In my opinion (as a voluntary tutor and one who loves and respects my students)

1. I think all new migrants and refugees under the age of 50 must learn to speak the English language and must be held accountable to do so.

2. We need to be upfront and proud of our own culture and history and the fact that we are happy to absorb cultures of others but expect them to accept and adapt to ours.

Am I out of place when I get upset in shopping centres where there is scarcely a word of English visible on shop windows or on goods inside the shops, and when the staff do not speak English to each other?

This seems to be more Coalition doublespeak. At any rate (i)unauthorised boat arrivals don't weaken the acceptance of migrants. The people who are very hostile to boat arrivals are hostile to migrants in general. (ii) Didn't Ms Gambaro make some rather narky remarks about hygiene a while back? So what credibility does she have here on this topic. (iii) Its mostly Anglo-Australians that are trapped on welfare - not migrants.

It is disappointing that there's always someone who want to repeat the sins of bad journalism. What I know of this lady, Ms Gambaro, is that she comes from a migrant family herself. Who better to give us insights into what migrants to Australia need by way of support to succeed in Australia? I'm sure she could enlighten us as to how important being able to speak English was growing up in this country with Italian migrant parents. Surely no-one can seriously suggest that helping migrants master English in an English speaking country is a bad thing or should not be a priority. Bravo Ms Gambaro!

Why do we always make simple things so hard?

All we need is a couple of simple laws.

No English reading & speaking comprehension, no drivers licence, ever.

No real English after 2 years, no welfare.

QED. All would master English pretty damn quick, without any public expenditure at all.

Immigration has made Australia weaker because of multicultural divide and conquer tactics like the one imbedded in this opinion piece.

As an example we could say that uni students shouldn't pay for the educational infrastucture they use and that they should be "set-up" (Code for PAID Hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars) to succeed in their courses as they raise their living standard and outcomes through education.

I could accept that because at least students parents have paid for the infrastructures necessary to get them to university standard.

But when migrants say the same thing, all they are saying is " pay us the hundreds of thousands to set us up or we will vote LIBERAL". Further, I cannot accept this. Migrants under this political blackmail scheme are bludging on infrastructures paid for by long term taxpayers who now must pay for the burden of raising the living standards of migrants who scorn them for being such stupid skippys as to let this travesty happen.

The point is if my children have to pay HECS of $300,000 to lift their living standard and opportunities then so should migrants when they come from overseas int our capital cities. That is only JUST.

The OFarrellesque stupidity of private partnership infrastructure agreements where taxpayers and people who have already PAID for their infrastructure must pay up to 3 times more to use it in future is a CRIME that will go down in HISTORY as Australia's greatest folly.

It is clear from the prices we are NOW paying and will soon PAY for infrastructure usage , utilities and services that australia is a far worse place than ever in its history. Immigration and baby bonusing are POOPULATION levers for turning democracy into DICTATORSHIP. Migrants demanding for ever more TAXPAID handouts as blackmail for their VOTEs will soon be seen for the international freeloaders they really are.

Never mind more handouts! IF YOU WANT TO UPGRADE YOUR LIFE OPPORTUNITIES IN A NEW COUNTRY -PAY FOR IT like everyone else here. Its not a lot to ask given the Generous HECS style terms .

No matter how much the pollies whinge it is a legal right for anyone to seek asylum here and it is perfectly legal to catch a boat to do so.

It is nothing to do with border security because the founder of the LIberal party Sir Robert Menzies helped to write the laws that forbid using the entry of refugees as border security issues.

When do these ignorant ranters learn the law?

And another thing!

I play evening indoor cricket and occasionally you get suspected fractures especially of the fingers. You need emergency room treatment for this as GPs are not available at these times.

It takes at least 6 hours to be seen on the 3 occasions this has happened to me.

In every case the emergency room was clogged with respiratory sufferers whose names call out like mustafa, wasim and meada. I have muslim friends and I know they smoke hubbly bubbly at home with children in adjacent rooms. This inevitably leads to long term respiratory problems and clogged emergency departments. But Governments are dead scared of tackling the problem head on for feqar of a;lienating a huge muslim Lock-Step one vote for all electroral rort.

You simply cannot expect to get seen in any capital city emergency ward because of this and you are wasting your time trying.

So yeah, lets all pay more of our taxes to migrantsso they can find even better ways to F us over.

"it is a legal right for anyone to seek asylum here and it is perfectly legal to catch a boat to do so."

Marilyn, what planet are you from?

The only legality comes from the UN. A body who helps refugees by by keeping count of their dead bodies. An organisation whose dictates of migration levels are ignored by EVERY COUNTRY in the world except Australia which has found immigration & bonus manipulation of female reproductivity essential in converting a free democracy into a Dictatorship. A dictatorship underpinned by vicious corporate monopolies like all those who no longer advertise on Alan Jones talkback! A dictatorship underpinned by migrants who treat politicians like Gods and treat Taxpayers like idiots for putting up with such stupidity.

