it seems the Libs decided Abetz's choice of words wasnt the best. They omitted the word "necessarily" the transcript of his speech.
also appears Abbott is talking rubbish (I know that will shock many) when he says asylum seekers are 'disappearing into the community'. they have to report regularly to the dept of immigration and there is no suggestion by anyone (reputable) that many arent doing this.
Facts flee as politicians take low road on asylum
Here's what Scott Morrison could have said in his interview with 2UE's Jason Morrison on Wednesday.
Jason Morrison wound up a long introduction like this: ''Isn't it amazing, you put people on bail, Australians who commit crimes, they have to report to police, but not these people no, they come and go as you please, that's our system, it's wrong, it should be changed, but it won't be changed, because these people matter more to the Australian government than the people who actually the Australian government is meant to serve.''
''These people'' are of course the 12,100 people released since November 2011 on bridging visas pending the processing of their refugee claims, 8700 of them since August last year when the Gillard government changed the rules to remove any work rights and force asylum seekers to wait until an unspecified future time when it is deemed they will not have received an ''advantage'' by coming to Australia by boat rather than waiting in processing centres in Malaysia or Indonesia.
And the reason the two Morrisons were talking about ''these people'' is that one of them - a 21-year-old man from Sri Lanka - had been charged with indecent assault.
So Scott Morrison could have said something like this: ''Well Jason, I assume you understand that seeking asylum is not a crime and I don't think we should vilify all asylum seekers on bridging visas because one of them has been charged with a crime and we certainly shouldn't compare asylum seekers with convicted criminals out on bail, but there are some legitimate questions to ask about how the government is managing the placement and care of these people.''
Or he could have said, ''Did you happen to know, Jason, that statistics suggest asylum seekers are 45 times less likely than other Australians to commit a serious crime and in fact fewer than five of the 12,100 on bridging visas have been charged with any kind of offence, so we should be very, very careful about implying they are more likely to offend than other people.''
But he did not say that. He had spent the day linking the charging of the Sri Lankan man with his concerns about the government's procedures for the community release of people on bridging visas.
Instead, he was quick to agree that ''this whole incident has demonstrated what you rightly pointed out are the weaknesses of this system, we've had this terrible incident … and what I said today is the minister should be undertaking a review immediately.''
And when Jason Morrison went on to say that decisions about housing asylum seekers should be made ''in exactly the same way we separate prison populations, we know there will be people who will try desperate things, that may do desperate things and you understand there are cultural differences, barriers, and you should be respecting your own citizens over the people who are not your citizens but are seeking to be it'', Scott Morrison went along with that argument also.
He said the government had ''no idea'' where people on bridging visas were living and ''you raise a very good question about whether it is appropriate to have people housed in facilities like this alongside young females''.
The Immigration Minister, Brendan O'Connor, says asylum seekers on bridging visas are required to report to the department on a regular basis, either in person or by phone. They are required to provide their residential address and advise if they move.
Michael Raper, of the Australian Red Cross
- which is contracted to provide transitional accommodation and support services, including a payment of 89 per cent of unemployment benefits, which without work rights is the only way asylum seekers can survive - says his organisation knows ''exactly where they are''. Commonsense would also suggest that, since ''these people'' are desperately hoping to be found to be refugees and allowed to stay in Australia, they would have a strong incentive to keep in touch with authorities.
(On Friday the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, continued to insist the government ''doesn't know where these people are'' and that they are ''just disappearing into the community''.)
What the government and the Red Cross do not do is publicise the addresses, and a segment on the rival radio station 2GB on Thursday morning might explain why.
The broadcaster Ray Hadley and some other media organisations discovered the address of the charged Sri Lankan man from court documents and went to the house.
The journalists described ''squalid'' conditions with mattresses on the floor. Goodness knows what would have been said had they found a comfortable house with furniture.
According to Hadley, ''locals who have tried to help the people tell me in the main they are friendly and compliant, with of course the occasional alleged sexual predator mixed into the group''.
Asked whether he knew of other cases involving asylum seekers, Scott Morrison referred to the most recent Senate estimates, where officials said one asylum seeker on a bridging visa had been charged and sentenced on a drug-related offence.
On radio recently, he said ''we unearthed a few weeks ago the case of people on bridging visas being housed adjacent to aged care facilities in Adelaide where they were cooking at night, letting the sprinklers off and the aged-care facility had to be evacuated at night''.
A night-time evacuation would undoubtedly be traumatic for aged-care residents, but cooking in the evening is hardly a crime.
Scott Morrison said a Coalition government would impose special ''behavioural protocols'' on asylum seekers over and above the normal requirements of the law.
These ''standards of conduct'' would be similar to requirements inside detention centres, he said.
One of the Coalition's own backbenchers, Russell Broadbent, said that amounted to ''vilifying'' asylum seekers and applying different laws to different people, and no such proposal had been considered by the Coalition party room.
There is a very valid debate to be had about what is going to happen to ''these people'' - under a Labor government when they have to wait for an unspecified period without work rights, living on less than the dole, or under a Coalition government when they will be released into the community on temporary protection visas, allowed to work, but never given the certainty of permanent residency. There is good reason to fear they might be exploited.
But even in an election year when they play their politics hard, politicians can keep that debate within the bounds of responsibility. Or they can try to make their case by stoking public fears. This week Scott Morrison chose the low road. Abbott backed him. He said Morrison was doing a ''magnificent job''.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/facts-flee-as-politicians-take-low-road-on-asylum-20130301-2fbjb.html#ixzz2MO8Xuvww
