Scott Morrison proudly, it seems, made his major contribution to heightening the levels of moral panic in the community in relation to asylum seekers. While I have read many articles today, which I will share below, I am taking the words from his press release on his web site, http://www.scottmorrison.com.au/info/pressrelease.aspx?id=1083
A requirement to consult and notify police in advance of the release of boat arrivals on bridging visas or into community detention in their jurisdiction
Why this requirement, Scott? Why are you not suggesting we do the same with all Australian criminals released from prisons? After all, I do not want a convicted rapist living next to me given I have two daughters and last year we had at least two women raped and killed within a 20 mile radius of my home. They have paid their debt to society for their crime, you say? Let me tell you something, Scott: asylum seekers have NO debt to society to pay.
Freedom
A requirement for neighbouring residents to be alerted in advance of boat arrivals being located in their community on bridging visas or community detention
Way to fuel moral panic, Scott. What is gained by this? You will simply have communities up in arms as a result of your scaremongering that they won’t accept asylum seekers in their areas.
The establishment of behaviour protocols for boat arrivals placed on bridging visas or in community detention, with clear negative sanctions for breaches of such protocols
I would really like to establish some behaviour protocols for politicians, Scott. Such as politicians shall not incite moral panic, politicians shall treat all with humanity, politicians will not use an innocent group of people for self-serving political purposes.
Establishment of a complaints procedure for residents to contact the Department to advise of any concerns about the behaviour of boat arrivals on bridging visas and in community detention
Oh, for goodness sake, Scott, all I have to say to this is get a grip on the realities of life!
Is there evidence that the arrangements to date have detracted from public safety? Would security checks have stopped the alleged sexual assault incident from happening? Of course not.
And why? The only justification for any of the above would be if these people were more likely to misbehave than any other member of society – and there is simply not a scintilla of evidence to suggest this is the case.
A Liberal backbencher has accused his party of ”vilifying” asylum seekers after the Coalition immigration spokesman, Scott Morrison, called for ”behaviour protocols” for those released into the community.
The sad part of all this nonsense from Scott Morrison is it somewhat overshadowed the launch by the ASRC of a Right To Work campaign. Go to that site. Support the campaign. This is IMPORTANT, not just for the asylum seekers but for Australia: for Australia to be a humane nation.
Some asylum seekers have a right to work. Boat arrivals, just by virtue of the fact they were on a boat, have no right to work if they arrived after August 13, 2012. Apart from the fact this forces them into poverty and we create an underclass in society, the mental health implications are dramatic. I know this from my husband’s experience. He has written before on this website that volunteer work kept him sane-ish through the dark days in community detention. Now even volunteer work is to be banned.
Asylum seekers are a way to score cheap political points. They have no political power in Australia, they are a group of people politicians can vilify to their heart’s content. I coined a phrase today, potty politics. Because to me, that is exactly what this is. Potty politics.
I wonder, if Scott gets into “power”, will he decide to deport all the Australians who stood up today to be counted?
Twice today I invited Scott to dinner. So far he has not accepted. That is a pity, as it always bothers me when politicians are not willing to learn, especially when it is their own portfolio.
To a certain friend of mine who fears I am trying to bring all the displaced people in the world to Australia (yes, M, you) let me repeat for all readers what I said earlier today. I believe the UN convention is out-dated and needs to be completely revised to take into consideration today’s global situation. We also need a major global push to find solutions. Australian can’t take in 10 million displaced people. However, we can treat the ones we have HUMANELY!!
Random Observations of Life 
[…] Will you be supporting a humanitarian approach to the treatment of asylum seekers and prevent Scott Morrison from inciting moral panic in the community? Actually, just teaching Scott enough manners to respond to dinner invitations would be […]
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[…] O got test results back and scored 100%. Take that, Mr Scott Morrison! That cheered our Thursday up a bit […]
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Robyn,
John Kuldelka’s cartoon of March 2nd brilliantly puts Scott Morrison in his place. The link is: http://www.kudelka.com.au/2013/03/welcome-to-australia/
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He he he – good choice!
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Both sides of politics play xenophobia game, you again focus on one side only.
Morrisons comments would have been justifiable, if he only mentioned requirement to inform local police and especially medical services, about placement of large groups of boat arrivals. At least for reason that they are mostly young males, usually with no reliable background checks and very basic medical checks.
He however, went much further, trying to instigate paranoia and which hunt, by requiring all residents to be notified and advised of complaint channels.
Labor MP rightfully pointed it out, but again, didn’t stop there and went further, siting non existent analogy with immigrants, who according to him are bunch of uneducated, non english speaking people of unknown backgrounds. Is it that hard to check immigration education, character, language and health requirement from DIAC web site ? He could have used Australian criminals released from prison as a counter argument, just like you did, but no, he had to use immigrants instead.
And then there is new “crackdown” on 457 visas by government, supposedly widely used to steal Australian jobs for cheaper employment from overseas, despite that there is absolutely no data supporting that claim. But it is so sweet to blame outsiders on your own downfalls.
