ABC News Radio Interview with Steve Chase
E&OE.
Journalist:
Well in the wake of the Paris attacks, Australia is about to accept the first family of Syrian refugees in Perth. They are the first of a protected intake of 12,000 Syrian. They are arriving amid concerns surrounding refugees in light of the events in Paris. The French Ambassador to Australia, Christophe Lecourtier, has also observed that France could learn from what he called, Australia’s successful immigration model. Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells it the Assistant Minister for Multicultural Affairs and she joins us on the line. Good morning Minister.
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
Good morning.
Journalist:
Now, those security concerns following Paris are very fresh. What steps is the Turnbull Government taking to address them?
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
We have, as part of our Humanitarian Programme, Steve, a very well established Humanitarian Programme. As with all other applicants for resettlement in Australia, all people who want to settle here are required to meet all the criteria for the visa. That includes health, character and security checks. Those security checks are conducted before the individuals are granted a visa to enter Australia. So they will go through the appropriate security checks, as do all our humanitarian entrants.
Journalist:
So the guarantee is that our checks are better than the ones the French do, is that right?
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
No, I’m just saying I’m not privy to what the French do. What we do have here is a very well established settlement programme. We’ve been settling humanitarian entrants into Australia since WWII, and indeed we’ve had 7.5 million migrants come to Australia since WWII, including 825,000 under our humanitarian programme. We have a well-established process and that well-established process includes extensive security checks and I think we’ve seen comments that have been made from the Minister for Immigration in the last few days which specifically go to that. So there are two parts to this, the security checks that are undertaken prior to visas being issued, as this family has gone through this process, and once they are selected and once we know who they are then of course they move into the purview of the Department of Social Services and we look after the multicultural and settlement service of our humanitarian entrants.
Journalist:
Can I ask you one more question on the security matter before we move onto other issues? As I understand it, the commentary over the last three or four days, as I understand it, the French don’t have verification from the people that know the people trying to come in. Is that the case in Australia? Do we actually, as part of the screening process, have to get somebody already here or a family member to verify that they are who they say they are?
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
Steve, we have a couple of ways that our humanitarians come into Australia. One is under a registration process through the humanitarian programme which effectively has two components to it. People can either come in as part of the UNHCR registered process and through that part of it out of the camps. Or alternatively, there is the special humanitarian programme where church groups, family members and other people in Australia can sponsor, if I can put it in that way, the application for that person to come into Australia. In both processes there are security checks. Clearly in the special humanitarian programme, you have the additional bona fides of people that do know them here in Australia. It could be through church groups, or through individuals or established family links.
Journalist:
As you know Senator, the events in Paris are causing political tension in Europe; and we here from the US that Governors of certain states are blocking refugees from settling in their states. What is to say that similar tensions won’t boil over here?
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
I think here in Australia we need to look at what we’re doing, particularly the humanitarian space in the context of our uniquely Australian multicultural society. We are a country of migration. We are a country that has successfully settled thousands and thousands of people. We have seen a very good response of community support towards people fleeing form this conflict. Australian’s migration process, in particularly our humanitarian space is a very well established one – we are amongst the leading counties in terms of settlement and we have done it well. Therefore, I believe there is a strong confidence that the Australian public can have in those processes, including in the security measures that we have adopted in the past, and will continue to adopt, not just for the 12,000 that are a one off in relation to this crisis. Let’s not forget that we also have parallel to that our existing humanitarian programme intake of 13,750 places that will rise to 18,750 places by 2018-19.
Journalist:
What are the plans for this first Syrian family that we are told will arrive in Perth shortly? Will it be low key or do we know if the family talk to the media? Christian Porter yesterday said it’s up to the family.
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
It’s up to the family, Steve. We do this every day, and we’ve been doing it well for many, many, many years. We have a humanitarian programme. We have a well-honed process where we have settlement service providers located around Australia who assist in that settlement process. They will have arrived, been met by the service provider that’s going to assist them. They would have been given, like any other family who has arrived, the appropriate support and initial assistance. Now, clearly they will be given the space to adjust to their new circumstances. As Minister Porter has said yesterday, they have endured a harrowing, traumatic and long journey – they have been in a camp for a long time. So, I’m sure they will be looking forward to settling in here Australia, as so many of our humanitarian entrants do when they come to Australia. Many of them have spent so many years in camps, so the prospect of coming and settling and having a normal life for many of them is so very, very welcome. I think that if we give them the appropriate time to find their feet, when they’re ready to speak to the media, I’m sure they will. But at this point in time I think there is probably a good reason to let them find their feet.
Journalist:
Alright Senator, good to talk to you.
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
Thank-you Steve, thank-you very much.