Rejected asylum seekers staying 'not right': O'Neil
Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil says allowing asylum seekers who have been rejected by immigration to remain in Australia is "not the right solution", despite thousands continuing to live and work in the country undocumented.Ms O'Neil's National Press Club address on Thursday put a spotlight on the number of undocumented people living and working in Australia after she blasted the former government for passing almost one million unprocessed visas over to Labor.
Questioned by RN Breakfast as to what the government's plan is to address the
70,000 people working illegally in Australia, Ms O'Neil said awarding them permanent residency was not on the agenda."I don't think that's the right solution for this group of people," she said.
Ms O'Neil said the former government had left immigration in "an absolute mess", arguing that Australia has "actively avoided" dealing with the issue.
"We’ve got something we’ve actively avoided as a country, which is a group of undocumented workers who are vulnerable to exploitation," she said.
"We're not a country where you can just arrive without any reason to be here and stay permanently."
"If people are not refugees they're not owed permanent protection, we do need to provide a pathway for them to go back home."
Ms O'Neil said she was "very worried" about undocumented workers having an effect on wages, saying she is "pretty bloody annoyed" at the former government.
"Peter Dutton, while he was immigrration minister, who spent all his time striding around the country telling us what a tough guy he was on borders, and all the while, under his nose, this has been described as the biggest trafficking scam in Australian history," she said.
"Every rock I look under there is a mess there for me to clean up and we are working through them bit by bit."
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/politicsnow-tanya-pliberseks-gr...I wonder what solution Labor will come up with to sort out the mess left by the previous Labor Lite government.
Will they have balls to deport them?
By way of comparison:
Bundaberg 70,826
Bunbury 68,248
Maitland 67,132
Rockhampton 61,724
Adelaide Hills 60,394
Melbourne City Centre 60,057
Hervey Bay 52,230
Reservoir 50,092
Craigieburn 50,069
Point Cook 49,436
Tamworth 47,597
Berwick 47,074
Blacktown 46,942
Pakenham 45,895
Port Macquarie 45,692
Glen Waverley 40,238
Werribee 40,143
Dubbo 39,863
Castle Hill 39,284
Orange 38,408