Democrats Immigration spokesperson, Senator Andrew Bartlett, says the Governments announcement that they are keeping the refugee and humanitarian intake for next year at the same number is filled with the same propaganda and half-truths that created the culture problem in the Immigration Department.
Even when the Government is announcing something positive such as taking in refugees, they still cant stop themselves making toxic, ill-informed attacks on other refugees, said Senator Bartlett.
The Minister is still peddling the despicable and divisive myth that only people handpicked by the Government are genuine refugees, and uses the dishonest, inflammatory term illegal boat arrivals to attack other refugees, when she knows full well seeking asylum is not illegal.
The Minister also repeats the misleading assertion that Australia is the third largest taker of refugees in the world, when the facts show that many other countries receive far more refugees than Australia year after year."
The disgraceful ban on family reunion placed on refugees on temporary visas has created a destructive backlog of thousands of refugees denied access to their spouses and children for years on end.
Our official humanitarian intake must be increased to fix this socially destructive situation which has been created by the Government.
Senator Bartlett also said cracks were starting to appear in the resettlement assistance provided to many of these refugees.
Assistance must be tailored to the specific needs of the people we bring here, otherwise we are making it harder for them to integrate effectively in our community, which is to the disadvantage of us all, concluded Senator Bartlett.
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