Policies > Immigration and asylum seekers

 

People who have immigrated to Australia over the last two hundred years have overwhelmingly made a positive contribution to the Australian nation. People who immigrate here in the future will continue to do so.

 

People are creative, they solve problems, they make, invent and improve things, they provide services that other people cannot. People are part of the solution not just a problem that has to be solved. We do not have a specific population limit that Australia should be, but we do believe in annual limits to the amount of net immigration Australia receives.

 

 

 

There are too many conflicts in the world and too many displaced people in refugee camps. In 2010 there are approximately ten million refugees in temporary accommodation around the globe. The majority of these people want to move to a safe country like Australia and other countries in Europe and North America.

 

Due to persecution and desperation many families take long and dangerous journeys to places like Australia in boats that are unsafe. People smugglers provide the boats in Indonesia for a high price. As a result the Australian offshore detention centre at Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean is full. The Australian government is now processing refugees on mainland Australia and housing them in motels and camping grounds at the taxpayer's expense.

 

There are also millions of other people who want to immigrate to Australia for family, work and lifestyle reasons.

 

In short, too many people want to live in Australia than we can handle. We have water shortages in almost every major city and town, health and transport infrastructure is already overstretched for our current population.

 

 

The solution to the problem is by taking action in Australia, Indonesia and in the other countries where boat people come from.

 

 

We do need an orderly system of immigration, balancing the number of people who come here for work, family, lifestyle and protection reasons. We need to show understanding and a degree of compassion to those in the world who need our safe embrace.

 

The Australian government has the responsibility in providing the needs of Australian citizens such as health care, education and transport before they meet the needs of every other person in the world who wants to live here.

 

There should be an annual limit to the number of each type of immigrant, depending on the number of refugees in the world and skill shortages in Australia. This number should oscillate between a total number of 100 000 and 300 000.

 

In a scheme like the great Snowy Hydro Electric scheme in the 1950’s and 1960’s, we should have a certain number of immigrants who come to work on a number of important public work projects. Thousands of families who are currently bored spending years in refugee camps would almost die for the opportunity to have a secure job in a safe land.

 

In Australia, we need tens of thousands of new public houses and units built immediately. We need new hospitals, schools and we need to have a 21^st transport system where we have a four lane dual carriageway from Adelaide to Melbourne to Sydney to Brisbane so we do not have to overtake in a lane of on-coming traffic. We need a superfast railway built between our capital cities. We need to construct a large water pipe from Northern Australia where it constantly floods to our dry southern rivers and cities. So much more needs to be done. People are the solution to our infrastructure problems and most of the immigrants who could help build these projects would think our minimum wage is a weekly gold mine. For more on infrastructure.

 

Australia let over three hundred thousand people immigrate here in 2009, the largest number in recent memory. We should show more compassion by increasing the refugee intake from fifteen thousand to thirty thousand where Australian public servants visit foreign refugee camps and invite a number of refugees into Australia. We should aim to have a better educated workforce so we don’t rely on foreign skilled workers taking jobs that should be filled by skilled Australians.

 

For asylum seekers who have attempted the last leg of their journey to Australia by boat, we should continue to process their claims of refugee status on Christmas Island. The aim is to either get them sent home or make Australia their home as quick as possible. Instead of the Australian taxpayer spending over eighty thousand dollars for each refugee each year to lay idle in a detention centre, we should get them working on one of these major infrastructure projects that need to be built.

 

If this solution proves to be too generous to asylum seekers and one hundred thousand boat people start coming each year, then consider reintroducing temporary protection visas. This means that we accept people into Australia, give them a job for a few years on a major building project but if the political situation in their home country has improved in that time, then they will be sent home. If it has not then they will be granted a permanent protection visa.

 

 

Another part of the solution is to work with the Indonesian government to have significant gaol sentences and financial penalties for People Smugglers. As Indonesian is the second biggest recipient of foreign aid from Australia, we should ask them to do more of their own border protection of their southern coasts before boats leave to Australia.

 

 

Part of the solution is to help other sovereign nations in the world have a stable and democratically elected government. This will enable other nations to supply the needs of justice, food, water, health and security to their citizens.

 

If we have fewer local and global conflicts that will mean fewer refugees in makeshift camps wanting to come to places like Australia. In cooperation with the UN and other governments, Australia can play a significant role in bringing about a safer world though foreign aid, humanitarian work and nation building efforts. This will enable people to move back to their homes and begin to work and rebuild their lives. Education, reskilling and training in sustainable farming programs should be provided in Refugee camps to better equip people for their future.