OPINION
It’s Claytons all round, today. A Claytons apology, and a Claytons immigration cut.
Does the term “Claytons” have the same meaning in New Zealand as it does in Australia? Like “Tui, yeah, right”, it comes from an advertising slogan (from the 70s, for a non-alcoholic drink packaged to look like whisky): “the drink you have when you’re not having a drink”. In Australian slang, it means anything phoney, fake, or insincere.
First off, the Claytons apology:
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil has said she is ‘sorry’ that alleged crimes have been committed by at least six of the 148 detainees released following the High Court’s controversial ruling about indefinite immigration detention.
As BFD readers might recall, the government’s first reaction to a journalist’s suggestion of an apology was ballistic abuse. Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus cut off O’Neil, to berate and finger-wag the journalist. O’Neil just dodged the question.
Obviously, someone in Labor’s crisis team (poor, overworked souls, they must be) sent a frantic memo.
But in an interview with the Herald Sun, asked if she had a message to the alleged victims, Ms O’Neil said: “I’m certainly sorry that (alleged) crimes have been committed by perpetrators who belong to this cohort of people and anyone else in the community.
“You can’t read a newspaper and hear about crimes being committed like this and not feel anything,” she said.
“A lot of this question is coming from the underlying assumption that somehow the government released these people voluntarily and that’s just not true.”
The Australian
Except that it is true. As former PM John Howard pointed out, there was absolutely no reason for the government to panic and turn loose hundreds of bad wogs immediately. Especially not ones who already had outstanding warrants for arrest.
The whole affair has been a complete balls-up. Labor’s got a lot more apologising to do, yet.
Now, to the Claytons immigration cut.
The Albanese government will create a new “skills in demand” visa and raise English-language requirements for all international students, to restore border control and suppress the temporary migration boom that has put cities under tremendous strain, led to worker exploitation and left hundreds of thousands of young foreigners in limbo.
So, how much are they planning to cut immigration by?
Ms O’Neil claimed the government’s policy tightening will now lead to a cumulative 185,000 fewer migrants over the budget’s four-year time frame.
So, that’s a whopping 45,000 less, per annum. Or, to put it into perspective: 405,000 immigrants per year, instead of 450,000.
Basically, Labor has pulled up to the drive-thru and ordered a Quarter Pounder Super-Size meal — with a Diet Coke.
Ms O’Neil said the road map “is a commitment to getting our system back on track and to returning migration levels back to normal and using that reduction in migration levels to move to the system we need for Australia’s future”.
“Australia’s migration system is not the nation building engine it once was,” she said.
The Australian
No, but it’s the Labor vote-buying scam it always was.
Hawke turbocharged annual immigration from 20,000 per year to over 150,000 by the time he was booted out. Howard initially cut migration, but bowed to the Ponzi scam lobby and slowly raised it back to Hawke levels.
Then Rudd got in.
Immigration skyrocketed to 300,000 per year. It dropped a little, post-Rudd, but now Albanese has turbo-charged it back to nearly half a million. Every year.
And they want us to be grateful for a cut of just 45,000 a year?
These people are demented.