Two doctors were taken in for questioning: one was held under anti-terrorism powers and has still not been charged; and the other was released without charge. Overseas doctors, particularly doctors from Muslim countries are understandably worried about how all this publicity about the two doctors will affect them and their families. So rather than show some sort of restraint, Greens Senator Bob Brown is in the media arguing that the arrest ‘proves’ highly-skilled immigrants, such as overseas doctors, are not being vetted appropriately and therefore pose a security risk.
Mr Brown says all immigrants should be screened just as thoroughly as asylum seekers.
“Maybe there’s a wake-up here to the Government, which has been very keen to bring in people who have more than a quarter of a million dollars,” he said.
“That will buy you a way straight into Australia, if you’ve got that in your back pocket, or with high skills, but they need to be no less vetted than the poorest person.”
Firstly, there isn’t any public evidence (yet) that the doctor who was arrested is a terrorist, was planning a terrorist attack in Australia or was even involved in the London bombings, let alone evidence that terrorists are buying their way in this country for $250,000. Secondly, there is yet to be any evidence presented that the screening process for foreign workers in this country is insufficient. And, anyway, if you were a terrorist who wanted to harm Australians, would you pay $250,000 and jump through all the immigration hoops, or would you just get a tourist visa?
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Hmmm - I suspect Brown was primarily playing politics, and secondly demonstrating that ‘rich = good’ is incorrect. However, even taken at face value I don’t think he’s suggesting that terrorists buy their way into Australia for the purposes of terrorism. Rather, people who buy their way into Australia are as susceptible to becoming terrorists as anyone else.
The Greens have always been anti-immigration but they tend to make exceptions for refugees.
You are right to draw attention to this comment. It is not in the same league as Pauline Hanson’s response, but it is worrying none the less.
Firstly, it reinforces a perception that foreign doctors should cause us to worry about our safety.
Secondly, it mistakenly assumes that foreign doctors only get visas here because they are wealthy. It confuses a totally different class of business visa, where a large amount of capital assists with eligibility, and the so-called 457 visas which relate to skills in demand. In any case, both types of visas (and all other residency visas) have character requirements and enable security assessments.
It would be foolish to ignore credible information which suggests that security checks need to look more closely at specific issues, but if so it should be applied consistently, not pointlessly targetting a particular class of visa just for political purposes.
It is wrong to complain about the Coalition government vilifying asylum seekers, or migrants who are Muslim or African or whatever, and then cast aspersions on another group of migrants.
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Have the Greena actually been anti-immigration? They may very well be against massive increases in population (as most sensible people are, IMHO) but doesn’t necessarily mean that one is anti-immigration.
As-Salaamu ‘alaikum,
Actually, in the UK the Sun, I think, made a big thing of the fact that Britain has become a soft touch for malevolent foreign immigrants, while making it more difficult for British doctors to get junior jobs (a known problem, partly down to one of this government’s continual problems with bad bespoke software), causing them to go to places like Australia, which rejected one or other of the doctors involved in the plot. Australia is notoriously tough on which immigrants it lets in, and was even before Howard became PM - it won’t let anyone in, however skilled, if they have a disabled dependant, for example.
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