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Post by ponto on Jun 10, 2021 6:12:32 GMT 10
It is under the conservative coalition that wage growth has gone backwards...
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Post by matte on Jun 10, 2021 12:16:41 GMT 10
An amazing vigil was held outside the Perth hospital for the family yesterday evening.
So much support for them to be freed.
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Post by ponto on Jun 10, 2021 15:20:12 GMT 10
Looking as though the $6mill cost Biloela family will be sent back to Sri Lanka, as technically they are not refugees.
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Post by caskur on Jun 10, 2021 22:47:48 GMT 10
An amazing vigil was held outside the Perth hospital for the family yesterday evening. So much support for them to be freed. lol... 20 Uni students does not equate to an amazing vigil.
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Post by pim on Jun 10, 2021 23:41:05 GMT 10
I wasn’t there. Matt wasn’t there. I don’t know why they weren’t given refugee status. I do know it was a decision of the relevant court. Nevertheless in Sri Lanka there’s payback against Tamils. This has got politics all over it. The immigration minister does have discretionary power to grant a visa and I think that after this length of time and what the family has gone through ministerial discretion could be informed for once by humanity and compassion. As for the mother speaking “hardly any English” that’s a judgement Toots has made from her own Anglo comfort zone. I heard the Mum tonight on the television news. She functions in English at a basic level. That’s not “hardly any English”, that’s survival English. Have you ever tried to learn another language Toots as an adult? How’d you do? Fluent, are you?
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Post by ponto on Jun 11, 2021 0:11:25 GMT 10
ScoMo & Co have stuffed it up badly for the family....give them a break.
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Post by caskur on Jun 11, 2021 0:16:37 GMT 10
I wasn’t there. Matt wasn’t there. I don’t know why they weren’t given refugee status. . Errrmmmm, which part of, "They aren't refugees," don't you get?
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Post by caskur on Jun 11, 2021 0:20:13 GMT 10
ScoMo & Co have stuffed it up badly for the family....give them a break. The people who deserve a break are the little ozzie battler wage slaves pushing shit up hill.
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Post by pim on Jun 11, 2021 0:23:12 GMT 10
Is the government softening on the Biloela family?The family's case has attracted public and political sympathy, and now there appears to be compassion in Coalition ranks. Kishor Napier-Raman, 10 June 2021, Crikey As three-year-old Tharnicaa Murugappan lay in a hospital bed with sepsis and pneumonia, her family hoped it might be enough to spur a bit of compassion in Canberra, and bring an end to their more than 1000 days in immigration detention. This morning, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews tried to put the genie in the bottle — after days of talk about overseas resettlement, she returned to the Coalition’s familiar terrain of stopping the boats. “Quite frankly, I am not going to have people dying trying to come to Australia by sea on my watch,” she said, after Sunrise’s David Koch asked why the government was “being so mean” to the family. You lose Sunrise, you lose the country. The “Biloela family” provided a human face to Australia’s stagnant refugee debate, so long dominated by scary images of people smugglers and deaths at sea. Beloved by their local community in the central Queensland mining town, their case has attracted sympathy from across the political spectrum. And now, there’s a growing sense of disquiet among Coalition ranks about the family’s plight. Is there a softening afoot?All week, there’s been enough of a collective hum coming from the Coalition ranks — a mixture of rumour, anonymous “concerned” MPs, and backgrounding — to suggest there may be a resolution to the family’s ordeal. From Coalition MPs, the public messaging has been contradictory — a reflection, perhaps, of the government’s own internal conflict over the family’s fate. On Tuesday, Andrews said the government was “going through a process of investigating a range of resettlement options”. Prime Minister Scott Morrison immediately interjected to say that process applied to all cohorts, not specifically the Biloela family. That afternoon, Foreign Minister Marise Payne suggested the government was looking at resettlement options in New Zealand or the United States. That was news to the family’s lawyers. It was also news to New Zealand, with Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi saying Australia had never approached New Zealand about the resettlement plan. By Wednesday, Liberal MPs were privately pushing the government to do something for the family. But the backlash had also started. Attorney-General Michaelia Cash warned about the “consequences of blinking”, arguing people smugglers were watching the government like hawks waiting for a sign of compassion. This morning, Andrews confirmed the family would not have access to resettlement in New Zealand, and continued to double down on the government’s old messaging about stopping the boats. Will a minister, or politics help?Andrews, along with Immigration Minister Alex Hawke, can intervene at any time and allow the family to return to Biloela. But the home affairs minister appears to have nailed her colours to the mast this morning. That leaves Hawke, who is currently reviewing two briefs he must consider before deciding whether to lift the bar and allow them to apply for a visa. It’s unclear where Hawke will land here, and when. As assistant home affairs minister in the Turnbull government he was something of a hardliner — now he has four children under six, and there’s hope that could spur him to change the government’s mind. Meanwhile, there’s politics to factor in too. The Murugappan family has support from people like Alan Jones. Keeping them on Christmas Island has cost the government over $6 million. And Biloela is in Flynn, a Central Queensland seat Labor has in its sights. Ken O’Dowd, the popular local LNP member is resigning. He too has offered his support to the family. Tharnicaa’s medical evacuation underscores the lack of quality care in detention, and makes the case for keeping them on Christmas Island while their court cases progress seem absurd. But if anything forces the government to change its mind, it may just be that the politics of locking them up no longer make sense.
