Take Back Australia

Chris Evans was Minister for Immigration and Citizenship in the Rudd Government. Kevin Rudd was a believer in a “Big Australia” and projected a population in Australia of 35-6 million by 2050.  The population of Australia was  21,727,158. In August 2011. 

The Rudd Government dismantled several components of the Howard Government’s approach to unauthorised arrival immigration policy by March 2008 – it abandoned offshore processing of asylum seekers and temporary protection visa arrangements, which the Coalition had halted the trade in people smuggling from Indonesia to Australia, but these measures the Labor Party said were ineffective and inhumane. The issue of asylum seeker policy remained controversial through the term of the Rudd Government. The number of asylum seeker boat arrivals increased throughout the period and the handling of the issue was identified by supporters of Julia Gillard’s challenge to Kevin Rudd as a motivating factor in his replacement.

On 8 February 2008, the Rudd government ended the Howard government’s Pacific Solution. In May 2008, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said the Department of Immigration and Citizenship was rejecting asylum seeker applications at a higher rate than under the previous government, the minister responsible, Chris Evans, had intervened in 170 rejected claims overturning the decisions.

In July 2008, the Government announced changes to mandatory detention policies, ceasing the detention of children, there were no children in detention when Rudd became PM, and making legal advice available to unauthorised arrivals.  In April 2009, due to an increase in illegal entry vessels and a fatal explosion due to sabotage on one of these vessels, the government announced a new strategy of offering financial support to Indonesia to assist in their efforts to reduce people smuggling to Australia.

Unauthorised boat arrivals in Australia increased from 161 people in 2008 to nearly 3000 people in 2009. In response, Rudd had a conversation with the President of Indonesia on 20 October to intercept vessels bound for Australia. The government had made provisions to house refugees in spare demountable housing on Christmas Island, as the detention centre there was becoming crowded.  In 2010, as the Christmas Island facility reached its official capacity, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees noted in its annual report that despite global refugee numbers remaining steady, there was a 29% increase in asylum claims for 2009. This supported claims that the government’s policy changes had led to the increase.

In October 2009, the MV Oceanic Viking was involved in an emergency operation rescuing 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers in international waters within the Indonesian sea rescue zone. Those rescued were due to be landed in Indonesia, for transfer to an Australia-funded immigration detention centre on the Indonesian island of Bintan.  However, the asylum seekers refused to disembark until 18 November, following assurances of fast-tracked processing of their cases for resettlement.  In the Australian Parliament, Rudd described this assurance as “non-extraordinary”. According to Geoff Kitney, a Fairfax journalist who has covered immigration since the 1980s, his explanation of the terms of the agreement left the impression that, at the very least, he knew it would be difficult to show that the deal was not a cave-in.  The Sri Lankan government said the deal would encourage more people to risk the ocean journey to Australia.  A representative of the United Nations Commission for Refugees told The Australian newspaper that the deal was bad practice and would encourage similar behaviour.

By May 2010, a boatload of refugees were arriving daily causing overcrowding on Christmas Island, West Australian Premier Colin Barnett has been told by Immigration Minister Chris Evans that up to 90 asylum seekers will move to an unused mining camp near Leonora, which is more than 800 kilometres north-east of Perth, within days.  Resettlement programs

Despite an election promise to process 90 per cent of claims for protection visas within 90 days, Immigration Department figures in October 2009 showed no improvement in the speed of processing claims since the change of government.  As a proportion of the immigration intake, Australia accepted fewer refugees in 2009 than it did at any time under the Howard government.

The government has been accepting more refugees from regional conflicts as the number of Africans fleeing to Australia has declined. There has been a notable spike in Chin Burmese  and Rohingya Burmese refugees being accepted from camps in  Thailand  and  Bangladesh  respectively. Almost 1400 Burmese refugees were accepted in the first six months of 2009.  They were quietly resettled in northern Brisbane, in spite of a nationalist backlash against refugees that was developing in Queensland.

There have been 27,192 boat arrivals in the 4 years of the Labor government when in 2008  the Howard Pacific Solution was dismantled by the Labor regime in 2008  .  This is twice the number of arrivals during the 11 years and 8 months of the Howard Government.

Now in 2012 we are hearing THE cost of charter flights to transport asylum seekers to Nauru and between overcrowded detention centres in Australia is now costing taxpayers an average of at least $6.1 million a month.

Official tender notices from the Department of Immigration reveal a total of 57 tenders for special air charter services have been issued at a cost of $36.7 million for the six months to February 15, 2013.

With a rising number of people in detention, more flights are being leased to move asylum seekers between overcrowded detention centres and to capital cities under the new community release policy.

One tender marked “to various locations” was issued at a cost of $15 million for 23 days of service and is believed to include the transfer of asylum seekers to Nauru and the return of failed Sri Lankan asylum seekers.

The figures DID NOT include the extra cost of commercial flights to transport asylum seekers around the network, which the department claimed accounted for the majority of flights.

The horrendous cost of this government’s failed asylum seeker policies  Well over $2billion shows Chris Bowen and this Governments total lack of commitment to stemming the flow of these arrivals in my opinion for them to prove to the UN Masters their humanitarian credentials.