Letter to the ALP President |
Posted by
Tiglath
(Guest)
davidchibo@hotmail.com
- Monday, January 19 2004, 10:06:38 (EST) from 203.89.203.20 - 203.89.203.20 - Windows XP - Internet Explorer Website: Website title: |
To the Hon. Dr. Carmen Lawrence, I just wanted to drop you a congratulatory note for your recent nomination as ALP president. My name is David Chibo and I'm a local member of the ALP in the Federal seat of Calwell, northern Melbourne as well as a proud member of Labor for refugees. In today's Age I read about the Labor for Refugees proposal to free all asylum seekers from detention which failed to win the backing of the federal opposition's immigration spokesman. Please forgive me if you have heard of this idea from someone else, but I thought I'd give you my pragmatic opinion on how the ALP can not only take back our lost initiative but finally resolve this issue and win over the moral majority as the ALP desperately needs to differentiate its policies from the Liberal's. 1. LIMIT MANDATORY DETENTION Start by stating that the ALP will technically not end mandatory detention, appeasing the voters looking for a "tough" and "decisive" leader on foreign affairs issues. The ALP could then announce their intention to streamline the detention process and ensure that illegal detainees are held for as short a time as possible. Most asylum seekers should have their health, and security checks completed within a couple of months of arriving "illegally" in Australia. And, of course, anyone not found to be an asylum seeker should be sent back. 2. RELEASE ASLUM SEEKERS INTO SPECIFIC REGIONS End forever the dreaded Temporary Protection Visa (TPV). Once an asylum seeker is confirmed allow them to settle in specified areas where their skills can be utilised and they can assist the Australian economy. Asylum seekers will be released with full Medicare, benefits and education. The only penalty Asylum seekers will pay for coming "illegally" will be to lose their choice of settlement location. They and their families will be required to stay within a specified location, for a specified period of time. There are many rural areas where there is a distinct shortage of labour. A family who arrives illegally by boat and is processed should be released after 2 months and then given Medicare, benefits and education but told that they can only access these services in a rural location. They will be free but forced to "plant their roots" in rural areas where they will contribute to the rural economy and provide rural Australia with a mosaic of languages and culture. I believe that new policy, although far from ideal, will not only place the ALP ahead of the Liberal party but can capture many rural National voters if it is exploited properly. Morally ALP will recapture the "high ground" by ending the jailing of women and children for unspecified periods of time only to be eventually freed to the uncertainty of the Temporary Protection Visa (TPV). I hope you don't mind me expressing my opinion on this sensitive issue. I wish you nothing but success in the coming elections and look forward to the day when you will be able to lead our magnificent nation. Kindest regards, David Chibo Melbourne, Australia --------------------- |
The full topic:
|
Accept: image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, application/vnd.ms-excel, application/vnd.ms-powerpoint, applicatio... Accept-encoding: gzip, deflate Accept-language: en-au Cache-control: no-cache Connection: keep-alive Content-length: 3596 Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded Cookie: *hidded* Host: www.insideassyria.com Referer: http://www.insideassyria.com/rkvsf/rkvsf_core.php?.24eh. User-agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705) X-forwarded-for: 203.214.70.143 |