Australian opposition vows to cut immigration

[General Veers]

Australian opposition vows to cut immigration

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By ROD McGUIRK,
Associated Press Writer</cite> - <abbr class="timedate" title="Sunday, July 25">Sunday, July 25</abbr>

Mr Hockey said Australia's current intake of nearly 300,000 immigrants a year was not sustainable. -- PHOTO: AFP

CANBERRA, Australia – Australia's main opposition party vowed Sunday to cut the number of immigrants allowed into the country if it wins next month's elections. Australia's rapid population growth and an increase in asylum seekers, mainly from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, have become major issues ahead of the Aug. 21 elections. Critics argue that the major parties are developing immigration policies that pander to racism within Australia's predominantly Christian society _ claims the parties deny.

Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey, a member of the Liberal Party and the son of Lebanese immigrants, said Australia's current intake of nearly 300,000 immigrants a year was not sustainable. His party said it would cut that number to 170,000. "The Australian people are concerned about the lack of integrity in the immigration program at the moment," Hockey told Nine Network television. "We are responding accordingly; our number will take us back to a reasonable level."

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong, a member of the ruling Labor Party whose father is Malaysian, said her party's immigration plan would be based on existing population trends that would most likely see the number of immigrants decrease to 175,000 in the current fiscal year and to 145,000 in 2011-12. "It's not really a policy, it's a projection," she told Network Ten television. In a bid to quiet critics who say the party is pandering to racism in the country, the Liberal Party announced it was dropping a candidate in Sydney who had attacked his opponent over his religion in Facebook postings.

David Barker wrote on his Facebook page that Labor during its three years in power had brought Australia "closer to the hands of a Muslim country," The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported. He had criticized his opponent Ed Husic as a "strong Muslim." Barker also said God was "on the side of the Liberal Right," referring to the most conservative faction of the party, the newspaper reported. The postings have since been removed.

Hockey said Barker would lose his party endorsement over his comments. "Our concern with Mr. Baker is what he said about his opponent and trying to use religion as some sort of tool in the election campaign," Hockey said. Neither Barker nor Husic could be immediately contacted for comment on Sunday. Most opinion polls are predicting that Labor _ led by new Prime Minister Julia Gillard _ will be returned for a second, three-year term at the next election.

 

[Dinkley]

What the opposition say does make sense. A lot of migrants in Australia often hang out within their own ethnic groups only, not bothering to break out and integrate with the Aussies. Same for Singaporeans, only mix with their own kind and not willing to reach out to the locals there. The often-cited excuse is "racism" but it has been proven from testimonies that racism in Australia is rather controlled and limited to drunkards and hillbillies. Most Aussies are quite accepting of other races, so long the migrants bother to integrate.

 

[Teo Kok Eng]

300,000 not sustainable, our Old Fark bring in 400,000 neh neh and still want to bring in more..

 

[Ash007]

It has already dropped to 170 000. The 300 000 figure was quoted before the current government changed its policy. This was significant after labour stopped migration for hairdressers and cooks. A lot of "private" colleges closed down after that as lesser "students" could migrate now.

 

[IWC2006]

What the opposition say does make sense. A lot of migrants in Australia often hang out within their own ethnic groups only, not bothering to break out and integrate with the Aussies. Same for Singaporeans, only mix with their own kind and not willing to reach out to the locals there. The often-cited excuse is "racism" but it has been proven from testimonies that racism in Australia is rather controlled and limited to drunkards and hillbillies. Most Aussies are quite accepting of other races, so long the migrants bother to integrate.

