Senator Andrew Bartlett
Saturday, May 28, 2005
 
Other things I should be doing
I am conscious that I am spending a lot of time on immigration and refugee issues at the moment, and there are many other issues affecting Queensland that I need to put more energy into. The potential list of important issues is endless, but some of them include unfair tax changes and lost opportunities to make fairer and longer-lasting structural reform to our income tax scales, the debate over drought relief funding and better ways to assist rural communities, the continuing threat to the services that are provided by student associations on university campuses, the increasing slaughter of whales, developments in live exports and other areas of animal cruelty, the current health debacle in Queensland, the massive waste of money building road tunnels in Brisbane while other parts of the state are without any decent roads at all, the ideologically extreme changes planned for workplace relations laws, the plans to cut the incomes of sole parents and some people with disabilities…… that’s just a few of those that spring to mind as I type this up on a Saturday night, but there are many more.

However, the current controversies around immigration issues provide a window of opportunity to push for much needed widespread reform, so I feel I should try to achieve as much as possible before the window closes again. I also find it impossible to walk away from the asylum seekers who remain in detention – having met so many of them and seen what they are enduring, I feel an obligation to do all I can to help them. Besides, I’ve made a promise to many of them that I’ll do all I can to make sure they aren’t forgotten.

After sitting for two days in Senate Estimates Committee hearings with the Immigration Department (with a brief interlude asking some questions over in the Environment Committee), I went back to Brisbane on Friday and drove up to Mt Tamborine in the Gold Coast hinterland to speak to a night-time meeting of the local Rural Australians for Refugees group. This meeting was very well attended, with over 50 people, including some local school students interested in the issues. There were many questions and it was pleasing to see the level of interest and the desire amongst so many people to see how best they could be effective in pushing for more positive changes. I also got a chance to meet up with someone I hadn’t seen for about 8 or 9 years, which was a big bonus.

I had a bit of a break today, spending some time at home with my daughter, visiting my mum and reading bits of the newspapers. Other than bits of football (I cannot believe the Lions have lost again!) and the occasional news bulletin, I’ve been watching very little TV this year, but I made a special effort tonight to watch the new series of Doctor Who. I used to watch this religiously when I was young and it was nice to see it again, although I think I’ll need to see a few more before I decide whether I like this new reincarnation of the show or not.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Saturday, May 28, 2005 Permalink
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