Chairman KRudd: tough like Aeroplane Jelly: This isn’t tough, but stupid
No “special deal”? Rudd lies
Andrew Bolt
The Tamil boat people have won:
After a month of careful negotiations, about 16 of 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers have left the Oceanic Viking and are now being transported by ferry to a port in Tanjung Pinang.
They’ve got a great deal:
The Federal Government has promised them their asylum claims will take no longer than three months to be processed. After that, they could expect to be resettled in Australia if their asylum claims are supported by the UNHCR… The Government offered quick resettlement and other benefits such as English language classes and financial assistance if the asylum seekers left the Oceanic Viking and go to the detention centre on the Indonesian Island of Bintan.
I doubt this is all they were offered, if my witness heard right.
Which makes a liar of Kevin Rudd:
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has denied that the 78 asylum seekers refusing to leave the Oceanic Viking are receiving special treatment from the Government….
Speaking from India, Mr Rudd denied the deal meant the group would be processed quicker than those being held at Christmas Island. “This is consistent with the overall approach we adopt to processing of individuals at any centre around the world,” he told Fairfax Radio…
“Any assumption that any individual so processed will automatically end up in Australia is wrong,” he said.
And a fool of Immigration Minister Chris Evans, as he tries desperately to avoid exposing Rudd’s lies – only to fail. You need extended excerpts to appreciate just how ludicrous and humiliating are Evans’ attempt to cover for Rudd’s lies:
(Sky News’ DAVID) SPEERS: Alright, but the offer that has been made to them by the Australian Government as the Prime Minister confirmed today is that they will be resettled within six to twelve weeks. Now that’s not just processed but resettled were Kevin Rudd’s words, so have you, has the Government discussed with other countries where they might be resettled or is the reality that Australia will take the bulk?
EVANS: Look the reality is that we’ve got the normal UNHCR resettlement processes. They will be assessed as to whether or not they’re refugees. Once that happens the UNHCR then if you like recommends them or refers them to settlement countries. We have traditionally taken the bulk out of Indonesia …
SPEERS: But people who are found to be refugees in Indonesia aren’t often resettled in a twelve-week, so to make this guarantee, to make this offer, there must be some sort of surety that either Australia or other countries are going to take them that quickly.
EVANS: Sure, look we’ve had discussions with other countries but we’ve been negotiating with the UNHCR and Indonesia. What we did is we put in writing, we codified what we think the arrangements that we could deliver on were…
SPEERS: So if Canada or New Zealand or other countries can’t be found within twelve weeks, if they come off the boat, Australia presumably will take them to meet that guarantee?
EVANS: Well as I say to you it will depend in part on who the UNHCR wants to refer people to… All we’ve done is lay out for them what the timeframes will be.
SPEERS: But you say the normal processes are applying here and you’re obviously keen to play down suggestions this is a special deal, but you know that people in detention in Indonesia don’t get processed usually that fast, and people who are found to be refugees aren’t resettled that fast. This is special treatment isn’t it?
EVANS: No, what we’ve done is since we came into government we’ve actually been working with the Indonesians to deal with their protracted caseload….
SPEERS: Are you extending this offer to other asylum seekers in Indonesia? There’s another sixty or seventy-odd in the Tanjung Pinang detention centre. Are they being told they’ve got the same process here or is this just for those on board the Oceanic Viking?
EVANS: No they’ve been going through the UNHCR processes and assessment of those people inside that detention centre, and the UNHCR may or may not refer them to us or other countries depending on those assessments. The timelines are not firm in any of this…
SPEERS: Clearly the key here is enticing them to get off the boat with the offer of resettling them within 12 weeks and that is not something…that is not a timeframe you’re offering others in detention in Indonesia.
EVANS:
Well we have 90 day timeframe for processing on Christmas Island. We don’t always meet it…
So so sum up Evans’ admissions: the People on the Oceanic Viking are getting a deal of just six to 12 weeks resettlement that is not being offered to other asylum seekers in Indonesia, and which beats the 90-day timeframe for simply processing the asylum applications of those in Christmas Island. And he and Rudd have the sheer effrontery to calim this is no “special deal”.
These people can’t even lie competently.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Another victory for global criminals the world over. The Australian federal government is a sham. Howard had to go but at what cost. Better the devil you know than the moron you don’t.
An Infidel,
Krudd and cohorts are nothing more that rapists – destroying Australian financial and natural reserves, whilst attempting to usuro the Australian people. Why is every labor government an abject failure – even by the most forgiving of criterion.
Take note Sri Lanka. You have an Export Market for all the Terrorists that you need to get rid from the country. Send more boatloads of those terrorist remnants that you are trying to flush out from Sri Lanka. The Aussie “suckers” will take them because they are free! After all, the first immigrants to Australia were criminals themselves – weren’t they?
Australia moved on, Sri Lanka is stuck.
So what else is new in Tijuana?