Election policy choice

Report – National Council of Churches – Refugee Taskforce
Zoom meeting with Alex Hawke and Kristina Keneally
Election pitch from major parties re refugee policies 6/5/2022

The LCA sits on the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce and has been part of a Micah Australia ‘Christians United for Afghanistan’ advocacy group, which was instrumental in a recent change to government policy – to increase places for Afghan settlement by 16,500.

The LCA was invited to this roundtable of 80 Australian church leaders to hear from (and question) the immigration minister (Alex Hawke) and shadow (Kristina Keneally) in the lead up to the federal election.

Summary of the main differences between Liberal and Labor policy settings

Coalition

Effectively business as usual:

• maintaining the core annual refugee quota at 13,700 places
• maintaining the temporary protection visas (TPV) with a gradual softening to transfer some into permanency
• responding to crisis situations while maintaining a prudent ongoing system
• key focus: continuation of a tough border protection stance with some added compassion.

Labor

• Increasing core annual refugee quota by increments to 27,000 places
• Scrapping the TPV policy and fast-tracking people to permanency and citizenship (with the expectation of a reduction of 30,000 TPV/SHEV visa holders and 100,000 backlogs in citizenship applications
• Increasing resources for the Home Affairs Department to deal with the high backlog of cases in the system
• Key focus: more compassionate response to those in the system

Notes from the discussions

Tim Costello (Micah Executive Director) expressed gratitude for the recent policy change (to increase the Afghan intake) and noted the unprecedented unity among Christian groups and leaders around Australia to call for a compassionate response to the Afghan crisis.

Kristina Keneally – comments on behalf of the Labor Party

Kristina was keen to declare the strength of her faith with roots in the Catholic justice movement and previous work with St Vincent de Paul. Stressing things like:

• the Micah 6:8 verse displayed on her desk (act justly, love mercy, walk humbly)
• quote from Jim Wallis who points out the 3,000 verses in the bible that speak about (alleviating) poverty – which should inform our social conscience
• how we must love our neighbour, and like the Good Samaritan, be prepared to ‘find accommodation’ for the needy person.

She commented on governmental policy issues like Labor’s commitment to ‘Operation Sovereign Borders’ (stop the boats) but linked with an increase of compassion in the way we respond to refugees. Key ways this will be implemented under a Labor Government include:

• matching the coalition offer of the additional 16,500 Afghan places
• raising the level of the core annual refugee quota from 13,700 places to 27,000 places (incrementally over four or more years)
• phasing out the use of temporary protection visas (TPVs and SHEVs) and moving people onto permanent visas (after proper assessment). People currently on these visas cannot settle properly and be reunited with family (or become citizens), and there are about 30,000 on these visas (including about 5000 Afghans)
• speeding up the pathway to citizenship for about 100,000 Australian citizenship applicants – shortening the two-year waiting time to something more reasonable
• reducing the politicisation of refugee issues by leading positively
• prioritising community sponsorship pathways (groups like churches directly sponsoring) like the one successfully implemented in Canada
• setting up a ‘taskforce’ approach to changing things – including reinforcing the Home Affairs Department with extra resources to get through a major backlog of applications. She stated that the morale among Home Affairs staff is the lowest of all 97 government agencies (and we discussed ways that the churches can interact with the department to help staff).

Minister Alex Hawke – comments on behalf of the coalition

Alex Hawke also stressed his Christian faith commitment:

• preferring to be known for his ‘Protestant work ethic’, saying he was keen to get back to work solving the significant immigration (refugee) challenges
• acknowledging the preeminent voice of Christian leaders among the faith groups of Australia and his belief that government should be influenced by this voice.

He was proud of the emergency response by the Australian Government to the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan and noted the significance of our involvement there over 20 years (with responsibility to stay the course).

He favours the community sponsorship model that the Canadians have successfully implemented.

Alex restated their commitment to temporary visas as a method to manage the flow of refugees. He acknowledged the individual hardship for those caught in visa limbo (some for 10 years) and thought that the coalition might be ready to soften the tough policy a bit. This would be expressed by approving more applications from those on TPVs for permanency if they can prove a work history in the regions (due to general labour shortages in the Australian economy).

They will keep the core annual refugee quota to 13,700 places while stressing they have offered one-off additional increases like the 12,000 places to Syrians in 2015 and the 16,500 for Afghans over the next four years. He says that these numbers are realistic considering the expense involved in settlement.

He mentioned the fact that during COVID, the annual quota of 13,700 has not been filled and that they will add this shortfall to quotas in the coming years.

Alex hoped for a better dialogue between stakeholders so the difficult things can be resolved without protests and litigation.

He mentioned the encouraging response of some Australian businesses – citing Woolworths’s commitment of employing 1000 Afghans.

Tim Costello and the various leaders expressed thanks for the positive interactions and committed to working with either party in the new government period.