COMMENTS BY SENATOR COONEY
Residents newly arrived here and in need of help can claim little support
from the Commonwealth. They must live here for two years before the taxpayers'
money can be used to give effective relief to their distress. The law's
supporters say that hardship, distress, shortage of food and clothing,
the inability to get work, sickness and poverty, do not in themselves
provide an occasion for public assistance. Though the afflicted are Australian
residents they are too fresh here to justify support.
In my view this is an ungentle law. Actual need ought be the criterion
for both public and private help. Where a genuine Australian resident
is suffering genuine hardship good principle suggests he or she be given
help. Hunger ill health and penury do not visit their victims according
to the length of time they have lived here.
Australia must be forever working towards its best possible future. That
means one where coming generations can look back on this one as being
fair and just, as being enlightened, as being committed to the long term,
as being interested in moral as well as economic values. Many of those
in future generations looking back at this one will be descendants of
those to whom this law applies. The history of a nation determines its
spirit and its character. This law sets an unhappy precedent.
This law implies migrants are mendicants by nature. That is not true.
They have in the past contributed much to Australia. Their record in the
last 210 years shows why those who come as immigrants now ought be welcomed
and respected: they should not be treated as fringe dwellers.
The Commonwealth controls the flow of immigrants into Australia. It is
in charge of who comes and from where. It must bear considerable responsibility
for the welfare of those who come here pursuant to its administration.
SENATOR B. COONEY