Senator Andrew Bartlett
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
 
Immigration issues and Senate Estimates Committees

I am writing this from the Senate Estimates Committees, where the Immigration Department is being questioned today and tomorrow. I have written about Senate Estimates before. As I wrote the last time the Immigration Dept appeared, there is the frustration of other Departments appearing elsewhere at the same time. However, Immigration is clearly the most important issue for me at the moment, so I will spend most of the next two days on that matter – even though I find some of the questioning chews up an enormous amount of time to no great purpose. I am finding this immensely frustrating, as endless questions are being asked and re-asked about 2 or 3 individual cases that are currently dominating the headlines, while a huge number of other crucial issues that need exploring are having to wait to be squeezed in at the end.

The news that Liberal MP, Petro Georgiou, is planning a Private Members Bill to amend the law relating to mandatory detention is very welcome. Equally importantly, he proposes scrapping Temporary Protection Visas, an equally iniquitous measure introduced in 1999. It is only an outside chance that the Bill will pass, but either way, it will add significantly to the pressure for significant change.

A similar example was the Private Senators Bill on mandatory sentencing which the Democrats and others brought forward a few years ago. This Bill didn't pass the Parliament, but its presence helped increase pressure for change via other means.

This is a good demonstration of the impact of continuing public pressure from a wide range of people from across the community. Hassling of politicians doesn't always have an impact, but on this issue it certainly is, and if people are concerned about this issue, they should make their concerns heard.

PS As an aside, I noted an item in the Crikey Daily recently which mentioned a Canadian MP blogging from the Chamber. I've tried to avoid portraying blogging as a just some sort of gimmick, so I haven't made a big deal of mentioning this when I've done it in the past. Blogging from a Committee hearing fits into the same category.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Wednesday, May 25, 2005 Permalink
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