Multiculturalism and defence: PM Malcolm Turnbull on Australia’s Second Chance

2015/11/26 Leave a comment

Quite a shift in tone from former PM Abbott:

Malcolm Turnbull today hailed the Aussie lack of “dangerous” deference as he strengthened his support for multiculturalism.

The Prime Minister said ethnic diversity and our egalitarian culture were treasured assets.

Our greatest economic power didn’t come from “the rocks under the ground but the people who walk on top of them”, said Mr Turnbull.

He was defying right-wing elements of the Liberal Party who have attacked multiculturalism following terrorism strikes overseas, and the decision to take in 12,000 Syrian refugees.

“Deference is very dangerous,” Mr Turnbull said launching the book Australia’s Second Chance by George Megalogenis.

“We should always be courteous, but deference overdone can mean death.

“What it means is you are not prepared to say to the boss, ‘Hey, the way we are doing things doesn’t work anymore. We’ve got to change.’ We’ve always got to be open to new ideas.”

Mr Turnbull said “openness to the world” was a theme of the book, which plots Australia’s economic performance and finds Australia boomed when migration was encouraged, and struggled when the welcome was withdrawn.

He praised Liberal Party founder Sir Robert Menzies and the party itself for sticking to “a commitment to a multicultural Australia” at the 1961 election when Labor was promising to cut the immigration flow.

“That openness and multiculturalism, based on mutual respect, is what has defined most of the most successful societies in the world,” said the Prime Minister.

“And this multicultural Australia is a remarkable achievement we should treasure and hold dear.”

Source: Multiculturalism and defence: Malcolm Turnbull on Australia’s Second Chance | Book launch

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PM Tony Abbott Denies Australia Will Sell Citizenship, Reiterates Refusal Of Asylum

2015/05/06 Leave a comment

Not surprising as this goes so much against the grain of Australian immigration and citizenship policy, not to mention identity. Australia is not Malta which does sell citizenship (Malta Offers Citizenship and All Its Perks for a Price).

Hard to know what members of the Productivity Commission were thinking when they proposed this bone-headed scheme:

Prime Minister Tony Abbott denied allegation on Monday, May 4 that the government’s inquiry on immigration system would mean his administration is selling citizenship in a bid to cut down on budget deficit and close down its door to asylum seekers.

Mr Abbott said in a press conference that his government’s request was for Productivity Commission to review proposals in amending the immigration system. But in doing so, Mr Abbott insisted the commission should take into consideration different perspectives and the commission’s statement to make immigration a finance-focused system is unlikely because the coalition government would not allow migrants to earn their permanent residency visas simply by paying entry fees.

The prime minister argued that Australia’s immigration policy is unequivocally and justly based on the country’s best values and interests and as such, Mr Abbott assured the public the policy will remain as it is.

Productivity Commission announced on Friday, May 1 the Australian government is contemplating on adopting a radical system of immigration that centres on the applicant’s financial capacity. At the present, Australia looks at the applicants’ family connection and the nature and level of their skills in allowing access.

The commission contended that should Australia adopt a price-based immigration policy, it will earn several billions which can help curb the country’s budget deficit. In addition, the scheme will also slash down the number of employees involved in the immigration system.

PM Tony Abbott Denies Australia Will Sell Citizenship, Reiterates Refusal Of Asylum.

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National security: Australian PM Abbott would revoke citizenship as part of extremism fight

2015/02/24 1 Comment

Out of the Harper playbook, down to the flags and the event being outside of Parliament:

The prime minister chose to deliver his long-awaited national security address at an event at the Australian federal police (AFP) headquarters in Canberra, rather than to parliament.

Standing in front of six Australian flags, Abbott said the case of Man Haron Monis – the gunman involved in the fatal Martin Place siege in Sydney in December – showed how the country had been too willing to give “those who might be a threat to our country the benefit of the doubt”.

“There is always a trade-off between the rights of an individual and the safety of the community,” he said. “We will never sacrifice our freedoms in order to defend them but we will not let our enemies exploit our decency either.

