Asylum seekers riot in Australia – Al Jazeera — The Labor government here is in a bit of a pickle after largely dismantling the hard line refugee policies of the previous conservative Howard government and now seeing a large increase in refugee numbers. Christmas Island is a detention centre favoured by the current government as a site for holding and processing refugees caught on boats in the region. It is 2600 miles north west of Perth.
In the Christmas Island riots on Saturday, about 150 detainees are believed to have used billiard cues, tree branches and broom handles in brawls that left 37 people requiring medical treatment, including some guards trying to break up the fighting.
Australian police and the immigration department are investigating the incident, but Chris Evans, the Australian immigration minister, rejected suggestions the brawl was caused by tensions arising from overcrowding.
Evans, who said those believed to have been behind the brawl had been placed in “stronger” detention, played down the incident and blamed anxiety caused by the repatriation of some Sri Lankans for the violence.
“We’ve had some people removed back to Sri Lanka found not be refugees,” he told ABC Radio on Monday.
“Essentially we’ve had a fight between some detainees which got out of hand.”
The rioting comes as Australia is seeing the biggest stream of asylum seekers in seven years, a surge the government blames on the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the end of Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war.
I still have to recognize that many liberal social policies taken to their logical extreme or their maximum utilization are all too often UNREALISTIC===given all too many recipients of the support are not liberal and would take advantage of it.
Labor. You would think here it should be “labour” but it isn’t.
The ALP adopted the formal name “Australian Labour Party” in 1908, but changed the spelling to “Labor” in 1912. While it is standard practice in Australian English both today and at the time to spell the word labour with a “u”, the party was influenced by the United States labor movement and a prominent figure in the early history of the party, the North American–born King O’Malley, was successful in having the spelling “modernised”.
Yeah the Prime Minister was asked about this in question time today.
Opposition trying to argue he’s to blame for too many asylum seekers, and the detention centre being at capacity.
#1, what do you mean by liberal. In Australia the conservative party is called the liberal party. Because what they really mean, is free market liberalism.
#3–Morn==this time I meant liberal as in providing social safety net services to all those in need.
#4 oh, so liberal=communist ? (Doesn’t everyone “need” something? I need a Porsche and 150″ flat screen TV.)
Trouble with your needs is you lack a mask for your face. Only if you are so far out you are afraid someone will know it’s you, are your needs recognized today. Helps if your carrying an AK47 of course.
I call bullshit on two statements in the preamble of this story. “largely dismantling the hardline refugee policies” is patently false as both the extensive mandatory detention, the deletion of places like Christmas island from the “immigration zone” and the offshore detention centres are all very much in place. What laws were relaxed? Also that there is no increase in the number of boat people. The average number of people that come here on illegal boat shipments is 2000 a year. Very small compared to the 20000 a year that fly here on a tourist visa and never leave.
And Bobbo you can be proved full of it this time. Australia is a long way from being socialist. We do however have:
- A public hospital system which ensures no-one pays for any emergency health care, and if you are on a below average income you pay for no health services.
- an extensive social security safety net that has many restriction but can be indefinite
- A relatively highly regulated banking system
- Government funded kindergartens
- Government funded primary and secondary education
Yet, I pay less aggregate tax than someone in California does, the Aussie economy is one of the few not in the poo (all 4 of our major banks recorded profits during the GFC), and has weathered many downturns that have dramatically effected the US, and our debt is approaching 20% of GDP rather than the 100% that the US is approaching.
Cognitive dissonance must be a wonderful thing.
#5–Chuck==don’t be so simple minded.
#7–Matt==my comment was stimulated by this post about Australia but actually stands totally independent from it. I only illustrate a UNIVERSAL DILEMMA. How do you show charity to your fellow man, as in allowing immigration for humanitarian reasons, and then limit the numbers allowed to use that resource.
Its a problem for thinking people.
#7
You’re correct, but it should be noted that USA spends 4% of their GDP on the military, and Australia spends 2.4%.
So US might have similar or higher taxes, but spends less on social services and more on military.
However, I would also note that the Australian welfare system is highly efficient. It does not cut people off after a time, but it rather has strong tests on incomes and assets. People with higher than average wealth, do not get unemployment checks. And get charged an extra tax to use the public health system, unless they use private insurance. 44% of Aussies use the private medical system.