The term 'Aussies' are no longer clear. Aussies today could be Greek-Aussie, Italian-Aussie, Armanian-Aussie, Asian-Aussie, Labanese-Aussie and many other ethic group. Even for whites, there are subcultures amongst them, i guess its hard for any ethic-group to blend in and make friends with any group. Last year i attended a pre-xmas function, all were mainly ABV aka Australian born Vietnamese, all speaking thick Aussie accents but still hang out in their own community even they were born here. Pommies also tend to hang out with their own kind. One spoke to me he find it hard to make friends with 'local Aussies'. So u would imagine for non-english speakers having to find comfort in their own community eg. russians, koreans, japs, PRCs, thais etc.

i make my circle of friends usually via workplace so they could be white-aussie , kiwis or asians as I don't distinguish them. Personally i also don't like to hang out with people who make only mix with their own ethic group. I have made some white Aussie friends when i was in sg, some are great and willing to help to be my referee even they didn't have to. Over here i find it harder other than interaction in workplace.

 

[IWC2006]

300,000 not sustainable, our Old Fark bring in 400,000 neh neh and still want to bring in more..

the difference is Spore has a vision and they implement the infrastructure based on the numbers they want to achieve hence.the MRT, housing , education expansion system. of course is a small island so no one should expect they place to get any bigger. eg. flat will get smaller, more high rise buildings etc. Most go sg to make money but not for retirement.

Oz talk talk talk no action. public transport here is at least 10 years behind, lots of patchy holes on road; just come over Sydney and see for yourself the hideous train system here. Cannot substain is bullshit and finding excuse, with such lousy public transport system of course cannot substain la, they should have had already planned ahead donkey years ago eg. subway, bullet train. the ticketing system is also laughable. London, NY, tokyo, paris , hk and even sg all have world class public transport system thus make travelling to and fro to city convienient and quick. no wonder there's not many tourists to Oz nowadays.

 

[Dinkley]

The term 'Aussies' are no longer clear. Aussies today could be Greek-Aussie, Italian-Aussie, Armanian-Aussie, Asian-Aussie, Labanese-Aussie and many other ethic group. Even for whites, there are subcultures amongst them, i guess its hard for any ethic-group to blend in and make friends with any group. Last year i attended a pre-xmas function, all were mainly ABV aka Australian born Vietnamese, all speaking thick Aussie accents but still hang out in their own community even they were born here. Pommies also tend to hang out with their own kind. One spoke to me he find it hard to make friends with 'local Aussies'. So u would imagine for non-english speakers having to find comfort in their own community eg. russians, koreans, japs, PRCs, thais etc.

i make my circle of friends usually via workplace so they could be white-aussie , kiwis or asians as I don't distinguish them. Personally i also don't like to hang out with people who make only mix with their own ethic group. I have made some white Aussie friends when i was in sg, some are great and willing to help to be my referee even they didn't have to. Over here i find it harder other than interaction in workplace.

double post. sorry.

 

[Dinkley]

The term 'Aussies' are no longer clear. Aussies today could be Greek-Aussie, Italian-Aussie, Armanian-Aussie, Asian-Aussie, Labanese-Aussie and many other ethic group. Even for whites, there are subcultures amongst them, i guess its hard for any ethic-group to blend in and make friends with any group. Last year i attended a pre-xmas function, all were mainly ABV aka Australian born Vietnamese, all speaking thick Aussie accents but still hang out in their own community even they were born here. Pommies also tend to hang out with their own kind. One spoke to me he find it hard to make friends with 'local Aussies'. So u would imagine for non-english speakers having to find comfort in their own community eg. russians, koreans, japs, PRCs, thais etc.

i make my circle of friends usually via workplace so they could be white-aussie , kiwis or asians as I don't distinguish them. Personally i also don't like to hang out with people who make only mix with their own ethic group. I have made some white Aussie friends when i was in sg, some are great and willing to help to be my referee even they didn't have to. Over here i find it harder other than interaction in workplace.

Most of the Vietnamese for some reasons, tend to stick to their own kind and are less sociable towards other races. That is the reason why many 'whites' dislike them. They stick to their own kind, form undesirable gangs and distribute drugs for money. Some Poms are guilty of looking down on Australians because of the undesirable ancestry (convicts).

That said, there are a few Ozzies who are quite racist and intolerant of other races but most Ozzies are accepting as long as you integrate and take in their local culture. Of course, as you have said, Ozzies are no longer purely descendants of British convicts but there are Italian-Aussie or Greek-Aussie. A famous example of an Italian-Aussie (now Italian citizen) was Christian Vieri and a famous example of a Greek-Aussie is Orianthi.

