“DON’T LOCK UP REFUGEES IN TASMANIA!” Denison Candidate argues against Kevin Harkins' proposal
Socialist Alliance candidate for Denison, Mel Barnes, agrees with Kevin Harkins suggestion to bring refugees to Tasmania. However under one of his proposals Harkins suggests building a detention centre in the North-West in order to create jobs.
“This is an opportunistic and inadequate response to refugees”, Barnes said. “We should allow refugees to settle in the community. Being locked up in detention causes acute mental health problems in people who are already traumatised from war. Detention centres are also the most expensive option for the government to pursue. Why can’t the ALP show some leadership and compassion and close down all detention centres? We should process people’s claims quickly, in the community.”
98 % of people who arrive by boat have been found to be genuine refugees.
Most Australians are sympathetic towards the plight of refugees with eight out of 10 people saying they would help a refugee to settle into their community, according to the results of an Australian Red Cross survey.
The survey of 1,000 people across Australia, released on 21st June, also found the majority of people (67%) agreed or strongly agreed that refugees have made a positive contribution to society. It also revealed 83% of Australians agree that those fleeing persecution should be able to take refuge in another country and 86% said they too would flee to a safe country if they lived in a conflict zone and were under threat.
Barnes said “These results show that the federal ALP government is out of touch with ordinary Australians. Instead of continuing Howard’s agenda of trying to bully other poor countries in the region to do Australia’s dirty work, Gillard should be taking a principled stand by:
- allowing the boats to land on Australian soil and processing claims quickly
- calling for Tamil’s human rights to be respected in Sri Lanka and pulling troops out of Aghanistan
- settling refugees into the community with full services and support.”
