Oct 11, 2007

Melbourne African refugee bashing: blood on the hands of an evil and desperate Howard government

“Yesterday’s bashing in Melbourne of young Sudanese man Ajang Gor may have been the work of a local white racist gang, but its moral and political author was the Howard government and its immigration minister Kevin Andrews”, Ben Courtice, Socialist Alliance candidate for Gellibrand said today.

“Andrews’ announcement last week that the African refugee intake would be cut back because of supposed integration problems in the Sudanese community was a desperate and despicable attempt to play the race card, and brought Ajang Gor’s bashing as an inevitable result.”

Courtice added: “For the Howard government this latest crime, the death of a young Sudanese man in tragic circumstances and the fact that the Victoria Police cannot find one ‘African youth gang’ are trivial compared to its own need to survive.”

“This government, which spends millions of dollars on polling, wouldn’t have reignited race as a political issue unless they thought there was advantage for them in it.

Courtice continued: “In his first three terms racist scapegoating and xenophobia harvested hundreds of thousands of votes for the Coalition and led to the racist riot at Cronulla, but the war in Iraq and struggle against Work Choices pushed that filth into the background.

“Now a few thousand potential Coalition voters in critical marginal seats are suddenly supposed to forget about Howard’s attacks on their rights at work and rising interest rates because of a supposed threat from 20,000 African refugees.”

The Socialist Alliance candidate also pointed out that the immigration minister was creating a racial basis for government policy. When originally decided by a departmental committee the reduction in the proportion of refugees of African origin had nothing to with their supposed problems of ‘integration’, but because of the need to take more refugees from Burma and Iraq.

“Now Andrews has retrospectively invented a Sudanese and African incapacity to ‘integrate’. This is a dog whistle to alert the potential racist vote that the Coalition hasn’t forgotten that Australia really should be white.

“It is institutional racial discrimination and violates the international and United Nations human rights covenants to which Australia is a signatory”, he stressed, calling on the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission to formally condemn the government for its actions.

The Socialist Alliance candidate said that because of the government’s racist move the Sudanese and other African communities could look forward to an immediate future of shock-jock hysteria and immense pressure to prove that they are “good Aussies”, not to mention more physical attacks and racist abuse in public places.

“The Socialist Alliance stands in full solidarity with the Sudanese and other African communities against these attacks”, Courtice said. “We also salute all those churches and multicultural, human rights and community organisations which have spoken out against Howard and Andrews’ filth. The next stage must be for all anti-racist forces to plan protests.”

Courtice concluded: “Australia’s refugee policy is a disgrace. Not only do we take a totally insignificant number of refugees every year (13,000 compared to a world refugee and displaced persons population of 33 million), but services for refugees are quite inadequate, as the African Think Tank has amply documented in its answer to Andrews.

“The Socialist Alliance stands for a vastly boosted refugee intake and greatly expanded services to help people who have gone through unimaginable suffering make a life for themselves in Australia.”

Note: The Socialist Alliance has launched a petition on this issue. It can be downloaded from here.
INFORMATION: Ben Courtice 0413 580 706