Some ten Chinese asylum seekers have arrived in Darwin, hoping to sail onward across the Tasman to New Zealand. They are members of the Falun Gong cult and would certainly meet persecution if they returned to China. Their boat seems to be a reasonably seaworthy Malaysian fishing vessel, but it is unsuitable for crossing the Tasman in safety.
Alarm bells sound everywhere. We don’t want them to risk the Tasman passage in that boat. We don’t want them here. Australia, realising that they don’t wish to stay there, seem to have come over all helpful, and have given them temporary visas until they can be on their way. It’s all righteousness in Darwin.
John Banks, our Act Party resident bigot, simply wants to tell these people, “Don’t bother”. He omits to say what he thinks they should do. Simply disappear, presumably.
There are 10 of them, for heaven’s sake. My guess is that they would be good immigrants, certainly not lazy or unproductive.
What is happening to us? At various times we have had policies, official or not, to keep out Jews, to keep out Chinese... But now we know that both communities in New Zealand have been very much to NZ's benefit. The UK may be said to have a real immigration problem -- we do not.
NZ’s land area is about 268,021 sq km, population about 4.5 million, about 16.5 persons per square km. In the UK the land area is less, 243,610 sq km, and the population is about 62,262,000 -- some 255.6 per sq km. How does that seem to someone from China?
When do we learn to be generous and outgoing? I do not want to live in Fortress John Banks...! It is not beyond our wit to form laws and regulations to cover the possible consequences we are afraid of.
Teach English properly. Teach Asian languages in our schools. Get realistic about the way the world is becoming. Discourage knee-jerk suspicions and encourage people to embrace difference. After all, the death-knell of British and western primacy is sounding in the hills...
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