“If immigration and border protection faces a choice to let in or keep out people with security questions over them – we should choose to keep them out.

“If there is a choice between latitude for suspects or more powers to police and security agencies – more often, we should choose to support our agencies. And if we can stop hate preachers from grooming gullible young people for terrorism, we should.”

Abbott made some broader comments about immigrants, saying he had “spent many hours listening to Australians from all walks of life” and they were “angry because all too often the threat comes from someone who has enjoyed the hospitality and generosity of the Australian people”.

Australia was a country built on immigration and was “much the richer for it”, he said, but citizenship was “an extraordinary privilege that should involve a solemn and lifelong commitment to Australia”.

“People who come to this country are free to live as they choose – provided they don’t steal that same freedom from others,” he said.

“Those who come here must be as open and accepting of their adopted country as we are of them. Those who live here must be as tolerant of others as we are of them.

“No one should live in our country while denying our values and rejecting the very idea of a free and open society.”

And the following comment, playing to the gallery, as Harper’s use of the niqab issue, basically accusing Muslim leaders, with whom Australian police and security agencies are likely working with to reduce the risk of radicalization, of bad faith:

“I’ve often heard western leaders describe Islam as a ‘religion of peace’,” Abbott said. “I wish more Muslim leaders would say that more often, and mean it.”

National security: Abbott would revoke citizenship as part of extremism fight | Australia news | The Guardian.

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Tony Abbott tells Sydney Islamic protesters to ‘lighten up’

2015/01/26 Leave a comment

I think Abbott has a point:

The group, Hizb ut-Tahrir, planned to rally in south-west Sydney on Friday evening against the kind of images that proliferated in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo killings.

Abbott told 2GB he hoped there would be only a few protesters.

“Frankly I don’t think any of us really want to be in the business of insulting anyone, but on the other hand we all believe in free speech, and I have to say some people are a bit thin-skinned about free speech,” he said.

“I just hope the organisers of this protest lighten up a bit, and accept that in our robust democracy, a lot of people say a lot of things, and sometimes it’s right, sometimes it’s wrong, and we just have to accept the rough and the smooth together.”

A spokesman for Hizb ut-Tahrir likened Abbott’s comments to being asked to “discard the sacredness of our values”.

“It’s quite disingenuous to suggest a people, ie Muslims, lighten up over something that is provocative and quite derogatory to their core values and beliefs, the centre of which is obviously the prophet Muhammad,” he said.

Tony Abbott tells Sydney Islamic protesters to ‘lighten up’ | Australia news | theguardian.com.

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Australia’s Parliament House Lifts Face Veil Ban – NYTimes.com

2014/10/21 Leave a comment

Update on earlier story and follow-up to PM Abbott’s expression that ban was wrong:

The announcement was made a few hours before the end of the final sitting day of Parliaments last two-week session and had no practical effect.

Hours before Parliament was to resume on Monday, the Department of Parliamentary Services, or DPS, said in a statement that people wearing face coverings would again be allowed in all public areas of Parliament House.

It said face coverings would have to be removed temporarily at the security check point at the front door so that staff could “identify any person who may have been banned from entering Parliament House or who may be known, or discovered, to be a security risk.”

“Procedures are still in place to ensure that DPS security manage these procedures in a sensitive and appropriate manner,” the statement said without elaborating.

The ban on face veils in the public galleries had been widely condemned as a segregation of Muslim women and a potential breach of federal anti-discrimination law.

Australia’s Parliament House Lifts Face Veil Ban – NYTimes.com.

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Australian PM orders crackdown on visas for radical Islamist preachers

2014/10/09 Leave a comment

Hard to argue against the obvious cases but expect some controversy or debate over borderline or less clear cases, and whether this will only be applied to radical Islamists or more broadly:

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Wednesday that he was ordering a crackdown to prevent radical Islamist preachers entering the country, amidst rising tension with the Muslim community following a series of security-related raids.

