The Bondi assault has been cynically repurposed to advance an immigration narrative that collapses beneath even primary factual scrutiny, writes DrAbul Rizvi.
IN AN ARTICLE inThe Australiantitled Are We Being Careful Enough About Who Were Allowing In? journalistClaire Lehmanntries to hyperlink feedback I made about adjustments in pupil visa and migration coverage in 2001 to the appalling actions of the Bondi terrorists.
Note the older of the 2 terrorists is reported to have arrived in Australia on a pupil visa in 1998 three years earlier than the scholar visa coverage adjustments of 2001 and have become a everlasting resident round 2000 on the idea of a wedding to an Australian everlasting resident or citizen of Italian heritage. The youthful of the 2 terrorists was born in Australia and is an Australian citizen.
While most journalists speak to me earlier than they quote me in an article, Lehmann didn’t at all times an indication of a success piece. She used apodcast on wider immigration coverage issuesthat I did withJoe Walker.
She accurately quotes me in regards to the 2001 adjustments, which extra explicitly linked pupil visa coverage to expert migration coverage, being pushed primarily by issues of demographic ageing, talent shortages and funding of public universities. During the podcast, I used to be requested if the coverage was put to a vote at present, would it not be supported? I mentioned, No.
Using the slain: Israel exploits the Bondi seashore shootings
Netanyahu has used the Bondi murders to weaponise antisemitism pressuring Australia to silence Palestine and deflect scrutiny of Israels warfare.
That was as a result of, on the time, internet migration was operating at over 500,000, pushed largely by a surge in pupil numbers following the Coalition’s acceleration of pupil visas in 2022 and the Labour Government’s gradual response to tighten pupil visa coverage.
But pupil visa coverage has nothing to do with safety and character checking (whether or not we’re letting within the fallacious folks). That operates largely no matter the visa utilized for by the character provisions of theMigration Act(s501). Indeed, in 1998, I used to be concerned in a significant strengthening of the character provisions, which is the underlying structure for who’s accepted and who’s refused a visa by way of character (together with safety). Student visa coverage additionally has nothing to do with whether or not an individual is susceptible to turning into radicalised or not. The drivers of which are fairly completely different.
While there was a lot fine-tuning, the essential hyperlink between pupil visa coverage and expert migration coverage has been maintained by each authorities and each immigration minister since 2001, when the coverage was launched byPhilip Ruddock. No authorities and no immigration minister, includingScott MorrisonandPeter Duttonwhen they had been immigration minister, has ever proposed eradicating the hyperlink. The hyperlink can be supported by each state/territory authorities, who continuously nominate profitable abroad college students to fill key talent shortages of their jurisdiction.
Moreover, nearly each main developed financial system, together with China, Japan and South Korea, has copied Australias strategy of creating that hyperlink (althoughDonald Trumpkeeps fluctuating on that).
If Lehmann thinks the hyperlink is fallacious, she ought to be extra specific in saying so fairly than conflating that with problems with radicalisation, terrorism and character/safety checking. The victims of the Bondi bloodbath deserve higher than to be misused by Lehmann for her personal political ideology.
DrAbul Rizvian Independent Australia columnistand a former Deputy Secretary of the Department of Immigration. You can comply with Abul@RizviAbul.
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