 

[QXD]

You were never a Christian to begin with. You and your false prophets and puny false god only worship materialism and the Devil.

I Christian can get PR easily or not?

 

[neddy]

the difference is Spore has a vision and they implement the infrastructure based on the numbers they want to achieve hence.the MRT, housing , education expansion system. of course is a small island so no one should expect they place to get any bigger. eg. flat will get smaller, more high rise buildings etc. Most go sg to make money but not for retirement.

Sydney has a vision too but some people say that the impotant NSW Labor is responsible for the current mess. Mebourne did a better job of managing population growth.
Still, Brisbane and Perth are getting the money for new infrastructure because of the large population growth planning.
No money is planned for Sydney ever since Bob Carr's 'Sydney is full' syndrome. And WA is not giving up GST and mining money to NSW.
Perth currently has the best planned public transportation system, consider the size of its population.

Oz talk talk talk no action. public transport here is at least 10 years behind, lots of patchy holes on road; just come over Sydney and see for yourself the hideous train system here. Cannot substain is bullshit and finding excuse, with such lousy public transport system of course cannot substain la, they should have had already planned ahead donkey years ago eg. subway, bullet train. the ticketing system is also laughable. London, NY, tokyo, paris , hk and even sg all have world class public transport system thus make travelling to and fro to city convienient and quick. no wonder there's not many tourists to Oz nowadays.

Perth has seamless travel on trains, buses and ferry. Melbourne just started theirs today. Where is Sydney's? Still locked in a lawsuit with ERG Perth over the failed ticketing project.

ERG Perth has successfully inplemented ticketing system for Hongkong and Singapore but not Sydney's simply because too many indian chiefs will not let go of their fare system.

 

[Ash007]

Sydney has been very disappointing since the Olympics. I would say all this problem with infrastructure got worst after the Olympics. Labour keeps changing their public transport policy and just pandering to the north shores instead of the inner west. There is no reason why Sydney can't have a world class infrastructure like NY or London. We are at half the density of these cities and yet we have problems in infrastructure. A lot has to do with the crap state government we have. As bad as the state opposition leader, he doesn't look very convincing in solving Sydney's problem either, I would be voting for the Liberals at the state level. Hopefully, this would give Labour a wake up call. When the hell is the state election happening?

 

[IWC2006]

Sydney has a vision too but some people say that the impotant NSW Labor is responsible for the current mess. Mebourne did a better job of managing population growth.
Still, Brisbane and Perth are getting the money for new infrastructure because of the large population growth planning.
No money is planned for Sydney ever since Bob Carr's 'Sydney is full' syndrome. And WA is not giving up GST and mining money to NSW.
Perth currently has the best planned public transportation system, consider the size of its population.


Perth has seamless travel on trains, buses and ferry. Melbourne just started theirs today. Where is Sydney's? Still locked in a lawsuit with ERG Perth over the failed ticketing project.

ERG Perth has successfully inplemented ticketing system for Hongkong and Singapore but not Sydney's simply because too many indian chiefs will not let go of their fare system.

Precisely ,NSW is still the largest state and the top choice for migrants. Its the financial capital and central of affairs, financial, media, tourism and education. Melbourne is a close second but it has a better infrastructure and transportation. Migrants move to other cities but cannot get decent jobs eventually settle in Sydney or Melb. Oversea students tend to flood these 2 cities because there's more variety of choices , better institutions and job opportunities after obtaining PR. Ask any sydneysiders no one would move to Perth unless its for mining jobs, retirement or reunite with family. Spend money in the wrong city is just plain silly unless the jobs are moving there. But, for what reason? Wealth & business go to where the population is, so its either Sydney or Melb. Many years ago, Adelaide was being promoted as the hub for telco and R&D ;enticed people migrating there but it never happened, instead, Adelaide is now renowned as the state of winery.