91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly's JORGE ANDRES spoke to Australian Greens Senator BOB BROWN about the renewed debate on immigration.
Question: How do you see the issue of limits on immigration?
The limits have to be set according to changing circumstances. Recent levels have been, I think, very acceptable to the Australian community. But the post-Howard-election debate has altered this, with a concentration on pushing the limits down and a whole range of disparate interests feeling a new bravado.
I think it's very worrying: Not only resetting the overall limits according to a very crude return to the idea that immigration per se is bad, but also trying to change within that the parameters of who is good for Australia and who isn't. I think we are going to see pressure on the acceptance of giving priority to people who are coming from life-threatening situations and those who need to be reunited with their families.
Question: Limits is also about "choosing" immigrants. Labor begun introducing managerial skill and financial investment capacity as critical immigration criteria. How do you see the basis for immigration selection?
It ought to be on a needs basis. That means a humanitarian needs basis, above any consideration of what a person can bring in terms of money or managerial skills into the country. I know I'll get into some difficulty over that, but I believe that Australia has an extraordinarily rich pool of managerial business skills.
We have to accept that the influx of people is already truncated and severely limited. It is very, very difficult to get into this country, and we have to be able to extend the welcoming arm to those people who are in the most dire circumstances.
Question: What do you think of the support among some in corporate Australia for increasing immigration?
There is an outdated perception that if you are going to have business prosperity you have to have increases in population, and that includes increasing immigration per se. It's simply seen in economic terms. It's the wrong parameter. It says that immigration is based totally on self-interest and very circumscribed economic self-interest.
In Tasmania, time and again economic commentators and politicians of both major parties say that if Tasmania doubled its population we would have increased prosperity. They don't say that when we get to double we'd have to double it again, then double and double it again.
I don't go along with the idea that immigration policy should be a hand-servant to economic policy. We have to have an immigration policy based on need and on humanitarian ideals. With 80-100,000 people per annum coming into the country, immigration is very much less than it has been in the past compared to our overall population.