If it was not clear before it is now clear where the Australian Government’s loyalties lie.
There has been recent news about how an Au Pair intending to work for a wealthy family known to have made large donations to the Liberal Party had the Minister of Immigration grant an urgent application for her to be allowed in the country. The basic problem was that it was pretty clear she wanted to work in Australia contrary to the terms of her imigration permit. The Guardian has the details:
Deuwel [the Au Pair] had previously worked for McLachlan’s relatives Callum and Skye MacLachlan in South Australia and was returning to visit them. Callum MacLachlan is a joint managing director of the cattle and sheep company Jumbuck Pastoral.
The emails reveal that Deuwel was stopped at Adelaide airport and after questioning, immigration officials put her on a 10.30pm Emirates Airlines flight out of the country on 1 November.
Callum MacLachlan wrote to his second cousin Gillon asking for assistance.
“What can we do to have this injustice resolved and and have her tourist visa reinstated before she flies out tonight?” he wrote at 10.55am.
He described Duewel as a girl of outstanding character and integrity.
“There clearly has been a misunderstanding that she was intending to work for us when she is here to spend time with out family as we consider her to be family.”
The email is forwarded by Gillon McLachlan to AFL government relations head Jude Donnelly and then passed on to Dutton’s chief of staff Craig Maclachlan.
The chief of staff sought information about the case and is told Deuwel stated her main goal coming to Australia was to undertake “volunteer work” and would receive three months free accommodation in return for helping with the family’s children, cooking and riding their horses.
Deuwel faced a three-month expulsion period from Australia, if she was to be deported.
As can be seen from the article the application was completed with a certain degree of haste. Dutton claimed that his decision was based on “common sense”.
The treatment jars with that offered to refugee children in Nauru. Like for instance this case from a month ago where the Australian High Court forced Dutton to transfer a dangerously sick child from Nauru for urgent medical treatment. Again from the Guardian:
The federal court has again forced Peter Dutton to transfer a dangerously sick child from Nauru to Australia for treatment, dismissing arguments from the immigration minister’s representatives that the girl wasn’t seriously ill.
On Thursday the federal court’s Justice Robertson ordered an adolescent girl be transferred to Sydney for urgent medical care, accompanied by a family member.
“The applicant is at serious risk of permanent complications from her current medical situation and [I] find that the applicant appears to be at imminent risk to her health, both in the short term and in the long term,” wrote Robertson in his judgement.
“It follows that I do not accept the submission on behalf of the minister that the applicant has not shown sufficient evidence of the seriousness of her medical condition or sufficient urgency in terms of the treatment for her medical condition.”
And meantime Australia is preparing to refuse Chelsea Manning the opportunity to visit and speak. There were fine with a couple of click bait racists visiting but when a whistleblowing pacifist wants to visit they put the unwelcome sign up. From Radio New Zealand:
The Australian government is preparing to ban US whistleblower Chelsea Manning from entering the country for a speaking tour …
The Australian organiser of her speaking tour, Think Inc, has written to supporters asking them to lobby the newly installed Immigration Minister, David Coleman.
“We have just received a Notice of Intention to Consider Refusal under s501 of the Migration Act from the Australian government in regards to Chelsea’s Visa,” the company’s director Suzi Jamil wrote to supporters.
“We are looking for support from relevant national bodies or individuals, especially politicians who can support Chelsea’s entry into Australia.
Section 501 of the Migration Act allows the Minister to deny anyone a visa if they do not pass “the character test”.
If you want to understand the effect of Manning’s actions Gordon Campbell has this helpful list:
Here’s a list of ten things that Manning’s leaked cables revealed. The revelations included chapter and verse on these sort of activities:
• During the Iraq War, U.S. authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape, and murder by Iraqi police and soldiers, according to thousands of field reports.
• There were 109,032 “violent deaths” recorded in Iraq between 2004 and 2009, including 66,081 civilians. Leaked records from the Afghan War separately revealed coalition troops’ alleged role in killing at least 195 civilians in unreported incidents, one reportedly involving U.S. service members machine-gunning a bus, wounding or killing 15 passengers.
• The U.S. Embassy in Paris advised Washington to start a military-style trade war against any European Union country that opposed genetically modified crops, with U.S. diplomats effectively working directly for GM companies such as Monsanto.
• British and American officials colluded in a plan to mislead the British Parliament over a proposed ban on cluster bombs.
• In Baghdad in 2007, a U.S. Army helicopter gunned down a group of civilians, including two Reuters news staff.
Personally, I think our government should be thanking Manning for these and other revelations, and for the sacrifices she made as a consequence of bringing them to light.
It appears that in Australia Au Pairs of the rich and connected are welcomed and helped. Seriously ill refugees are ignored. And click bait racists are fine but peace activists are shown the door.
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