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Post by ponto on Jun 11, 2021 0:24:42 GMT 10
They do but that's another issue...separate from the family.
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Post by caskur on Jun 11, 2021 0:34:02 GMT 10
Those 2 Tamil spongers were told to leave years ago.
Both Labor and Liberals are piss weak enforcing the law.
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Post by pim on Jun 11, 2021 0:40:51 GMT 10
Eat your racist heart out.
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Post by ponto on Jun 11, 2021 0:43:22 GMT 10
People rendered assistance to them with legal aid....its difficult one if you were in their shies you would act the same Cas.
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Post by matte on Jun 11, 2021 12:51:46 GMT 10
It is time to be humane and let them go back to the town that loves them.
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Post by pim on Jun 11, 2021 13:56:57 GMT 10
“Letting Biloela family stay will lead to influx of people wanting to spend 3 years locked on an island while their child contracts a rare blood infection”www.theshovel.com.au/2021/06/10/caving-to-biloela-family/The Government says it cannot give in to the demands of those seeking resettlement of the Biloela family in Australia, pointing out that it will set an expectation that anyone who spends three years locked on an island under armed guard while witnessing their three-year-old child contract a life-threatening blood infection and untreated pneumonia will be allowed into the country. “We let one family in and all of a sudden we have thousands of families arriving at our doorstep saying, ‘lock me up in a cage’,” a Home Affairs spokesperson said. “I understand people’s sympathies for this family, but if we fail to send a message now, then we’ll have people just waltzing on in, saying ‘all I have to do to get into this country is watch my children grow up in a prison without proper medical care and I’m in’. It’ll be a free-for-all”. The Tamil family, originally from Sri Lanka, was bundled into vans and taken from their home in Biloela, Queensland in 2018, which according to the government officials is the equivalent of putting out the welcome mat and saying, ‘come to Australia’.
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Post by caskur on Jun 11, 2021 15:08:22 GMT 10
People rendered assistance to them with legal aid....its difficult one if you were in their shies you would act the same Cas. They're disgusting phonies who do not deserve anything. I would never be in their shoes. I obey the law. They do not.
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Post by caskur on Jun 11, 2021 15:16:20 GMT 10
“We let one family in and all of a sudden we have thousands of families arriving at our doorstep saying, ‘lock me up in a cage’,” a Home Affairs spokesperson said. “I understand people’s sympathies for this family, but if we fail to send a message now, then we’ll have people just waltzing on in, saying ‘all I have to do to get into this country is watch my children grow up in a prison without proper medical care and I’m in’. It’ll be a free-for-all”. Yep and the racist immigrants on this board will LOVE that. They don't really love Australia, they love their thoughtless ideologies that are stuck in the 1950s with the other buffoons stuck in the 1950s... they won't be happy until every native tree, plant and animal is replaced with uneducated foreigners.
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Post by ponto on Jun 11, 2021 15:26:59 GMT 10
It is difficult as this family is not just fighting for themselves they are fighting for the others in detention as well, tough call.
