Page 2704 - Week 09 - Thursday, 8 August 2013
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and the issues faced by those who are already here in our community who are asylum seekers, who are refugees and who are often here on bridging visas and the way they are being unfairly treated by federal government policy here in the ACT right now.
The question as to how we deal with those people who choose to flee persecution by boat is a question that will be resolved through the national debate and the national election that is now upon us. I think it is incumbent on us here in the ACT to talk about the disadvantage and the unfair treatment of those who live amongst us right now who are refugees and people on bridging visas and the unfair treatment that is being meted out to them because of that status.
My amendment seeks, therefore, to address a couple of important issues. The first is that the Australian government refuses to allow those who are settled in our community, often on bridging visas, to be able to apply for jobs. The Australian government also refuses to allow those in our community who are settled here or accommodated in our community as refugees, often on bridging visas, to even receive the same level of Centrelink payment benefits as those who have similar needs in our community and receive those payments.
For me and my colleagues it is these circumstances that are simply grossly unfair and inequitable. If we choose to allow refugees to come to our community, to be settled in the suburbs of our city, we should be treating them fairly and we should be making sure they are given the assistance they need to settle, to accommodate within our community and to become part of our community, whether they are here for a short period of time or permanently.
To deny people the right to work when they are already facing significant poverty is simply unconscionable. To deny them the opportunity to go out and find a job and focus on a practical way to improve their immediate circumstances is, in my view, completely unacceptable. But that is the policy of the current Australian government, and it is a policy that, in my view, is wrong.
We can have a range of debates about what we should do to prevent drownings at sea and how we manage the increasing numbers of people seeking asylum in our borders coming by sea, but we should not forget these more practical consequences right here in our community today. We should focus on those who are amongst us, often facing poverty, often living in share housing, often with poor English. Why do we compound that existing disadvantage by refusing them the right to work?
Many of these people want to work; they want to improve their circumstances; they want to have a bit more of a comfortable life. They want to lift themselves out of the desperate financial circumstances they face, and yet we refuse them that opportunity. Whether they are here for a short time or a long time, it seems to me to be fundamentally unfair and, indeed, counterproductive to say to those individuals, “You are not even allowed to try and find some work.”
The second part of my amendment highlights the related issue of basic living allowance payments. People who are here on bridging visas and receiving payments from the commonwealth receive less than the lowest amount available to any other
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