Asylum seeker handouts scrapped: Australian taxpayers to save $25 million a Year

[nero_bolt]

Long over due and the only people that will be crying is the lawyers that were bleeding the system  and the bleeding heart lefties..

Why should our tax  money pay for illegals with no papers to rort the system 

Well done Scott Morrision

TAXPAYERS will save $25 million a year after the Abbott government today scraps free immigration assistance to ­asylum seekers.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison last night said Australia’s protection obligations did not extend to providing free immigration help to those who arrived in Australia ­illegally.

He said, as promised before the election, that from today, people who arrived illegally by boat or air would no longer be helped through the Immigration Advice and Application Assistance Scheme.

But he said the withdrawal of the taxpayer help would not prevent people receiving legal assistance, saying those who wished to provide immigration advice and application assistance pro bono were free to do so.

The government continues to roll out its Operation ­Sovereign Borders suite of policies after notching at the weekend 100 days without a successful people smuggling venture making it to Australia. The government expects the withdrawal of the free assistance will save the budget $100 million over four years

If people choose to violate how Australia chooses to run our refugee and humanitarian program, they should not presume upon the support and assistance that is provided to those who seek to come the right way, and they should certainly not receive additional assistance, as they did under the previous government,’’ Mr Morrison said.

‘‘Services that have commenced will be ­completed, but the IAAAS will not continue for any additional part of the process that would incur an additional fee

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/asylum-seeker-handouts-scrapped-australian-taxpayers-to-save-25...

[i-need-a-martini]

Did I say 40% somewhere? I can't find it and I can't recall what I was referring to.

My post wasn't directed at your comments particularly.

Perhaps the problem with this thread is that people confuse legal aid with legal representation (ie. engagement, courts etc). 

Legal aid (support, advice, assistance, referrals) is is exactly what the Legal Aid departments in each state do for free. When that aid turns into legal representation (hiring a lawyer, taking cases to court etc), then there is a means tested cost for lawyers, courts etc.

It is the same with the funding for this department. They do not provide free legal REPRESENTATION. Just aid.

[bluecat*dancing]

Us and them mentality and misinformation about asylum seekers is detrimental to the very soul of this country. Sad to see vulnerable people being used as political footballs. Sad to see our fellow human beings being treated as if they are sub human.

[*crikey*mate*]

and Martini, may I please ask where you are getting your information from?

It seems that the source disregards the conditions that others have to abide by.

We have kids who have been in the camps since young, completed most of if not all of their schooling in there and then been waiting another 4 or 5 years to be allowed to come here, just to stay whilst at uni, fully sponsored kids, and we can't even jump enough hoops to get those kids here, far less their entire families, or for permanency. Because they don't have any papers.

Why are their lives worth less than those who decide they don't want to wait in the camps?

I'll never understand that.

[i-need-a-martini]

What information? I'm not sure what you are asking me to provide. Not sure how we got to kids schooling either. Or who suggested anyones lives are more valuable than other? 

And I am not sure how any of that relates to my post on the definition of legal aid.

Sorry to sound blonde but I seem to have missed some links somewhere.

[bluecat*dancing]

I don't get it either.

Those in detention centres have nothing to do with those in refugee camps and vice versa. Lobby the government to do something about those in refugee camps but don't place  blame on those who sought help through other channels. Not everyone has access to the camps. In some regions of the world they are non existant.

[just_me_karen]

This thread is about removing assistance to asylum seekers. It has nothing to do with Australian education or legal aid.

Here's a reminder:

"TAXPAYERS will save $25 million a year after the Abbott government today scraps free immigration assistance to ­asylum seekers.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison last night said Australia’s protection obligations did not extend to providing free immigration help to those who arrived in Australia ­illegally.

He said, as promised before the election, that from today, people who arrived illegally by boat or air would no longer be helped through the Immigration Advice and Application Assistance Scheme.

But he said the withdrawal of the taxpayer help would not prevent people receiving legal assistance, saying those who wished to provide immigration advice and application assistance pro bono were free to do so."

That's copied from the OP.

Asylum seekers in our offshore concentration camps are denied access to assistance. Basically, they're locked behind razor wire and unable to request legal help because lawyers' names aren't given to them...,and those lawyers who want to help are unable to access asylum seeker names.

Just to top it off, the official lawyer was deported (for the second time).

Last night there were another two suicides. One man from Iraq and the other from Pakistan.

How appalling that some agree with what is happening. They claim it saves drowning, but it's patently obvious that anyone who supports this cruelty wouldn't care about drowning. Devoid of human ethics.

[bluecat*dancing]

The informed speak; the ignorant bleat.

[icyfroth]

---

@i-need-a-martini wrote:

What information? I'm not sure what you are asking me to provide. Not sure how we got to kids schooling either. Or who suggested anyones lives are more valuable than other? 

And I am not sure how any of that relates to my post on the definition of legal aid.

Sorry to sound blonde but I seem to have missed some links somewhere.

---

"Sorry to sound blonde"

I consider that a racist comment. You're inferring that blonde people are automatically dumb.

You would never tolerate that sort of comment if some referred to a person of a black or arabic of chinese person in that way, so why would you use it against a blonde (white) person?

What you should have just said is "sorry to sound dumb".

[bluecat*dancing]

lol. how could that be construed as being racist?

[*crikey*mate*]

---

@bluecat*dancing wrote:

I don't get it either.

Those in detention centres have nothing to do with those in refugee camps and vice versa. Lobby the government to do something about those in refugee camps but don't place  blame on those who sought help through other channels. Not everyone has access to the camps. In some regions of the world they are non existant.

---

part of my point was that those in detention centres, who this is aimed at, those who arrive by boat, have come here predominately, if not exclusively from/through Indonesia.

The purpose of asylum is safety. There are places in Indonesia they can be safe. But they choose to circumvent those and avoid the wait, by paying people smugglers to bring them here.

If we want people to stop using people smugglers, we have to remove all the benefits that make them seem like a good idea.

This is NOT aimed at all those who seek asylum. It's in the OP. Only those who pass by a place of safety in order for something better.

Fair enough, I'd like something better too, BUT to seek asylum, is to seek safety, to seek more is immigration.