PM vows no ‘political correctness’ on immigration

04 July 2010 | 03:06:17 PM | Source: AAP

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PM Julia Gillard says people should not be called racist for raising concerns about asylum seekers. (AAP)

Australia's new Prime Minister Julia Gillard has vowed not to let "political correctness" get in the way of tackling immigration, signalling a tough line on the issue.
  
Gillard, who ruthlessly deposed former leader Kevin Rudd and solved the mining tax row that weakened him a week later, said people should not be called racist for raising concerns about asylum seekers.
  
"I certainly dismiss labels like intolerant or racist because people raise concerns about border security, but we've also got to be very alive to the complexity of this and that there's no quick fix," Gillard told the Sunday Telegraph.
  
"There's a temptation for people to use these labels and names to try and close down debate and I'm very opposed to that. People need to be able to have honest discussions.
  
"So any sort of political correctness, or niceties that get in the way, I think, need to be swept out of the way."
  
 

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Asylum seekers ‘top priority’

The Welsh-born Gillard, whose parents emigrated to Australia in 1966, has made it a top priority to slow the steady flow of asylum seeker boats that plagued the Rudd government.
  
She also defended former conservative leader John Howard, whose tough immigration policies were scrapped by Rudd, after he was dubbed a "closet racist" in Indian media over his failed bid to lead world cricket's governing body.
  
"The suggestion John Howard should be labelled a racist, what a load of nonsense. He's most certainly someone who's not," she said.
  
The new prime minister is due to make an announcement before a three-month freeze on processing Afghan and Sri Lankan asylum-seekers - which was criticised by the United Nations - ends on Thursday.
  
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Australia wanted to "work not just with the source countries like Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, but also transit countries through our region - Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand".
  
"We want to ... redouble our efforts to see whether there's more that we can do," he told the Ten Network TV station.
  
Major election factor

Another boat carrying 34 asylum-seekers was intercepted Sunday, underlining a problem that arouses strong passions in voters and is likely to be a major factor at elections expected within the coming months.
  
Opposition leader Tony Abbott, who served in Howard's cabinet, has promised a return to the tough but effective "Pacific Solution" of turning back some boats and detaining and processing asylum seekers in remote foreign islands.

Mr Abbott has called for the reinstatement of temporary protection visas, which the former Rudd government scrapped in August 2008.
  
But Sustainable Population Minister Tony Burke has indicated this is unlikely.
  
"Certainly, the experience of temporary protection visas was that when they were introduced, the number of asylum seekers went up so in terms of what the evidence would point to, here's some reasons why we went for the policies we went for there," he told Sky News.
  
 

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Your Comments

15 Jan 2011 13:04 AEST

dan doe

From: vancouver, B.C. Canada

Julia Gillard immigration policy

Stop immigration now or regret it as Canadians do. Learn from our mistakes.

Agree (0 people agree)
Disagree (1 people disagree)
 

25 Jul 2010 13:32 AEST

cheryl

From:

If it were up to me I'd stop immigration all together. We're full up let them go and bludge on someone else. Hows that for political correctness then, by the way never met a politician yet thet has been correct.

Agree (4 people agree)
Disagree (3 people disagree)
 

14 Jul 2010 11:33 AEST

Frank Ironfield

From: Melbourne

I wonder

Does the gap between rich and poor depend on the government or on the individual actions of kids who don't want to work in school? Is it always someone elses' fault? Funny how more funding is always held up as being the answer. As for the desperate arriving on rafts, they seem to have money for a passage halfway across the world, happily leaving others to sit in camps at the end of the queue.

Agree (3 people agree)
Disagree (2 people disagree)
 

04 Jul 2010 16:08 AEST

John Canton

From: Sydney

Julia Gillard

The fact that we have Julia Gillard as prime minister shows that Australia has gone backwards. The my school website, and other implementations Gillard has made as education minister have resulted in nothing to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor. Private schools are still funded more than public schools. Now on the immigration issue the government has asserted its willingness to do nothing, ruining the lives of those who come here,whilst still allowing the desperate to arrive in rafts.

Agree (4 people agree)
Disagree (6 people disagree)
 

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