Abbott, who recently warned that the balance between freedom and security “may have to shift” to protect against radicalized Muslims seeking to carry out attacks, said hate preachers would now be “red-carded” during the visa process.

The tougher new system, which he said would not require new legislation, comes on the heels of a public meeting in Sydney last week by Hizb ut-Tahrir, an international group that says its goal is to establish a pan-national Muslim state.

Conservative commentators have seized on the speech to urge greater restrictions on radical preachers.

“What we want to do is to ensure that known preachers of hate do not come to this country to peddle their divisive extremist message,” Abbott told reporters in Sydney.

“What I’m doing is declaring that we will henceforth have a new system in place which will ensure that preachers of hate can’t come to Australia to peddle their extreme, divisive and alien ideologies.”

Australian PM orders crackdown on visas for radical Islamist preachers – The Globe and Mail.

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Australian PM warns of strict penalties for returning extremists

2014/09/24 Leave a comment

Interesting that the Australian PM made no mention of revoking Australian citizenship. Just punishment in Australian jails, despite earlier signs the Australian government was considering revocation (George Brandis won’t say if Australians fighting in Syria will lose citizenship):

“If you fight with a terrorist group, if you seek to return to this country, as far as this government is concerned, you will be arrested, you will be prosecuted and you will be jailed for a very long time indeed,” Abbott told Parliament.

At least 60 Australians were fighting in Iraq and Syria with Islamic State and another al-Qaida offshoot, Jabhat al-Nursa, also known as the Nusra Front, the prime minister said.

He revealed that more than 60 Australian would-be fighters had had their passports cancelled on secret service advice to prevent them from flying to the Mideast.

Dozens of suspected fighters have already returned to Australia from the battlefields. Security agencies fear that they now pose a domestic terrorist threat.

Australian PM warns of strict penalties for returning extremists.

Unlike Canadian Minister Alexander, who declined to provide numbers on the number of Canadian passports cancelled, PM Abbott was open – 60 passports cancelled:

Outside the Commons, Alexander cited privacy and security concerns for his refusal to release numbers.

“It’s an administrative issue, it’s an operational issue,” he said in response to questions from reporters after question period.

“There are privacy considerations. We will not be saying how many have been revoked … but we have the power to do that.”

Despite a barrage of follow-up questions, Alexander held his ground and denied that he was “afraid” to give a number.

“We will uphold a longstanding practice, which is not to go into the details of operational national security matters,” he insisted.

“That’s absolutely reasonable.”

But Australia’s definition of “reasonable” in disclosing the numbers strikes me as more reasonable:

Revoking ISIS passports: Government refuses to disclose numbers

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Show us your citizenship: why the Tony Abbott birthers want to believe | Cam Smith

2014/09/10 Leave a comment

Australian left-wing conspiracy theories, just as nutty on the left and the US “birthers” on the right vis-a-vis Obama:

Why are people so willing to believe this stuff? Like the Obama birth certificate crowd, the idea that a hated politician can be brought undone without going through all the rigmarole of building a true political alternative is attractive. The proposition of Abbott facing karmic justice for the harsh nature of his government’s policies only adds to that attraction.

What is largely forgotten in the excitement is that this sort of thing can easily go both ways. If Abbott could be bundled off to the slammer for defrauding the Commonwealth in this way, why not honorary Israeli citizen Bob Hawke, or any other of the many MPs who have knowingly or unknowingly entered parliament as dual citizens over the decades.

Jello Biafra once gave some excellent advice: it’s possible to mix arthritis cream with hallucinogens and spread the resulting mixture on the doorhandles of police cars in order to dose the occupants.

He also gave some more relevant advice in 2012, at the Melbourne Festival. Appearing on a panel with The Church singer Steve Kilbey, Biafra said that rather than getting distracted by conspiracy theories about things that you couldn’t possibly hope to change, even if they were true, your time is better served by working towards more practical political goals.

Show us your citizenship: why the Tony Abbott birthers want to believe | Cam Smith | Comment is free | theguardian.com.

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