Wednesday 14 May 2008
3 comments:
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Lefty E said...
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Merci, Coupdecoeur!
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18 May 2008 at 09:37
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Leon Bertrand said...
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One of the great myths of the Howard era is that the Government was hostile to immigration.
I truth, Australia's migration programme was expanded to greatly increase the number of migrants accepted. -
18 May 2008 at 10:39
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Lefty E said...
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That's quite true in terms of skilled migrants Leon, and I personally have never argued otherwise.
I think its fair to say they were 'hostile' to forced migrants.
Regardless of one's view, the TPV was just bad policy. Good riddance to it, I say! -
18 May 2008 at 10:49
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Huge news - the Rudd Government is said to be abolishing TPVs altogether.
Those 1000 or so still on TPVs will get "resolution of Status' visas (effectively the same as a Permanent Protection Visa), and any future onshore arrivals found to be Convention refugees will get Permanent Protection Visas straight up.
This news will reverberate around the world - as the Australian TPV was the inspiration for many regressive changes in the EU, especially places like Denmark and Germany. It caused untold suffering and harm - and no doubt contributed strongly to the number of deaths of women and children the SIEV X, as it refused TPV holders already resident in Australia rights to family reunion.
Anyone who still claims that Rudd can be dismissed as some sort of 'Howard-lite' character (you know the shtick: maintaining the fiction of some enduring ideological victory, to ease the pain of electoral loss) will now have to reconsider. This is a major departure from the Howard era.
Ruddock in particular will be taking it hard - he really did see this as his international contribution to revising the scope and mode of protection under the 1951 Convention.