Australian values are under threat from ethnic segregation, Citizenship Minister Alan Tudge warns

21/7/2018

(Translated and Edited by the M. E. Times Int'l)

Sydney -M E Times Int'l: Citizenship Minister Alan Tudge is pushing for migrants to sit an Australian “values” test before being granted permanent residency.

Speaking in London overnight, he argued the practice of granting permanent residency to about 100,000 migrants a year ¬before “ever stepping foot in Australia” needed “further consideration”, according to The Australian.

“Diversity can be great, but not when it includes those who want sharia law and will use violence to achieve their ends,” Mr Tudge told a meeting of the Australia/UK Leadership Forum.

“Tolerance is generally a good principle, but we should not be tolerant of FGM (female genital mutilation) or child marriage or women being prohibited from learning English, studying or even driving.”

Australia currently requires people to sign a values statement before entering the country, pass a citizenship test and pledge allegiance before becoming a citizen, but Mr Tudge, who is also the Multiculturalism Minister, said there was no way to test whether people understood Australian values.

He said a proposed English language skills test for those seeking permanent residency should be extended to include a “values” assessment.

“We place an emphasis on Australian values as the glue that holds the nation together,” Mr Tudge said.

“We do this through requiring people to sign a values statement before coming into Australia, satisfy a citizenship test and pledge allegiance before becoming a citizen.

“The weakness of this, however, is that we presently have few mechanisms to assess people against their signed statement.”

Mr Tudge warned Australia was veering towards a “European separatist multicultural model” and must do more to ensure the integration of migrants.

He had called for the nation to mount a “muscular” ¬defence of Western liberal values and challenge the rise of identity politics, which was legitimising “practices and behaviours which should be deemed intolerable”, reported.

“Hence, it takes years for some Western countries to even take a strong position against something as barbaric as female genital mutilation,” he said.

In his speech, Mr Tudge said we needed to pull “our ship back” to be firmly on the “Australian integrated path”.

“Some of the challenges to social cohesion that we are facing today are similar to ones that the UK is facing, such as ethnic segregation and liberal values being challenged.”

His proposal for potential changes to the vetting process comes in the wake of the Turnbull Government’s recent cuts to the annual permanent migration ¬intake from 190,000 under Labor to less than 163,000 this year.

Mr Tudge said that, having secured the nation’s borders, Australia was able to select people to enter the country “who want to become Australians, adopt our values and make a contribution to the nation”.

“We have generally done this well, through a combination of a heavy emphasis on skilled ¬migration, making up almost 70 per cent of our permanent migrant intake, and a strict vetting process,” he said.

“In half of all cases, individuals have already been in the country for several years on short-term visas before they apply for permanent residency. We know a lot about them after they have been here for a few years.

“But in the other half of cases — constituting about 100,000 people each year — they are granted full permanent residency before ever stepping foot in Australia. This is less ideal, and something that requires further consideration.”

Mr Tudge said Australians should never be complacent about social cohesion, and advocated “modest incremental policy” changes now rather than “dramatic initiatives down the track”.

“If we want Australia to continue its multicultural success, we must take active steps now to ensure that social cohesion remains strong,” he said.

Responding to Mr Tudge’s comments, shadow infrastructure minister Anthony Albanese said he found it “pretty odd” that an Australian Government minister “goes to the UK and talks our country down”.

“I’ve always talked our country up, that’s what ministers and shadow ministers do and the fact is we have an incredibly successful multicultural nation” the Labor MP said on the Today show this morning.

He pointed towards the inclusion of Sudanese Australian Majack Daw, a first generation African refugee, in the AFL as proof of Australia’s multicultural success.

“What we have in Australia, I think, is a bit of a microcosm for what the world should be: people from different religions, races and backgrounds living together overwhelmingly in harmony,” Mr Albanese said.

Community Support for Road Safety Crackdown

Sydney The NSW Government has announced new road safety measures, including an increase in demerit points from four to five for illegal mobile phone use while driving.

This follows a commitment at the launch of the Road Safety Plan 2021 in February to review penalties, develop new road safety advertising and introduce safeguards to improve driver safety in relation to alcohol and drugs, including prescription drugs.

Minister for Roads, Maritime and Freight Melinda Pavey said higher demerit points for illegal phone use will help change the way drivers act on our roads.

