The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
‘Any govt has an obligation to its people first, but that is not to say we are shutting the door’
Australian High Commissioner to India Harinder Sidhu clarifies the “misconceptions” around the 457 visa programme, explains Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s ‘Australia First’ pitch, talks about countering violent extremism and says rapid economic growth
SRIJANA MITRA DAS: Your family migrated to Australia when you were a child and now you are back in India as Australia’s envoy. Could you share your journey with us.
A lot of people are interested in my story. They often ask if I have family in India. The answer is no. There is no close family in India. My family had lived in Singapore for generations. I was born in Singapore to parents of Indian origin and my family moved to Australia when I was a child. I went to school in Sydney and studied in university. In my final year of university, I was accepted into the foreign service. I just completed 30 years as a diplomat. Australia is a multi-cultural society and we tend to welcome people from all backgrounds into the foreign service... When this opportunity came up, I was very excited to come and work in India. Professionally, India is going through a very interesting time and it is one of the few senior ambassador jobs available where you genuinely have a chance to shape the relationship. Personally, I remain very interested in my Indian heritage, I am very keen to learn about it.
SRIJANA MITRA DAS: Soon after Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull went back from India, the 457 visa programme was scrapped. Why?
I think there are some misconceptions. 457 is a class of visa for temporary workers in Australia. That class of visa has been scrapped, but the type of visa remains. We are replacing it with two types of temporary skill shortage visas, which do the same thing but have slightly different criteria, and that has come out of an ongoing review that we had around Australia’s visa programme. In this case, the concern about the quality of people coming and the risk of exploitation of the people once they are in Australia under these visas weren’t appropriately qualified.
SRIJANA MITRA DAS: But don’t you think this change in visa programme will affect India-australia ties?
If you think about it, Indians form about 25 per cent of 457 holders. Majority of those people are skilled IT workers. Under the new rule, highly skilled people who have good English proficiency will continue to qualify for these visas. I am sure there will be some impact on Indian applicants, but at this stage, it does not look like the impact will be very great.
SRIJANA MITRA DAS: Where does the free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries stand now?
I am sure that we will conclude a free trade agreement. Negotiations have moved ahead and we are now at the most complicated part. Why this is complex is because each side is looking for something from the other that is important for them. For Australia, it is not just (access to) agriculture, it is also services and investment, it is the whole gamut. There is a whole range of things India is looking for, including access to the labour market. Finding a way to that agreement is going to be a slow, careful process. What I was happy to see was the two Prime Ministers’ interest the US had arrived at an “agreement” that refugees being held in offshore detention centers could apply to be resettled in America.)
With respect to North Korea, there have been quite a number of conversations between President Trump and Prime Minister Turnbull. Both have confirmed that there is really deep concern about North Korea’s provocations. From Australia’s perspective, we genuinely have very serious concerns about North Korea’s behaviour. We are moving to implement the UN Security Council’s resolutions and sanctions on North Korea.
SUSHANT SINGH: India and Australia have worked together on countering violent extremism. Where does that cooperation stand now?
For Australia, Islamist radicalisation is an issue related to particular segments of our population. India has a slightly different focus in terms of radicalisation, but in some ways has been a bit more successful in dealing with some aspects of those. And so, sharing experience has been the number one point in trying to understand all the dimensions of this. The point is, we never know what takes a person from being a person on the street to being radicalised and being prepared to, in Australia’s case, go overseas and fight. We recognise that there are things that we can do to address that through working with communities and working with individuals, but there are also things that we can’t always control and so we need to look at the whole issue as comprehensively as we can. We can’t do that in isolation. We always have to do that in consultation with other countries.
SRIJANA MITRA DAS: The Adani mining project in Queensland is facing a lot of protests from environmental groups and indigenous rights groups. What does the future of the project look like now?
The Australian government has always been very clear about our support for the Adani project. It’s very clear that if that project gets up and running and succeeds, it will employ thousands of Australians. And in any government’s language, that is a good thing to do. Australia is a democracy, as is India, and Australia’s people and NGOS are free to express their views, and clearly, there have been some who have done that about the Adani project.
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