[SOURCE]
Some years ago the Australian Government, lead by John Howard, passed a law that saw we, the Australian people, bill asylum seekers.
When applying for and being successful in obtaining a temporary visa, or even a permanent residency, asylum seekers would find themselves suddenly lumbered with a huge bill. We were billing them for their accommodation, food, you know, all that stuff that it costs us to keep them locked up. It’s never clear whether or not they understood the costs before being whisked away to some off shore processing centre.
Today the laws were repealed. It was a very good thing.
It just goes to show how stupid the previous government was. Imagine arriving in Australia, running away from some horrible situation, having nothing but the clothes on you, thinking you’re heading to somewhere nice, spending years trying to prove your case and then when you finally are granted asylum you’re hit with a huge bill covering all the expenses. What crap.
Still, we have a long way to go on this. Asylum seekers are still demonised when arriving on our shores. I was surprised to find out that less than ten percent of asylum seekers arrive by boat. The way the media plays it up, I was thinking it was the only way that they arrived here. However, it seems that most arrive by aeroplane. [SOURCE] Do you know what we do with them then? We fly them some 3,000km to Christmas Island to ‘process’ them. How crazy is that shit.
We’re very lucky here in Australia. It’s a good life, we have a shit load of land and space, we are well fed and watered and we make it so difficult for others to come and join the fun. Just a tad selfish.
It was good to see one of the Liberal senators cross the floor to vote with the government on this one. This Llama waves his willy at Senator Troeth, although she probably doesn’t want to look.