During the election campaign for Wills, we were invited to a candidate forum where refugees were discussed. Here we explore how Fusion's values guide our approach to the issue.
The refugee forum was organised by the Asylum Seeker Refugee Centre (ASRC). A highlight video is below, showing a partially restored version of the speech by our Wills candidate, Owen Miller. Unfortunately the ASRC's video happened to cut out during that part of the evening.
The full video (with video partially missing for Owen) is available here.
On the stage were speakers from (stage left to stage right) Labor, Socialist Alliance, The Greens, and Fusion.
It's worth mentioning that at the event, scorecards were being handed out which were recommending The Greens and entirely omitting Socialist Alliance and Fusion. On the scorecard was a claim that the ASRC does not endorse any political party or candidate − the exclusively green ticks for one party and the criticism (or omission) of everyone else is not an endorsement🤷
But back to our views on the topic − you'll see in the recording that our main priorities in this space are:
- Ensuring that our legal system is fit for purpose. This isn't just for refugees, but refugees can be considered as the canary in the coal mine, seeming as they have fewer rights than others in Australia.
- Ensuring that we move to digital-first, open-source processes that can scale the provision of government services. This means that we never get massive backlogs that motivate the "temporary" suppression of people's rights, and it means that we can more easily accept more migrants if the situation arises.
- Ensuring Australia behaves better as a global citizen. This is fundamental to our Australian values and to our standing on the world stage. We are not big enough to pursue peace through military deterrence − we need to pursue peace through diplomacy and soft power.
I focus on these root causes rather than prescriptive immigration policies because these would be longer-lasting and more substantive. Fusion's mission is to collaborate widely throughout society, to deeply explore underlying issues, and to build consensus for long-term solutions.