Migrants key to prosperity in the North
PROMINENT human rights barrister and refugee advocate Julian Burnside has thrown his support behind Enterprise North’s campaign to bring migrants to the region.
Mr Burnside made the comments ahead of his appearance at the biennial Cairns Tropical Writer’s Festival next weekend.
The Officer of the order of Australia and 2014 Sydney Peace Prize recipient, who accommodates refugees in his own home, said resettling asylum seekers in regional areas would save the government millions of dollars.
“The fact is economic activity is generated by people. Regional Australia is quietly suffocating because people are leaving to go to the coastal cities and unfortunately the government and opposition seem to have locked themselves into a position where they flatly reject the idea of doing anything except pushing (refugees) off,” Mr Burnside said.
“In Senate estimates last year, they put forward that keeping people in detention cost $1.08 billion per year – $500,000 per year per person.
“Just imagine if instead of pushing those people offshore at vast expense, they were set- tled in regional Australia, given Centrelink and Medicare benefits and all that money was spent there. It would make such a difference.”
Next week’s trip to Cairns will be a first for Mr Burnside, who will be accompanied by his artist wife Kate Durham.
He has published several books, including From Nothing to Zero, Wordwatching, Watching Brief: reflections on human rights, law, and justice and Watching Out: reflections on justice and injustice.
Mr Burnside will also launch Iranian journalist and Manus refugee Behrouz Boochani’s book No Friend But the Mountains.
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