Page 2705 - Week 09 - Thursday, 8 August 2013
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citizen. This, again, only compounds the desperate poverty, the desperate isolation and the desperate disadvantage these people face. It seems to me to be wholly unfair to discriminate against people who are here on bridging visas on this basis.
Many of these people live in a state of isolation already—isolated from their cultural communities due to pervasive fears of violence, personal identification, harassment or discrimination. But without work or study, and with limited money, people seeking asylum often have little to fill their waking hours. If they are left without work rights and with limited resources, asylum seekers face significant barriers to establishing independence, and they face the very real risk of homelessness. By granting work rights to asylum seekers living in the community on bridging visas and ensuring that basic living allowance payments and other supports provided to people seeking asylum are commensurate with their needs and no less than those provided to other people with similar needs in our community, we would be removing key barriers to self-reliance.
Meaningful employment makes an important contribution to personal wellbeing, as well as providing income support and self-reliance. It can also provide a valuable distraction from the relentless worry and uncertainty associated with their immigration status. These are good, practical reasons why we as a community should say that the current discrimination faced by those in our community on bridging visas should be removed.
As a community we are proud of welcoming refugees into our city. As a government we provide significant support to them. But unless we address some of these fundamental issues of employment, the right to work and the right to receive support commensurate with need on an equal basis, this group of already marginalised people will become only more marginalised and vulnerable.
What are the consequences of that vulnerability? Mental illness undoubtedly arises from these circumstances. Lack of social support only compounds that vulnerability. As a Canberran, as an Australian, I am concerned that if we prolong and continue these policies of discrimination, not only will they be counterproductive but they could breed resentment in our community, and resentment ultimately has the potential to turn to hatred or to violence. Those are things I would hate to see occur in my city or my country.
It is for these reasons that I propose this amendment today. Debates about the national arrangements, about how people come to our country, about how we manage the terrible dilemma of trying to prevent people from taking risky choices that have seen 1,000 people drown at sea is a debate for the national arena. But we have responsibilities here for people who are living in our community, and that is what this amendment is all about.
Let us focus on the disadvantage we know exists right now in our community—people living in our suburbs, walking our streets. They are facing undue and unjust disadvantage, and there are opportunities to try and right this wrong. That is why I am asking the Assembly to support this amendment today.
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