“We know from a recent RMS survey that 74 per cent of the community support a crackdown to illegal phone use behind the wheel. We all see it and the community has had enough,” Mrs Pavey said. 

“We have already introduced legislation to enable camera-based technology so it can be used to enforce mobile phone offences in the future, a world first.”

Changes will also be made to reduce the risk of driving while impaired by prescription drugs, including clearer guidance on when doctors should report a patient to a Driver Licensing Authority if they have concerns.

Communications will also be enhanced so drivers are aware of the risks and are reminded that driving while impaired by medicines is a serious offence.

Australia ‘in the grip of ethnic activists’, former PM Tony Abbott claims

Sydney Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he believes Australia’s immigration system is in great shape as he hosed down calls for a review of population policy.

Permanent migration is down to its lowest level in 10 years despite receiving the highest number of applications ever.

“We are able to be very picky about who comes to Australia as permanent migrants. And that’s our right, it’s our country,” Mr Turnbull told reporters.

The recent cutbacks appeared to be a hit with voters.

A special Newspoll conducted by The Australian revealed 72 per cent of voters support Mr Turnbull scaling back the nation’s permanent migration intake.

“We had more applications than ever so how did we achieve that? By being absolutely more fastidious and more scrupulous in ensuring that everyone who comes here is needed and is somebody we want,” Mr Turnbull said.

But Labor leader Bill Shorten said 1.6 million people were in Australia on temporary visas filling skill shortages.

Mr Turnbull said immigration policy had to be managed to ensure the economy was not being let down by a lack of workers.

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott also weighed in on the debate on 2GB earlier this morning and said the government still needed to “get immigration significantly down”.

“We don’t need to be bringing in a city the size of Canberra every few years through immigration alone,” Mr Abbott said.

The former PM also said the Labor Party was in the “grip of ethnic activists”.

“So good on Peter Dutton for administering the system in such a way that we’ve had a modest reduction in the permanent migration numbers,” Mr Abbott told 2GB.

Can't pretend no Sudanese gangs: Turnbull

Melbourne: Melbourne can't pretend "Sudanese gangs" don't exist and authorities need to be fair dinkum about dealing with them, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says.

Victoria Police has downplayed concerns about alleged "gangs" of African Australian youths, but has also acknowledged there was a small group of core offenders causing trouble.

"The fact is there is a gang issue here and you are not going to make it go away by pretending it doesn't exist," Mr Turnbull told reporters in Melbourne on Tuesday.

"At some point you have to be fair dinkum and you have to acknowledge that there is a concern, people are concerned about it."

Community leaders have said comments about "gangs" have led to racism and harassment against African Australians in Melbourne.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton sparked ridicule in January when he said people were scared to go out for dinner in Melbourne due to "African gang violence".

NSW, Qld keep economy ticking

Sydney: Malcolm Turnbull has lauded Australia's strongest jobs growth since 2005.

A jobs boom in NSW and Queensland helped drive the unemployment rate to its equal lowest in six years, while the 339,000 jobs created in 2017-18 is the best annual figure since 2004-05.

The unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.4 per cent in June, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, with 50,900 net new jobs added in the month but more people seeking work.

"We are seeing a real rise in confidence and investment and in jobs growth across the country," Mr Turnbull said in Sydney on Thursday.

The prime minister who noted the improvement in Queensland and Tasmania, where the coalition is seeking to unseat Labor in two of five by-elections on July 28.

"What we are seeing is the consequence of an economic plan that encourages businesses to invest," he said.

The largest jobs increase was in NSW (up 27,300) and Queensland (up 14,800), while Victoria was the only state to suffer a fall in jobs (down 6600).

Treasurer Scott Morrison said he was encouraged by the rising participation rate, which at 65.7 per cent was 0.1 percentage points short of the record.

Rental vacancies in Sydney hit record high, rents likely to keep slipping

Sydney: Sydney renters have the greatest choice in at least 13 years, with vacancy rates at the highest level on records that go back to 2005.

Property analysis firm SQM Research compiles monthly rental vacancy figures, which show 2.8 per cent of Sydney's rental properties were sitting empty in June.

That is up from 2.5 per cent in May and is the highest level since SQM started recording the data in 2005.