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Post by pim on Jun 11, 2021 15:50:59 GMT 10
“We let one family in and all of a sudden we have thousands of families arriving at our doorstep saying, ‘lock me up in a cage’,” a Home Affairs spokesperson said. “I understand people’s sympathies for this family, but if we fail to send a message now, then we’ll have people just waltzing on in, saying ‘all I have to do to get into this country is watch my children grow up in a prison without proper medical care and I’m in’. It’ll be a free-for-all”. Yep and the racist immigrants on this board will LOVE that. They don't really love Australia, they love their thoughtless ideologies that are stuck in the 1950s with the other buffoons stuck in the 1950s... they won't be happy until every native tree, plant and animal is replaced with uneducated foreigners. Oh and BTW the moon landings were fake - take it from Toots who reckons she's educated - lol
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Post by caskur on Jun 11, 2021 16:23:12 GMT 10
It is difficult as this family is not just fighting for themselves they are fighting for the others in detention as well, tough call. People in detention have been deemed not eligible to be in Australia. Which is totally fine by me.
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Post by caskur on Jun 11, 2021 16:26:59 GMT 10
Yep and the racist immigrants on this board will LOVE that. They don't really love Australia, they love their thoughtless ideologies that are stuck in the 1950s with the other buffoons stuck in the 1950s... they won't be happy until every native tree, plant and animal is replaced with uneducated foreigners. Oh and BTW the moon landings were fake - take it from Toots who reckons she's educated - lol You want Afghan men in Australia and you don't even know their TRUE characters. And you think you are educated just because you read and regurgitate tripe. Puh-leeze. It's about time labor ousted you far left nutters. You are a burden on TRUE Labor.
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Post by pim on Jun 14, 2021 12:59:53 GMT 10
A family from Biloela holds a mirror to unconscionable Government behaviourBy Bruce Haigh 14 June 2021 Pearls and Irritations johnmenadue.com/bruce-haigh-a-family-of-dignity-strength-and-humility-from-biloela-holds-a-mirror-to-unconscionable-government-behaviour/Bruce Haigh is a retired Diplomat and political commentator. He was a Member of the Refugee Review Tribunal and he served at the Australian High Commission in Colombo.For the second time in their lives the two adults of the Murugappan family have been forced to be resilient and brave in the face of confrontation by a government intent on causing them harm. In the first instance they fled a Sinhalese regime wrecking genocide upon a hated Tamil minority who had dared to fight for their freedom from oppression. The instruments of genocide were torture, rape, murder and confiscation of homes and the means of livelihood – land, shops, fishing boats, for those not killed, leading to suicide and mental illness. When they had a right to expect succour after all they had been through, they received cruel punishment in Australia. Initially they found protection and kindness with the caring community of Biloela. After the trauma they had been through with the civil war and the blood letting of the Sinhalese armed forces toward the Tamil minority, they felt safe, and despite their nightmares, sufficiently secure to start a family. Nades and Priya had two much loved daughters, Kopi and Tharnicaa. Priya had endured the multiple raping of her mother and the bashing and blinding of her father by Sinhalese members of the occupying force. Taken from Biloela on expiry of their temporary visas by the then Home Affairs Minister, Dutton, they were held in detention in Melbourne while appeals went through the legal system and then transferred to Christmas Island when those issues remained unresolved. The stronger the protests by refugee support groups, human rights activists and the community of Biloela the more Dutton dug in. After three years in detention the youngest daughter succumbed to the conditions and in May, 2021, came down with Pneumonia. She was given pain killing tablets by medical staff at the detention facility, ten days later she became so ill she was taken to the hospital on Christmas Island where she was diagnosed with septicaemia and rushed, by emergency flight, to the Children’s Hospital in Perth, 2,600 kilometres away. There followed calls for the family to be allowed to go back to Biloela. Decent Australians are horrified at the treatment of this family. The former Chief Justice of the High Court, Sir Gerard Brennan has accused the government of deliberate cruelty. He said, “Cruelty is being inflicted upon her (Tharnicaa) to punish her parents who came by boat without a visa and thus to discourage others from breaching one of our immigration policies.” Think on it. This is the considered opinion of one of the most respected Judges to have sat on the High Court. The Premier of Western Australia, Mark McGowan, has said the issue is “Internationally embarrassing”. He strongly urged Morrison to allow the family to settle in Biloela. Karen Andrews, the new home Affairs Minister initially called for the family to be resettled in either the US or New Zealand, as did the Minister for foreign Affairs, but they withdrew that suggestion. Andrews then said she was ‘not going to open the gates to people smugglers’. Where does that come from? Sounds like vintage Dutton. In any case Andrews should know that her department is involved