The corruption is RANK! There is a silent majority in this country who are growing uncomfortable at the injustices that continue to accrue from CORRUPT Australian Governments using TAXPAYER funds in gerrymandering electorates with costly migration and baby bonuses.

Your bleeding heart say in this may soon be like a sneeze in a hurricane!

Oh for god's sake, yes the authority comes from the UN body but we are a founding member of the particular UN body and have been on the executive committee since 1954.

If we can't be bothered upholding laws we helped to write then why have any laws.

REally and truly your argument is ludicrous.

We are a nation of immigrants! Sure and some of those came here as unwilling emigrants, bound in iron chains, others followed as virtual slaves,[bonded servants,] forced out of their homelands by things like the potato famine or the highland clearances etc.
Others followed the second world war, as displaced persons, where your identification papers were your most valuable asset. Then we had the ten pound poms, which invited people like the PM's parents to relocate and settle here!
Then there was the post war Vietnamese exodus, and the REGIONAL SOLUTION, that saw around one hundred thousand resettled here?
But we've never ever had, nor can we cope with an open door policy!
All of these people joined an orderly queue and waited their turn, sometimes after decades spent in interment camps!
Yes, Asylum seekers have a absolute lawful right to seek asylum!
But having found said sanctuary, no longer have a legal right to simply transit across many nations, to arrive here in leaky boats as irregular or illegal arrivals, at the behest of various criminal cartels, specialising in people smuggling!
Which to date has cruelly cost more than a thousand lost lives!
And that is just the ones we know about!
I don't know that we must do anything, for either illegal migrants or economic refugees, or war criminals, hiding behind a false or assumed identity, they are unable to actually confirm or prove, given they have quite deliberately destroyed to actually hidden their real identity or purpose?
In fact, in most of these latter cases, all we owe them is a one way return ticket!
Sure, where possible, let's do more for the genuine asylum seeker, who has waited full term in some less than desirable interment camp; but, who has the good sense to retain those documents that prove who they are and their legal claims!
And having satisfied minimal legal requirements, health checks etc, let's do all we can to make them feel both very welcome and safe from any further persecution or harm!
Rhrosty.

The nation of immigrants argument for continued multicultural immigration doesn't wash in a world where emerging successful nations are all proudly mono-cultural and will never change!

Also, before WWII we needed immigrants and Australia's mono culture which they accepted, rewarded them with a higher quality life than their homeland. All that could be asked of a host nation.

After WWII we again needed immigrants to make up for war losses.

But by 1985 PEAKOIL bit & the world began piling on billions of people instead of 10's of millions like post-1945. So THEN & NOW the NEED IS NO longer there.

However by 1985 an anti government 'Kingswood Country' apathy was making governance tedious and difficult. Canberra may as well have been on the Moon in terms of relevance. From Hawke onwards, political revenge for this attitude WAS and still is the order of the day!

The only reason for immigration and baby bonuses today is to enforce that revenge. Immigration in a world of 7 billion people is insanity least of all because people cause global warming and thus more people exacerbate it. \

The real rational for Australian Government is to gerrymander political electorates so that incumbent governments can convert Democracy into Dictatorship by USING over-entitled politician-butt-kissing migrants & freaking, bonused to the hilt baby-machine feminists.

Democracy is where citizens all have a say. It is NOT where people who haven't arrived yet or aren't born yet have a BIGGER say in government policy that the individuals who pay those government their wages!

People on threads like this who continually "whatever" this truth are paid off quislings who inevitably will be the worse off as the consequences of this tragedy reign down. I have no sympathy for their fate!

why have any laws.
Marilyn Shepard,
where would that leave the likes of you if ignorance was against the Law ?
I'm a migrant & I say stop this insanity of letting us be overrun by people who do not share our values & only come here to change our values eventually by sheer numbers.
I have lived through that scenario years ago & I have no desire to go that road again. If you feel you should then go & live in Europe's migrant enclaves for some time.
Many of our values have already been severely undermined. Enough is enough. If you don't like it leave. We need Australians here not traitors who sell us out at a whim. I'm lucky to still remember what a real Australian & Australia was. Just because you haven't the slightest idea doesn't mean everyone should forfeit everything as well.

Individual: Please note that Marilyn Shepard is a paid professional, I believe, who earns income as a refugee advocate?
It is the job of a lawyer to advocate for the client, even where the client is guilty or undeserving, like that Criminal people smuggler exposed by four corners, living in Canberra, running a small but reasonably lucrative local business!
Yet, still organising his people smuggling operation, with complete impunity, from here!
He entered by posing as an undocumented refugee, who then further rorted the system by bringing his family here, where they received very generous financial help and housing, that many more deserving Australians are regularly denied.
How many others have slipped through our less than reliable net, and or, made the more deserving genuine refugees wait even longer for their legitimate turn?
Its just too easy to claim a refugee status, when you have destroyed documentation, which may well prove otherwise?
We need to lift our game and take the flawed human element out of the equation, by including space age lie detection, that establishes genuine bona fides beyond any reasonable doubt.
Not even a barefaced compulsive lair can deceive the latest lie detection! Which like computer assisted facial recognition, picks up the tiny micro movements, that are almost impossible for the human eye, but nonetheless, may well indicate dishonesty.
Ditto the new thermal imaging, which responds to the areas of the brain that light up, when deception is being practised.
Even practised liars and or psychopaths, who routinely beat the polygraph, cannot fool this non invasive and possibly invisible to them, space age technology!
It costs us in excess of $70,000.00 a year plus/plus, just to house a single individual.
Perhaps we should offer some of the most dubious claimants, around fifty thousand to return; now today, before their claims are tested?
Or perhaps, face a much more efficacious validation of claims, which if eventually disproved, would result in automatic disqualification/repatriation!
And it would be cheap at the price, rather than carry the entirely undeserving and their family, possibly years or a lifetime!
Cheers, Rhrosty.

