SENATOR THE HON KRISTINA KENEALLY
DEPUTY LABOR LEADER IN THE SENATE
SHADOW MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS
SHADOW MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP
SENATOR FOR NEW SOUTH WALES
STOP THE PRESS: GOVERNMENT REPORT SAYS GOVERNMENT NOT IN CRISIS
If Australia’s current and real border security crisis wasn’t so serious, this morning’s report in The Australian where the Government gives itself a clean bill of health would almost be amusing.
The issue of airplane people claiming asylum and being exploited here in Australia is real.
As confirmed by ABC Fact Check last week, 100,000 people have arrived into Australia by airplane to deliberately attempt to “game” Peter Dutton’s go-slow asylum claim system so they can work in Australia and send their wages back home.
90 per cent of these individuals are found not to be genuine refugees but can stay in Australia for upwards of four or even five years, working in exploited conditions.
Peter Dutton admitted for the first time that this loophole has emerged on his watch in a train wreck interview with David Speers last night.
“There are some people who will come from Malaysia… they will embroil themselves in the legal process, so they will go to the AAT not with any prospect of a successful outcome, but they will get another two or three years.” – Peter Dutton, Sky News, 22 October 2019.
What Peter Dutton won’t admit, is too often these people are trafficked to and in Australia, they are exploited as they work for next to nothing. This is unacceptable.
Ultimately, this leads to Australian wages being drive down, making it harder for Australians to get jobs whilst allowing vulnerable people to continue to be exploited in slave-like conditions.
Don’t take my word for it. Government MPs, Australia’s leading border security and industry experts who have spent considerable time examining this complex issue, and even the United Nations have also expressed their deep concerns.
“Organised crime and illegitimate labour hire companies are using this loophole to bring out illegal workers who are often vulnerable and open to exploitation. This represents an orchestrated scam that enables these criminal elements to exploit foreign workers in Australia until their claims are finalised,” – Assistant Minister for Customs, Community Safety and Multicultural Affairs, Liberal MP Jason Wood.
“What I want to be clear on also is that, in terms of national security threats, is organized crime are indeed facilitating unlawful migration on a fee-for-service basis, using methodologies from fake identity documents, to gaming Australia's visa system. Australia's border security arrangements are being exploited, and individuals who have not been appropriately identified are at times entering the country.” – John Coyne, Director of Border Security, Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
“We're talking about people who are potentially asylum seekers or getting through the system in other ways… we're seeing so much exploitation coming out of our (horticulture) industry. It just undermines our clean, green, safe, ethical (horticulture) industry that we are, and that we aim to be.” – Emma Germano, Horticulture President, Victorian Farmers Federation.
“The smuggling of migrants by air is sustained by a large black market of false identity documents that generates millions of dollars in profits for criminal organizations.” – United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime.
Even the United States State Department have said Australia needs to increase its focus on labour trafficking and “strengthen efforts to proactively identify trafficking victims among vulnerable groups, such as undocumented migrants and agricultural workers.”
The Department of Home Affairs are the only people who have said Medevac should be repealed and now they’re the only people who are saying Peter Dutton hasn’t lost control of our borders.
It’s time for Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton to admit the 100,000 airplane people who have found their way into Australia during their tired, third term Government are being exploited, are taking jobs away from Australians, and are suppressing wages right when too many Australians already can’t make ends meet.
