Next time you hear someone talking about our “non-discriminatory” immigration system, keep stories like this one in mind – a doctor who has already been living and working in Australia for over two years, being denied permanent residency because he has a 13 year old son with Down Syndrome.
Whilst this sort of thing only makes news every now and then, it is an everyday occurrence. This type of blatant discrimination has been happening for many years and has always been unjust, but it takes on greater significance since the Australian government ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in July this year.
This link will take you to a report commissioned by the National Ethnic Disability Alliance which examines whether Australia’s migration laws are consistent with this UN Convention.
The overall findings were:
a. That the current Australian migration health test is at odds with the equal protection obligation under Article 5 of UN CRPD, leading to unjustifiable indirect discrimination for some refugees and migrants with disability.
b. That the ten year waiting period for the Disability Support Pension under the Social Security Act 1991 (Cth) interferes with human rights under Articles 28, 25 and 15, relating to standard of living and social protection, health and inhuman or degrading treatment.
UPDATE: The Victorian Premier has reportedly written a letter to the Immigration Minister for a review of what he has called a “stupid decision”. It may well be stupid, but the key point is that it is completely in accordance with both the existing law and everyday practice. The Minister of course has the discretion to vary it, but the key problem lies with the law, not the decision.
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Andrew, there is a very sound reason for having a 10 year waiting period for pensions: it ensures that we attract high quality immigrants that want to work, not sit on the dole.
The pension is not the dole, Generic P.
And the consequence of the discrimination such as described above is that high quality immigrants who not only want to work, but have already shown they can, are prevented or strongly discouraged from doing so if they have a family member with a disability. Immigrants, ‘high quality’ or otherwise, are people too and most of them have family.
It also reinforces the false and offesnive idea that people with disabilities have no positive contribution to make to our society.
I think it only fair to say that the only point to ratifying a particular policy, and then ignoring it, it to give the impression one really cares when one doesn’t.
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