On a day when dunce Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews should be answering questions about 4 Corners’ Liz Jackson interview with Dr Haneef, he instead throws up a despicable wedge.
Citing the bashing murder of 18 year-old Sudanese boy, Liep Gony in Noble Park, Andrews
back-announces a cutback in immigration from war torn African countries because…wait for it…
"Some groups don’t seem to be settling and adjusting into the Australian way of life."
"I have been concerned that some groups don't seem to be settling and adjusting into the Australian way of life as quickly as we would hope and therefore it makes sense to put the extra money in to provide extra resources, but also to slow down the rate of intake from countries such as Sudan."
But Andrews' stupidity and desperation gets worse.
The alleged attackers were not African.
Two Noble Park men, David Rintoull, 22, and Dylan Sabatino, 19 have been charged with Gony's murder. A girl, 17, is facing other charges.
For this it’s simple. Andrews must now resign from public life.
Not just him. His spokeswoman connected the attack and her department’s plans to cutback on taking in Sudanese just doesn’t get it. From the
Herald Sun:
"It's more anecdotal (evidence)," she said, citing media reports of some serious crimes involving Sudanese. "A lot of people from African regions need extensive trauma and torture counselling."
No shit. That is your department’s responsibility, not reason to hit them some more. And it's a tough but ultimately worthwhile gig. Just listen to the
incredible Late Night Live interview with ex-child Sierra Leone soldier, Ishmael Beah and you'll start to get a tiny idea of how hard it is on children who've grown up with war and how difficult their recuperation can be.
Phong Nguyen, chairman of Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria has it nailed, making the point to
The Age that any refugee programs should be based on need and that,
"Selecting refugees on perceptions of their capacity to integrate borders on racism."
"It is simply inhumane for the Australian government to close the door on these people based on perceptions that some African refugees are not integrating into the Australian community," "As with all refugees, their initial settlement period will face challenges and the Australian African community is currently facing discrimination and racism."
Violence in Noble Park isn't new.
I know the place well.
My own German migrant grandparents, Oma and Opa lived there for many years. I hung out and grew up on the weekends in those streets in the 80's with Croat, Viet, Italian, Greek and German local kids and yep, some of them were thugs. There's always been bashings and stabbings there but we all mucked around together at the local pinnie joint, playing Frogger together no matter where we came from. Once we gossiped about a kid down the creek who got stabbed in the neck. Johnny and Tommy, the Crows next door knew him well, but weren't too concerned because a homemade bomb was found under their mum's car a week before.
What's the hard to make out camera photo? Something I saw a week before all this flared up. As I was already in an emotional Grand Final week state, this scene almost made me cry. A bunch of nine to eleven year-old Sudanese and Ethiopian kids on the Rathdowne Street housing commission estate playing Australian Rules football. Watched them for ten minutes and boy, they were REALLY GOOD. Drop punts, torps, baulks, marks and a cry of DIDAK!!! Watching, I felt dizzy and proud.
Bunch of despicable arse, the African kids aren't integrating.
