Key is better targeted immigration

Cutting the cap is not the answer

The Coalition will cut immigration only for Labor to open the gates for the bleeding hearts (“PM expects migration cap to be cut by 30,000”, 20/11). Both policies are wrong. My European family fled the Warsaw that director Roman Polanski so aptly depicted in The Pianist. My mother was partly educated in a displaced persons camp in Germany until a spot for her parents opened in Australia in 1952. That’s seven years in a camp then straight into an Adelaide school with no English beyond “hello”.

After arriving by ship my grandparents didn’t pick or choose where to live. Shunting trains for two years and cleaning and typing in a hot railway shed was their fate. This was simply how it was to flee the bombs, bullets and ruins. They didn’t complain. Not even the “wog” or the then derogatory term “new Australian”. They were grateful to be safe.

It’s not less immigration that Australia needs. Perhaps we should start calling it out — we need migrants, those who want to be here and aren’t targeting the Centrelink offices of outer Sydney or Melbourne. Let’s start looking more closely at the quality of the people who are a part of the next generation of true Australians.

Simon Inglis, Ararat, Vic

Cuts to immigration numbers will do little to appease legitimately angry Australians so long as the sacred cow humanitarian resettlement program is left in its current format. Given how many disastrously culturally incompatible “refugees” have been imported under it, people might wonder if the UNHCR has been deliberately putting forward refugees with poor prospects of integration to provoke social conflict and destroy our formerly socially cohesive country from within. A solution would be to suspend it and revert to the postwar system in which only culturally compatible refugees are hand picked and taken directly to places where jobs are going begging, to be offered work, not welfare, for at least their first four years.

Judith Loriente, Balmoral Qld

Fix terror tracking

Following the killing of Sisto Malaspina by terrorist Hassan Khalif Shire Ali and the many questions about the performance of security, police services and Victorian ministers, three men have now been arrested over another alleged terrorist plot (“Melbourne terror raids: three men charged over plot designed for ‘maximum casualties’”, 20/11).

While the capacity of protective services to prevent terrorism is limited, it must be given top priority in monitoring suspects. But despite removal of his passport, and frequent attendance at Muslim prayer bodies, Shire Ali was not.

Information about potential activists must be fully exchanged between state and federal agencies and ministers. Despite the initial denial by Victorian Attorney-General Pakula (“ASIO, Home Affairs contradict Martin Pakula on Shire Ali’s passport”, 19/11), this now appears to have been the case. This avoidance of facts, and failure to stop Shire Ali, calls for the resignation of Pakula.

Most importantly, federal and state governments need to review what appear to be serious deficiencies in arrangements for preventing terrorist activity.

Des Moore, South Yarra, Vic

Grace and courage

For years Grace Collier has been one of the most fearless columnists highlighting the rorts of management and unions in our workforce. In her recent column (“Hello, nice to finally meet you, this is my true identity”, 17-18/11) she revealed another form of courage and emotional resilience in telling us her personal story of her adopted life from childhood and how she yearned to seek out her family roots. This she has done, and Katrina Grace Kelly, you are welcome in our household anytime.

H. and G. Derrick, Sherwood, Qld