Scots ride a wave of support to stay here

Just 12 hours after they were meant to leave Australia for Scotland, Mark Green and his family found themselves riding a wave of public support.

Overwhelming mainstream support: Rebecca, Kelly and Mark Green with dog Maisie at Adelaide’s Brighton Beach on Thursday. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

Just 12 hours after they were meant to leave Australia for Scotland on a 10.40pm flight on Wednesday, Mark Green and his family found themselves riding a wave of public support in their ­battle for permanent residency.

While most citizenship battles are causes celebres for the chattering classes, the Green family is winning mainstream support that makes the case trickier for Immigration Minister Andrew Giles.

The reason is simple, and goes to logic – how is that a knockabout electrician who was invited to Australia 10 years ago to fill a gap in the labour market, and has worked his backside off ever since, can now be told to leave when the skills shortage is even worse?

Mr Green has renewed his 457 visa seven times since arriving in Australia and spent almost $200,000 trying to stay.

He is now on a bridging visa but with the help of a new immigration lawyer is arguing his case using the precedent of permanent residency being granted to the Nadesalingam family from Sri Lanka earlier in August.

Amid a packed schedule of interviews, Mr Green and his wife, Kelly, and daughter, Rebecca, spoke on Thursday of the public outpouring over their plight.

The argument for their staying become stronger when you reflect on how in 10 years their family has become so happily embedded in the South Australian community.

Aside from Mr Green’s work as a sparky, Kelly has worked almost the entire decade at one of SA’s most successful businesses, Vili’s in Richmond, a mega-bakery that supplies Cornish pasties, pies and sausage rolls to every supermarket in SA and many interstate.

Vili’s was started by a migrant, Hungarian-born Vili Milisits, which helps explain why the company is backing the Greens’ bid to stay with such enthusiasm.

The Nadesalingam after they were granted permanent visas.

“They actually threw a leaving party for me at work the other day, which was absolutely horrible,” Kelly said. “It was so sad. I’ve been there for nearly 10 years. They’re great people and I have made a lot of friends. Vili’s have been fantastic through what’s been such a stressful time for us.”

Rebecca Green is now 19 and has spent more than half her life in SA. She did well at Seaview High School, where her parents were forced to pay $8000 in annual fees to the state government school as non-citizens. Her dream now is to study a health course at the University of South Australia so she can work in aged care. “I can’t got to uni though, I couldn’t when I finished high school either, so I just have to wait until all this gets sorted out,” she says.

The Greens appeared on commercial radio station FIVEaa, which – with its strong suburban audience – was unable to find a single listener who wanted them deported. Several listeners said they supported an orderly immigration program but the Greens had come through the proper channels off the back of an invitation to migrate for work, and had already demonstrated a commitment to their new home.

The politics of the Greens’ case is also challenging for the Albanese government, with several Labor figures backing their cause, including federal Adelaide MP Steve Georganas and SA Premier Peter Malinauskas, whose phone call to Mr Giles was instrumental in him agreeing to extend the Greens’ stay for a month and consider their case. “I was very happy to provide some assistance where I could and would love to see a situation that would allow the Green family to stay,” Mr Malinauskas said on Thursday.

They have also been championed in SA by former journalist turned SA Best MLC Frank Pangallo, who said it was clear people wanted the Greens to stay.

“This is the land of a fair go,” he said. “All they have ever asked for is a fair go, and they didn’t get that fair go. It’s highlighted the complexity of our visa system and how difficult it is for people to get here, particularly in a crisis time when we need people like Mark working as an electrician and Rebecca wanting to work in aged care.

“The federal government is having a summit next month about jobs and the skills crisis and here we are booting skilled people out or asking them to start the whole process again. It’s crazy.”

Mr Green said the uncertainty around his future had taken a toll on his family but they had been buoyed by the public and political support. “We have got one more month so now we are just pleading with the minister,” he said. “There’s a lot of good people out there. The support we have had is just tremendous, overwhelming really. But we still need support. It’s only been a stepping stone.”

Mr Giles made no further comment on Thursday but The Australian understands the case is being looked at and an announcement will be made well within the one-month timeframe.