Asylum seekers on Manus Island create video teasing Prime Minister Scott Morrison
Refugee advocates attempting to expose the plight of boat people on Manus Island have ironically put together a video that looks more like a tourism pitch for the tropical destination; a Sydney councillor preselected by the Greens quits the party saying ‘environmentalists aren’t welcome’; and Morrison puts brakes on Turnbull’s road tax plan. POLITICAL WRAP
NSW
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- Government powerless to return people to Manus or Nauru
- Failure to identify 1000 asylum seekers in detention
Refugee advocates attempting to expose the plight of boat people on Manus Island have ironically put together a video that looks more like a tourism pitch for the tropical destination.
The 49-second clip features four refugees drinking coffee and playing with a football on what they describe as a “tropical island”.
In a nod to Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s past as boss of Tourism Australia the four refugees end the ad, which highlights that boat people had been on the island for six year, saying: “ScoMo where the bloody hell are you?”
It comes as the remaining refugee children held on Nauru left the island on Wednesday on a flight bound for the US.
“All of the children, all of the children are off Nauru,” Mr Morrison said.
The Daily Telegraph understands 531 refugees have so far been accepted into the US under the resettlement — 189 from Manus Island and 342 including 27 children from Nauru.
The video makes light of the refugees’ decision to attempt to come to Australia by boat instead of by plane.
“In six years of time I’ve had a lot of time to think mostly about my mode of transport,” says Shamindan Kanapathi before another refugee Amin Abofotil asks “do you want to go by boat or by plane?”.
Omar Mohammed Jack replies “by plane” to cheers of “OK good boy”.
Host of A Rational Fear podcast Dan Ilic, whose satirical comedy outfit created the video, defended the footage and urged Australians not to be fooled by the refugees’ smiling faces.
“While it does look idyllic … it was filmed two hours away from the prison camp they are locked up in at 6pm every night,” he said. “There is trash everywhere, no roads, little services, people line up for four hours for an ATM, there’s not much fresh food that comes to Lorengau (a town on Manus Island).”
The Daily Telegraph can also reveal the identity of refugee activists who were last week booted off the island for breaching their visas.
West Australian musician Dawn Barrington and Tasmanian Anne Moon were deported for interacting with refugees and asylum seekers in breach of visa rules.
The pair were not there on behalf of any organisations but were understood to be collecting consent forms to give activist medical group Doctors for Refugees access to the medical records of individuals on the island.
Doctors for Refugees president Barri Phatarfod said she was not aware of receiving any new medical files via Ms Moon or Ms Barrington but said the organisation collected consent forms through “concerned individuals”.
Dr Phatarfod said the files were used to advocate for the transfer of asylum seekers when health care was not available locally.
Doctors for Refugees would assist “any medical team to obtain appropriate healthcare for refugees”.
Grass is greener with Labor
By Clare Armstrong
A prominent Sydney councillor has quit the NSW Greens and dropped out of the race for the prized federal seat of Bennelong because she feels environmentalists were “not welcome” in the party.
City of Ryde councillor Edwina Clifton said she quit the Greens because the party did not have the “capacity to be effective” on climate change and environment issues.
She is now attempting to join Labor.
“The internal fighting has pitted the environmentalists against those concerned with social issues,” she said.
Ms Clifton had been preselected to run for the NSW Greens in Bennelong but will no longer contest the seat in any capacity.
Instead, she has thrown her support behind Labor Mayor and candidate for the state seat of Ryde, Jerome Laxale, revealing she has already applied to join his party.
“I absolutely think Labor … have a better chance of delivering action on climate change than the Greens,” she said.
Ms Clifton’s departure comes as internal party documents revealed hundreds of members of the NSW party have quit amid internal battles.
A NSW Greens spokesman said suggestions the party was not “truly focused” on the environment are “simply wrong”.
Morrison delays road tax until after federal election
EXCLUSIVE By Anthony Galloway and Tom Minear
The Morrison Government has slammed the brakes on a plan kickstarted by Malcolm Turnbull to change the way motorists are taxed to use the nation’s roads.
More than two years ago, Mr Turnbull announced the government would choose an “eminent Australian” to lead an inquiry into road pricing, which would see fuel excise, car registration, tolls and other charges scrapped and replaced with a single tax based on distances travelled.
The overhaul is widely backed by infrastructure groups who argue it would be fairer on motorists and ensure governments have enough money to spend on upgrading roads, as the fuel excise revenue stream dries up with the rise of electric vehicles.
But the government has failed to appoint anyone to head its road pricing inquiry, which former infrastructure minister Paul Fletcher had said would start “a 10 to 15 year journey” of reform.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal the inquiry has now been pushed back until after the election to avoid a potential political fight about what some MPs fear would be seen as a “new tax”.
A spokesman for Infrastructure Minister Michael McCormack said the government would look at pricing reforms for trucks first.
“Once heavy vehicle reform has been further progressed, the government will initiate work to investigate the costs and benefits of light vehicle road pricing,” the spokesman said.
“The government anticipates this will take place in the second half of 2019.”
“Heavy vehicle road reform is the logical starting point for any consideration of road user charging, given heavy vehicles already pay a road user charge and given the complexity of establishing the necessary institutional arrangements.”
It is understood a number of Liberal MPs are dead against looking at any kind of congestion pricing and were not keen on floating the controversial proposal so close to an election.
Mr Turnbull committed to the inquiry in 2016 after Infrastructure Australia recommended the user-pays system.
Infrastructure Australia acting chief executive Anna Chau told the Herald Sun recently that the organisation was still firmly backing the reforms.
Former Productivity Commission boss Peter Harris has said the inability of governments to embrace road pricing was the “greatest failure of my time in infrastructure” and would spark a “revenue crisis” in the years to come.
Opposition infrastructure spokesman Anthony Albanese declined to comment.
Commuters keen to pay by face recognition app
By Sophie Elsworth
Commuters are willing to use facial recognition technology that charges them each time they get on and off their mode of transport.
The technology has already become part of everyday life in China — in some cities it is used to verify commuters’ identities through camera technology installed at train stations.
Visa’s and Stanford University’s new Future of Transportation: Mobility in the age of the Megacity report, quizzed more than 20,000 people in 19 countries, including Australia, and found 54 per cent of Australians would be willing to try facial recognition or bluetooth technology when commuting.
Visa’s head of product for Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific Axel Boye-Moller said: “There’s a lot of work going on including some providers that are looking at biometric authentication in a transit environment.” He said this would allow commuters to do away with using a transport or bank card to pay for their commute. Instead, they could rely on facial recognition to pay by linking it up to an app that had their bank details.
University of Wollongong professor Katina Michael said commuters would be open to using biometrics because “they think they are being monitored anyway”.
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