It would take just five minutes to fix this shameful problem | David Penberthy
Perhaps if Mark Green was an ISIS bride, Australia might have treated his family decently, writes David Penberthy.
Opinion
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If he had his time over, Scottish electrician Mark Green might have handled his bid to secure permanent residency differently.
Rather than coming here legally at the invitation of Australia to help fill gaps in the local jobs market, Mark might have instead married someone who was a frontline terrorist fighting for Islamic State. That’s one way to win the right to live in Australia.
Or Mark might have arrived illegally in a rickety boat instead and secured a temporary protection visa, only to have it converted to residency with the stroke of a pen thanks to the generosity of the Albanese Government. That method has just worked for around 19,000 people who found out last week that they’re now allowed to stay.
Mark Green failed to do either of these things. The silly bugger accepted an invitation to come to Adelaide 10 years ago and to toil away every day of his working life installing solar panels. Unlike the ISIS brides and the illegal arrivals, he also paid his taxes, sorted out his own housing, and as a non-citizen had no entitlement to any form of welfare, nor any desire to claim any given he was earning a wage.
On account of being a non-citizen, he even paid a hefty annual fee to send his daughter to the local state high school.
But for the past seven months, despite having shown a demonstrated work ethic and commitment to our nation, Mark Green and his family have been living in limbo.
Due to a stuff-up involving his visa which was the fault of a former employer who went bust, Mark, his wife Kelly and daughter Rebecca were due to be deported in August.
They won a 30-day reprieve, in part because of the intervention of the South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas, who brought the Greens’ case to the attention of the Federal Immigration Minister Andrew Giles and explained they were people of good character who deserved a fair hearing. But during that 30-day reprieve, no decision on their status was made. The case was deferred for another three months, and when that time limit expired, deferred again for another three.
I spoke to Mark Green late last year about the effect all this was having on his family. This is a family which could not have assimilated any more into our community if it tried.
Aside from Mark’s work, Kelly has also been working at Adelaide’s iconic Vili’s Bakery, where her many workmates threw her a very moving farewell last year when it looked like they might be given the bum’s rush and ordered on a plane back home. Rebecca has finished Year 12 and has dreams of being a nurse, but as a non-citizen is not allowed to study at university, and is also prevented under the immigration rules from working more than 15 hours a week.
“We are trying to be patient, but it is becoming pretty hard,” Mark told me last year. “We just want to be able to start our lives properly here, to get a mortgage and place some roots here. As a father, I am particularly concerned about Rebecca. She wants to study nursing and because of our visa status … she can’t study anything.
“We love this country and we want to be able to stay so we can keep putting back into it.”
Just to be clear, the Federal Minister has the authority to let the Greens stay at the stroke of a pen. It sets no precedent. There have been many of other cases where previous ministers have used their ultimate and discretionary power to grant people permanent residency.
Indeed, Mr Giles himself used that power last year to grant permanent residency to the Nadesalingam family from Sri Lanka, living in the Queensland town of Biloela, even though they were found not be refugees.
So what’s the hold-up?
I am not sure if the Albanese Government has fully thought through the political implications of forcing the Green family to leave Australia, should it ultimately do so.
The ISIS brides decision was hugely contentious.
The compassion shown to the holders of Temporary Protection Visas and Safe Haven Enterprise Visas raised a few eyebrows, too, given the scale of the generosity shown to these 19,000 people who arrived unlawfully prior to the commencement of Operation Sovereign Borders.
If the Government says no to a family that was actually invited here at our behest, and has done nothing but work hard ever since, the logic of our immigration program will be exposed as bankrupt.
Home Affairs Minister Claire O’Neil and her department can have no concerns about the bona fides of this family.
And as for Mr Giles, well, the Immigration Minister accidentally enunciated the best argument in favour of letting the Green family stay when he explained his thinking behind giving the green light for those 19,000 asylum seekers to remain here.
“TPV and SHEV holders work, pay taxes, start businesses, employ Australians and build lives in our communities, often in rural and regional areas. Without permanent visas however, they’ve been unable to get a loan to buy a house, build their businesses or pursue further education. It makes no sense – economically or socially – to keep them in limbo.”
What he said. It makes no sense economically or socially to keep them in limbo.
The Minister can head into his office on Monday and make this decision. The whole process will be so completely non-onerous that he will be done by 9.05am. He risks nothing other than good headlines for doing the right and sensible thing by a demonstrably good family who’ve already done a lot for our country.
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