Rhosty I have never been paid a single cent for writing about or helping refugees or anyone else.

I simply write and research for others because it is attitudes like yours that drive me to do so.

I know the editors here will confirm I have never been paid, the lawyers didn't pay me and I don't live the great rich life you think I do.

REally and truly, why do people make it about me every time.

why do people make it about me every time.
Marilyn Shepard,
People don't, you are doing it. You're bringing it on with your constant & total lack of concern for what people here in Australia want to protect. No-ne wants to see refugees being used like a football but if people like you want to start treating Australia & our lives like a football then you've got to expect flak for recommending so.
Rather than constantly asking us to give up everything we've worked for why don't you direct your efforts towards stopping people from becoming refugees in the first place. Go & appeal to the war lords to look after their people instead of asking us to change.
I think stopping the production of refugees is way more noble & sensible than ruining other countries by flooding them with what may or may not be genuine refugees.

Australia's problem with asylum seekers/ illegal immigrants is minor by world standards, despite the beat up from the coalition and the media.

We indeed have a problem with legal immigration which is far too high, there's no benefit to Oz from a rapidly growing population.

Ms Gambaro, like so many others, has the priorities "backwards".

You are right, Mac.

Ms. Gambaro assumes that because something was of net benefit in the past that it therefore always will be. This is far from being the case. It is good that your bones were growing when you were 8 years old, but if they are still growing in that way when you are 40, then you have a really serious problem. I am not disputing that there are educational and cultural benefits from having some immigration, or that there are talented people who would be an asset anywhere, but the numbers are completely over the top. The 2006 Productivity Commission report on immigration found that the per capita economic benefit from our mass migration was miniscule and mostly distributed to the owners of capital and the migrants themselves. The bulk of the population is actually worse off, even in narrowly economic terms, because wages increase more slowly than they otherwise would. See p. 154 and the graph on the following page

http://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/9438/migrationandpopulation.pdf

According to a recent paper by the economist Jane O'Sullivan in Economic Affairs. Our 1.4% population growth in 2011-2012 cost us 9.6% of GNP (total output of the economy, not government revenue) due to the costs of providing infrastructure for the additional people, who may require decades before they have contributed enough to pay for it. In the meantime, the existing residents get to pay more for housing and utilities, enjoy the extra crowding and congestion in our cities, and put up with crumbling and overstretched infrastructure and public services. Australia ranks near the bottom of the developed world in environmental management.

http://epi.yale.edu/epi2012/rankings

We are having the population growth (mostly due to immigration, which also adds substantially to natural increase) rammed down our throats because the rich people who donate to the politicians want bigger domestic markets, easy profits from ownership of real estate and other essential resources, and a cheap, compliant work force. The bigger total GNP due to more people also gives them more to skim. Nothing will change unless we vote out growthist politicians such as Ms. Gambaro.

Yes... I think the title of this piece reads badly, and can be misinterpreted; perhaps
"Australia must do more to ensure that migrants and refugees can be successful".
Certainly English language skills should be mandatory (for my teenage daughters also) and I have come to believe an "oath of allegiance to the Nation and its existing laws, taking precedence over any and all religious or superstitious laws" wouldn't be a bad thing either.
If such could be implemented, and then widely advertised in the countries from which so many come from, it might save many the trouble.

Divergence,

The problem for us high population growth opponents is being heard above the noise of vested interests--(1) multiculturalists who will try to divert the discussion from economic and social factors by using the 'race card' and (2) business representatives who claim that the economic benefits of high population growth are indisputable.

The O'Sullivan paper is alarming. However, scepticism in regard to the be supposed benefits of high population growth is nothing new. Economist Lester Thurlow, 25 years ago calculated that, given a 50 life span for infrastructure, a 2% increase in population effectively doubled the total capital investment requirement, as a result governments are forced into asset sales and other dubious arrangements to meet the revenue shortfall.

"Australasian Science" September 2012 pp36-37

I want an apology from the twit who dared to claim I am a paid advocate, I am not now and nor have I ever been.

Everyone has the right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution in other countries.

End.

asylum from persecution.
Marilyn Shepard,
And we are not entitled to prevent being persecuted in Australia ?