Brunswick Labor.net

Last week I attended a function at the Foundation House for the Survivors of Torture in my electorate. The Minister for Health Bronwyn Pike presented a progress report on the Government’s Refugee Health and Wellbeing Action Plan.

This plan, first launched in 2005, provides support to refugees and asylum seekers trying to re-establish their lives in Victoria. This support extends to asylum seekers who are under temporary protection visas (TPV) and would otherwise be ineligible for free access to our health system.

Victoria is the first State which provides refugees with a TPV visa to free access to public hospitals, the community dental program and ambulance services.

I welcome the announcement last night that Six African and Middle Eastern refugee communities in inner Melbourne will receive help settling into the community thanks to a $140,000 boost from the Bracks Government.

Skills shortages amongst refugee and migrant communities will be addressed through a new Bracks Government employment program that will help local job seekers into real work, the Member for Brunswick, Carlo Carli announced today.

Coburg organisation, the Victorian Cooperative on Children's Services for Ethnic Groups (VICSEG) will run New Life - New Workplace: an employment program for refugee and CALD jobseekers - one of the first projects to be announced today under the Workforce Participation Partnerships program would create more than 1200 jobs across the State.

Friday, 26 August 2005
5pm at the State Library
Swanston Street, near Lonsdale

FREEDOM AND FULL RIGHTS
FOR ALL REFUGEES
Commemorating the arrival on Australian shores of the Norwegian merchant vessel Tampa and its surplus cargo of human maritime victims.

The World Refugee rally two weeks ago has got some local media coverage.

Despite the deal struck in Canberra our refugee system has not been made more humane at the stroke of a pen.

Many injustices remain such as the rampant behaviour of the Immigration Department, the continuation of the iniquitous Temporary Protection Visa's and Mandatory Detention remains.

Thats why a group of my fellow ALP Members - including staff from my office - joined the march in support of refugee rights in inner Melbourne yesterday. The group included a number of Past and Present office holders in the party, as well as rank and file members such as the talented Paula Rizzuto who wore her Labor for Refugees t-shirt.

The Howard Government's announcement of the new Removal Pending Visa today is a heavy handed attempt to bully genuine refugees into agreeing to be deported from Australia.

The Removal Pending Visa category has a number of conditions which include:

The Government intends that access will be determined on an individual basis and limited to those immigration detainees who
• do not have any visa applications or litigation outstanding;
• the Minister believes it is not reasonably practicable to remove for the time being;
• the Minister believes have done everything possible to facilitate their removal from Australia; and
• have agreed in writing to abide by all prescribed conditions, and cooperate fully with arrangements for their removal from Australia, including leaving Australia when advised to do so.

This is not good enough. It is an unsubtle attempt to bully detainees into giving up their human rights and rights of administrative review.

Fortunately people are seeing through this uncharitable Gesture. Amnesty International has already criticised the decision.

On Sunday 24th February the Victorian ALP held a policy forum on refugee and asylum seeker policy. The following resolution was prepared by a number of ALP members and moved by Carlo Carli in attempt to highlight some of the key issues raised at the forum for further discussion within the ALP. This resolution is being circulated in the spirit of increasing internal debate.

Speech given to the Legislative Assembly on the 2nd May, 2001.

Asylum seekers: detention

Mr CARLI (Coburg) - I grieve for asylum seekers who find themselves in detention in some of the remotest parts of Australia. I grieve especially for the more than 200 children living in those remote detention centres.

Honourable members know a lot about those centres and about the issues that have arisen in them. They have seen on television and in the newspapers reports of the break outs, hunger strikes, riots, allegations of abuse, ill treatment of people and mismanagement of the centres, which are now in crisis.