Ashmore Reef

The media froth and bubble over recent asylum seekers arriving by boat near Ashmore Reef mid ocean between Timor and the west Kimberley coast pales in comparison with the daily arrivals at Kingsford Smith Airport in the middle of Sydney.

The Australian newspaper on 2nd November 2009, tallied the total number of Christmas Island detainees at 1165.
Given the genocidal situation caused to the Tamils in Sri Lanka, that number is miniscule to what it could be.

Australia stood back while the Tamils were being slaughtered, when it could have as a joint member of the Commonwealth, like Sri Lanka , got involved in the humanitarian crisis there years ago. What is the point of having a Commonwealth of Nations when at time sof crisis with one of its members, the others turn a bilind eye. Regional Indian Ocean members Australia, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Mauritius, Pakistan, Seychelles and Singapore - what did they do to help Sri Lanka resolve the Tamil conflict by diplomacy? Nothing? Sat back and turned a blind eye to Rajapaksa's Sinhalese government inflicting genocide on ethnic Tamils?

Now, Australia claims it has an asylum seeker problem, mainly from Sri Lanka, but also from Afghanistan and Iraq.
Pull the other one! According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees [UNHCR] in March 2009, estimates of the number of asylum seekers in industrialised countries increased by 12 per cent in 2008 to 383,000. In 2007 the figure was 341,000. Of those, just 4,750 people sought asylum in Australia in 2008, compared to 3,980 people in 2007. Now we have just 1165 on Christmas Island, or 0.3% of the global asylum problem.

I agree with the Australian Human Rights Commission that Australia has obligations to protect the human rights of all asylum seekers and refugees who arrive in Australia, regardless of how or where they arrive, and whether they arrive with or without a visa." Refugees in this small number don't even show on the radar of Australia's immigration problem. If the number was up about 5000 a year the issue would deserve closer scrutiny and policy review.

It is about time the Australian media frenzy over asylum seekers was exposed for what it is - racist incitement!

Whereas in fact, the Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS] has confirmed net migration into Australia for 2008-09 was 283,300. That is 776 new immigrants per day and most arrive into Sydney by plane. This is where the media should have their cameras - at Kingsford Smith Airport's International Arrivals gate on the ground floor. Again the issue has nothing to do with race, ethnicity or difference, but simply the sheer numbers arriving by the plane load daily.

This time last year, in December 2008, "the estimated population for Australia was 21.64 million - this represented an annual increase of 406 100 people (comprising the excess of births over deaths plus net overseas migration) and a population growth rate of 1.91 percent. This population growth rate was the highest since 1988."

Australia's Migration Programme

Why so high? Well, successive Liberal and Labor governments have persisted with a 'Migration Programme'. The planning level under the Migration Programme for 2009–10 is 168 700. It was originally going to be 190,300, but was adjusted down due to the Global Financial Crisis. 64% of that programme focuses on what the government calls 'The Skill Stream'

This Australian Government Skills Stream is killing off Australian jobs. It needs to be scrapped immediately. A skills audit needs to be conducted across Australian industry and the results channelled into the education and training sector to deliver appropriately skilled Australians into these skill shortfall areas. If there is a time lag, let's learn from why education has failed to deliver and fix the disconnnect.

Compare the 'Skill Stream' of 2007-08 to what it was in 1997-98:
'PERMANENT VISA OUTCOMES: 1997-98 to 2007-08'

So instead of the government investing in education and training to skill up Australians to meet skills needs, it invites immigrants to fill the skills shortages. It's a form of scab labour. What happened to Rudd & Gillard's 'Education Revolution'?

The Flood of Overseas Students

The Skilled– Overseas Student visa (permanent residence) is effectively an invitation to overseas students to come to Australia replacing local students in education and then displace local Australians in the workplace.
Since, the 1990s, Australian governments have deliberately reduced university funding. This has forced universities to seek alternative funding sources, most notably from overseas students required to pay full-tuition. Consequently, there has been a flood of overseas students driven both by education demand and massive international promotion by all Australian universities to the target countries. Not surprisingly, Australia has seen a considerable growth in the number of overseas students.

Way back in 1996, Ian Dobson from Monash University in his paper 'Overseas Students in Australian Higher Education: Trends to 1996' reported a 153% increase in overseas students in Australian higher education from 21,010 in 1989 to 53,188 in 1996. The Australian newspaper on 26th February 2009 reported the number in 2008 was a staggering 543,898. So on the 1989 base year, this represents a 2589% increase!

In the article 'Overseas student enrolments in Australia at record high' Federal Education Minister, Julia Gillard was happy with what's seen as 'international education' contributing $14.2 billion to Australia's economy in 2007-08, making it Australia's third-largest export behind coal and iron ore and "the rise in student enrolments from Asia - up 21.5 per cent - was recognition of Australia's ongoing relationship with its Asian neighbours and the strong awareness of Australia as a quality education destination."

Australia's Unemployment

Then we read today, the ABS announced Australia's Unemployment rate (seasonally adjusted) for November 2009 was 5.7%. This translates to 659,400 Australians that are unemployed.

People Dumping

Immigration is importing people and when it is on such a massive scale it is 'people dumping' just like import dumping of imported products on local markets. Australia needs to recognise, that it has local values to protect. Anti-dumping duties on low cost imports are imposed to fair up the pricing to protect local industries. In respect to Australian people and local jobs, displacing locals for overseas skilled labour is 'people dumping'.

I am convinced that Kevin Rudd is anti-Australian.