in operations, through the Australian Embassy in Colombo, to prevent boats with Tamil refugees coming to Australia. It covers activities on a number of fronts. Several years ago, Australia donated patrol boats and more recently drones. Payments have been given to Sinhalese involved in the people smuggling trade including navy and police officers and at one time the brother of the President. Sri Lanka is a chronically corrupt country and increasingly authoritarian. Democracy is a sham. The police and military control the north, where the majority of Tamils live. It is a reign of fear. Land has been stolen and given to the military, together with businesses. It is difficult for Tamils to make a living. Women and girls live in fear. Dutton is no doubt aware of the arrangements that exist to control people smuggling. Before the last election, which the LNP expected to lose, several refugee boats left from Sri Lanka. Their arrival had the possibility of embarrassing the incoming Labor government. It was never satisfactorily explained how these boats managed to get so close to Australia with all the preventative arrangements that were in place. In 2019 Dutton said it was safe for Tamils to return to the north of Sri Lanka. There has been no indication that the Australian Government has revised or rejected the advice that this statement was based on. The Australian High Commission is in a difficult position. The Australian government does not want to know the condition of Tamils in the north because that would mean acknowledging that many are eligible to be considered as refugees. In a politicised public service sending advice contrary to what the Government wants to hear is a prescription for losing preferment and promotion. The same is happening at the moment with respect to China. Advice that the Australian Government has been operating under, namely that the north of Sri Lanka is safe for Tamils was recently overturned in a decision of a British Court. It found that State sponsored torture existed and that all Tamils in the north faced the risk of abuse and torture. (Upper Tribunal decision of 27.5.21, Appeal Numbers: PA/09978/2016 and PA/13288/2018). In light of this decision the Tamil Community in Australia has asked that DFAT amend its advice to reflect that the prospect of torture for Tamils in the north is high. On the 2 June, 2021, a young Tamil man, Chandran Vithusan, aged 22 was arrested by Sri Lankan Police from the Intelligence Division outside of his home in East Iruthayapuram, Batticaloa, taken into custody and beaten to death. Nades and Priya are from Batticaloa. Given their background of seeking asylum in Australia it is likely that Nades and Priya would be taken into detention were they returned. What would happen to their children? I worked on the Refugee Review Tribunal from 1995 until 2000. I handled cases from Sri Lanka. In my judgement Nades and Priya should have been found to be refugees. Not to do so was poor decision making of which there has been much. By way of further example in June, in the North-East, Sinhalese Police arrested Tamils for ‘violating travel ban’ guidelines. This demonstrates that the movement of Tamils is regulated and controlled by the occupying authorities. At the same time police targeted a number of individuals, including the Mayor of Jaffna, for promoting LTTE ideology. It is a standard ploy for the police to claim LTTE activities in order to harass and intimidate whilst seeking bribes, funds and favours. The occupying Sinhalese forces in the north hate the Tamils. At Mullivaikkal at the end of the war in 2009, 150,000 Tamils were murdered by the Sri Lankan military, this and other documented acts amounted to genocide and were found to be such at a session of the Permanent Peoples Tribunal held in Bremen in December 2013 at which I was present. Human Rights Watch and the International Crisis Group recognise the killings as a war crime. The hatred which led to these atrocities is still there. Barathan Vidhyapathy, a Tamil film maker and Member of Tamil Refugee Council based in Melbourne says, “Today, Sri Lanka’s Tamil population lives under one of the heaviest military occupations in the world, and is subject to attacks, racism, and insecurity. It’s little wonder that Tamils would flee the island, seeking asylum in Australia.” The Murugappan family cannot be sent back to Sri Lanka, they have suffered enough, they must be allowed to go back to their friends in Biloela.
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Post by Stellar on Jun 14, 2021 13:29:38 GMT 10
The Sri Lankan civil war ended in May 2009! And the husband had returned to Sri Lanka on three separate occasions during the civil war yet didn't seem to be concerned about any persecution. Neither is there any evidence that his family suffered from persecution.
Their visas expired in 2018. They just didn't want to go home. It's better here - I get that. They're Hindus - born to rule. They don't accept that the Sinhalese govt rejects the annexation of part of Sri Lanka.
But every time you make an exception for someone like this, it just gives false hope to hundreds of others who then set out to make the trip illegally - often with disastrous consequences.
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Post by pim on Jun 14, 2021 13:43:32 GMT 10
<sigh>
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Post by matte on Jun 14, 2021 13:46:12 GMT 10
I personally couldn't care less about the parents. They are using the kids as pawns. But the kids have been through too much. Time to let them live a normal life.
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