AUSTRALIAN authorities have begun a nation-wide crack down on visa overstayers following accusations that “Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has lost control of immigration.”
ONE Nation founder Pauline Hanson told the Australian Senate on 12 February that “over 75, 000 illegal visa holders remain in Australia, undermining national security, driving down wages, pushing up rents, and overwhelming public services”.
The Queensland Senator said 75, 400 illegal visa holders remain in Australia, but Labor refused to act.
“When confronted in the Senate, Minister Watt had no answers, he didn’t even know the numbers. That says it all. How can a government fix a problem they don’t understand?
“Instead of cracking down on the visa rorts flooding Australia with cheap labour, Anthony Albanese is wining and dining with international education industry figures.”
But Hon Murray Watt, representing Home Affairs, said Senator Hanson’s accusation is untrue.
“Everyday the government takes action to remove from Australia those who overstayed their visas,” Hon Watt said.
A Solomon Islands national told Solomon Star at the weekend that Solomon Islands nationals working in Australia under the Pacific Enhancement Program are worried.
“We are living in fear, given what the Australian immigration is doing now. They have started rounding up Pacific Islanders, including Solomon Islands nationals in Mildura on the New South Wales-Victoria and Queensland borders.
“The targeted operation will then move to Queensland, possibly Gatton,” the Solomon Islander who asked for anonymity told Solomon Star.
“We are worried not because we have broken the law. No. We are worried because cases involving some of our people are before the Immigration Tribunal while others are on bridging visas.
“These processes take a long time. Our fear is that we do not want to wake up one morning and be told to leave for the airport, because we have been deported,” the woman said.
“The fact that this matter has been raised in Parliament is the scary part of it. The Solomon Islands government should take this up with the Australian government.”
She then turned her anger on Senator Hanson, saying that without Pacific islanders’ input into the Australian rural economy, many Australians would be affected.
“What Senator Hanson probably does not know is that without us, there would be no fresh poultry meat on dinner tables across the nation every single day of the year. And if Senator Hanson would care to visit these outback farms, she would see that there are no white Australians working in these farms,” she said.
Meanwhile the One Nation leader has accused the international education industry of fuelling the “explosion of student visas, many of which are being exploited as backdoor work permits and a pathway to permanent residency.
“Labor is captured by the mass migration industry, more focused on looking after their mates and their donors than protecting Australian workers.
“One Nation will always put Australians first. We will clean up the visa mess, stop the rorts, and get tough on illegal immigration!
“Because if Labor won’t act, and the Coalition won’t act, it is up to One Nation to take action,” Senator Hanson said.
By Alfred Sasako
