Many of us who are reading this article would not know of the finer detail of the White Australia policy. Let me tell you what it says in Wikipedia (in part): “Soon after Australia became a federation, it passed the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901. The passage of this bill is considered the commencement of the White Australia […]
Suresh Rajan – Page 2
The first time I met the man, I was at an event at St George’s Cathedral in Perth. He slapped me on the back and made some humorous remark about my atheism and the irony of my attendance at a church. A few months later, literally within days of the siege occurring at the Lindt […]
I have written often about the discrimination accorded to people with disabilities and health conditions in our Migration system. In addition to the prohibition in the Act in relation to these applicants for residency visas, we also have a “health waiver” that is assessed by the Commonwealth Medical Officer (CMO). It is this process of […]
The sheer hypocrisy of our government sometimes knows no bounds. On the one hand Australia lauds its signing of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability. On the other, it continues to flagrantly abuse those very same conventions through its administration of the provisions of the Migration Act to preclude ANYONE with a disability […]
It has been a very long time since I have accused a Minister of the Western Australian parliament of Institutionalised racism. As many of you would know I have been at various times since 2001, the President, Treasurer and Secretary of the body known as the Ethnic Communities Council. I am, as we speak, the […]
I have delayed writing this piece because I have been concerned that the story would get swamped in the season of goodwill and not inconsiderable libation that we have been indulging in during the last few days here in Australia. I have left the cudgels of this particular issue to be taken up by those […]
Over the last three years, in my capacity as President of the National Ethnic Disability Alliance I have almost become inured to anger when I come across another instance of discrimination against people with disability (PWD) in our immigration system. However, the pain does not stop. Irrespective of the number of times I have seen […]
The gloves have to come off at some stage. We need everyone in Australia to make this a priority issue for the new government. I have written about this so many times in the last few months that it is becoming repetitive. However until any government agrees to list this as a priority issue for […]
How many times can we do this? I have almost lost count of the times we have done this in the last few years but here we go again. Kai Tippett and his family migrated to Australia about 5 years ago. At that time his daughter Sienna was 10 months old. Several months later Kai […]
I have to make a disclosure right at the very start of this review. I am an unabashed Randa Abdel Fattah fan. I have been ever since I read her book “Does my head look big in this?” That assessment of Randa was then confirmed when I read her “Ten things I hate about me” […]
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