Politics: The Federal Opposition Party Attempts to Court Our Kind - & Fails

[Rev.Cambeul]

Some migrants resistant to equality - Abbott

From: http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,26622160-5005962,00.html

OPPOSITION [Liberal Party] Leader Tony Abbott has suggested some recent migrants oppose equality and he suspects Australians are anxious that citizenship is given away too lightly.

Without mentioning specific ethnic and religious groups by name, Mr Abbott has used an Australia Day Council address in Melbourne to raise controversial immigration issues.

"Some recent immigrants seem resistant to Australian notions of equality,'' Mr Abbott told a dinner in Melbourne.

"There is, I suspect, an anxiety that the great prize of Australian citizenship is insufficiently appreciated and given away too lightly.''

He also suggested that unauthorised boat arrivals had raised fears that Australia's borders are again uncontrolled and said people were concerned about whether the environment could cope with population pressures.

Asylum seekers arriving by boat could not be compared to authorised visitors who overstayed their visas, he added.

"There is an important distinction between boat arrivals on the one hand and, on the other, people who arrive without putting themselves in peril, on a valid visa, and only subsequently become unauthorised overstayers.''

The Opposition Leader also hinted that recent attacks on Indians could be discriminatory. [And so he instantly fails at attracting our kind to his cause.]

"We should be especially concerned at the possibility that ethnic Indians have become the victims of racially motived crime.''

In the speech Mr Abbott evoked John Howard's 2001 re-election mantra, in which the then prime minister said: "We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come.''

"John Howard's declaration about Australians controlling who comes to this country resonated because it struck most people as self-evidently and robustly true,'' the Opposition Leader said.

He attacked the Rudd Government's border protection measures, saying that while people smugglers were the main villains, governments which allowed desperate people to think that getting on a boat might be a short cut to permanent residency would not be blameless.

While Mr Abbott conceded that Australia's problem with boat arrivals was smaller than in the US or Europe, he raised concerns about terrorism if new arrivals were not controlled.

"Still, in a world where crime and terrorism are international in scope and where every developed country's social security system is under pressure, a policy of benign indifference to new arrivals would defy common sense,'' he said.

Mr Abbott argued Australia was a more tolerant nation, despite its history.

"For all the misguided and sometimes cruel treatment of Aborigines, the ethnic typecasting and occasional snobbery which still exists, Australia has rarely seen domestic discrimination based on race or culture,'' he said.

Immigration to Australia had been a success "almost unparalleled in history''.

Mr Abbott added that supporters of tougher border protection measures needed to understand "it's no reflection on boat people that they want to come to Australia''.

He appeared to support a growing population based on migration.

"The immigration rate should depend upon the strength of Australia's economy, the confidence of our society and the readiness of potential migrants to make a commitment to their new country,'' he said.

Australia did not have a "fixed carrying capacity''.

"My instinct is to extend to as many people as possible the freedom and benefits of life in Australia,'' Mr Abbott said.