I came to Australia on 457, I didn’t steal anyones job, it didn’t even exist, I created jobs here! One of my roles was to train and coach local grads, who would then use their skills in local and overseas assignments.
My wife has two diplomas, including Australian in accounting, years of experience in international companies, the amount of checks and verifications we had to go through during visa application is well above of what average Australian has to go in whole life.
With industry reports indicating that accounting is on demand, you would expect that finding job should be easy.
Yet, without Australian citizenship or at least residency, your CV is useless not matter what it says, and we were openly told about it many times.
My wife now volunteers for food bank, as you know, working for free is still better than being force idle.
Which brings us to idea to give asylum seekers right to work.. Do you really believe that people who can’t stand foreign workers complying with all regulations and restrictions, labeling them job thieves, these people will accept giving right to work to boat arrivals ?
That’s when all ongoing anti-immigrant hysteria, will hit back its perpetrators. Don’t you think that Labors support base, which demands “crackdowns” on foreign worker visas, which would rather see work not done at all, than done by outsiders, will be the biggest opposer of that move? You may gain new powerful supporters however, like Gina Rinehart, who would be happy to hire cheap labor for low skill jobs, arriving in tens of thousands a year.
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Hi Asef. Welcome back. 🙂
I know you are angry and frustrated over your own family’s situation and I do understand. It is terrible that your wife hasn’t managed to gain employment. I know all about the checks visa applicants go through. Far more than Canada, by the way – I saw that young Canadian tennis player’s story. His parents looks at Australia and Canada as possible destinations. Australia’s forms were too complicated, Canada’s form was one page. The family went to Canada.
I know how damn hard it is to get a job on any visa, let alone a temporary visa, such as your wife is on. I hope for you both she receives a job offer soon.
However, I do not believe we should treat people badly. Asylum seekers in community detention will not be able to volunteer either. The situation is not appropriate.
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[…] this week The Opposition Spokesperson for Immigration infuriated me. I was even more angry when Miss O 2 came home from camp and told us a boy had said “why […]
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Great article thank you. This is all politics for the Coalition, they only care about themselves. They create a problem with a lie and continually repeat the lie. Then they create a “solution” to solve the “problem”. All part of the “golden years” of John Howard with the shame of the MV Tampa affair. This is then followed up with the lies of Children Overboard Affair just prior to the 2001 federal election.
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Thank you Stephen.
It is very upsetting, all this inciting moral panic in the population. I do not like it at all. From a senior politician it is irresponsible at the very least.
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Reblogged this on 1,2,3 do.
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Thanks, Tony. 🙂
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I admire you’re courage, but in a way I hope for your sake he does not accept. I cannot imagine the horror of having such an odious, obnoxious, repulsive piece of human garbage in my home. And in front of the children? Wouldn’t he give them nightmares?
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I hear a rumour he is overseas, that may be the reason for the delayed response. 😀
I do believe everyone is entitled to the opportunity to learn, Derek.
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I agree about the opportunity to learn. I do find it hard to believe that it is possible to reach Scott’s age, which would have to be at least my own, without encountering many such opportunities. Particularly if you’re moderately intelligent, which surely we have some right to expect of our parliamentary representatives.
So if you’re not a moron, and you’re old enough to know better, the remaining possibility is that you’re well aware of the truth but have chosen, for presumably self-serving reasons, to misrepresent it to those too young or too stupid to have worked it out for themselves. There comes a time, or perhaps an age, when we have to stop making excuses for such people and conclude that they are just evil. By which I mean they know the right thing to do, but have chosen to do the wrong thing in order to advantage themselves and their ‘in’ group, in the full knowledge that this will cause severe detriment to others. They’ve chosen to ignore the golden rule of human morality, do as you would be done by, and to treat others in ways they would never accept for themselves because, well, because they can.
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Did you see my tweets to him earlier this evening?
While on camp, a boy told Miss 10 to “go back to the poor country she came from” and when she was wearing black leggings, asked her if that was her skin.
I place this sort of harassment of my daughter firmly at the doorstep of Messrs Morrison and Abbott who create this kind of hatred in the community.
Absolutely shocking that my daughter should have been subjected to this on a school camp!
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Disgusting that a child should be subjected to such abuse, and of course children don’t come up with that sort of bile for themselves. It has to come from the parents. You’ll never eliminate racist attitudes entirely, but I think something has changed since I arrived in Australia in the 80s. There were still racists, but they knew they couldn’t publicly admit to being racists. They knew they couldn’t actually SAY that sort of stuff.
It was John Howard, and his inheritors like Abbott and Morrison, who by their attitudes, their policies and their utterances, gave those people permission to be openly racist again. They have injured our society and it is absolutely their responsibility. I don’t agree with John Howard about, well, just about anything except gun control, but I don’t think he’s a stupid man, far from it. I am convinced he, and all the rest of them, knew and know exactly what it is that they are doing. I can think of no excuse for them.
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Send him a signed copy of your book as living proof he is talking a load of “twaddle”. The trouble is he will create a barrier against people reaching out to help assylum seekers.
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Oh yes, there are several politicians getting autographed copies and he is one of them!
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The trouble is politicians generalise and then the press elaborate.
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