in power, the number of 457 Visa's issued went up by 20,000 new workers imported into Australia each year.

It took a new administration to finally conduct a public inquiry into this program which truth be told, was in fact a program which had the potential to take away jobs Australians were qualified to do.

Evans considers 457 visa review
The source countries with the biggest increases in takeup of 457 visas are China, India and the Philippines.

"We don't want people borrowing money in order to come here because that ties them to those arrangements, makes them like indentured labour."