Showing posts with label Eltham. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eltham. Show all posts

Sunday, October 02, 2016

Eltham protest a success

I have to congratulate the organisers of the protest against refugees being resettled in a retirement home here in Eltham, Melbourne. The rally attracted a lot of media attention. Eltham residents will now be aware that there is opposition to the plan.

As an example of the media coverage, here is the headline from the Daily Mail:



I'm not sure yet what the next step will be. There are council elections coming up, but I don't know if any candidates are willing to openly oppose the plan. I will be doing what I can to continue building up opposition (if you weren't aware there is an online petition that can be signed (Australian readers in particular might be interested in putting their name to it), with 2269 supporters to date - see here).

A European reader has informed me that it is common in places like Sweden for retirement homes to be used to house Middle-Eastern refugees. We in Eltham are facing the same problem, for instance, as the residents of the picturesque town of Kungsbacka in Halland, Sweden:
90-year-olds at a nursing home in Kungsbacka are in despair after the municipality forced them to move away. "Unethical and systematic discrimination," says the elderly professor.

And the same thing is happening in France. In the village of Bretteville-sur-Laize in Normandy, the former socialist mayor is suing townspeople for opposing plans to house Middle-Eastern refugees in a former retirement home.

My sympathies go out to these people, as we are all facing the same issue. It is a problem created by the liberal globalists who are currently in charge of the major parties. Here in Australia the Liberal Party is almost as bad as the Labor Party. It was the former Liberal leader, Tony Abbott, who is responsible for the immigration flow into Eltham, and the current Liberal Party Treasurer, Scott Morrison, is pushing for ongoing high rates of immigration into Australia:
Australia must embrace immigration, trade and foreign investment - or risk the prosperity of future generations, according to Treasurer Scott Morrison.

However, "it would be foolish for anyone to deny that there is concern about immigration in Australia," he will argue, according to an advance copy of the speech seen by Fairfax Media.

"The way to address it is not to be dismissive, but to engage on those concerns and have policies that effectively address them" - not to pull up the shutters.

"The same is true for our approach to foreign investment and trade, where our policies are delivering real economic benefits for Australians across the country. So we will continue to pursue immigration, trade and foreign investment policies that are focused on the national interest, by focusing on how Australians can participate and benefit from a growing economy, to boost wages, increase profits and raise our living standards."

It always amazes me how denatured these right-liberal men are. They see their country as nothing more than an economy. Don't worry, says Scott Morrison, if you find yourself living in a globalised society without any culture or tradition of its own - we'll try and make sure there's a dollar in it for you too, that'll keep you happy.

I so look forward to the day when the conservative grassroots breaks free of the Liberal Party and finds a home somewhere else.

Monday, September 26, 2016

Eltham Resistance

Last month I was sorry to report that a retirement village in my suburb of Melbourne (Eltham) had been bought by a Catholic agency and was going to used to house refugees alongside the elderly residents. It's a similar pattern to what is happening in places like Sweden and Germany.

There are some important updates to this story. I had a conversation with a councillor who told me that the refugees will not be just from Syria but from a range of places. There is a council election happening right now and unfortunately the choice seems to be between left-leaning candidates who want a Middle-Eastern refugee intake and right-leaning candidates who want to build units for Chinese investors. If I learn of any independent candidates I'll publicise this in a further post.

There is some resistance to the plans. A petition is up at Change.org which I'd encourage Victorian readers to sign (see here). There will also be a demonstration outside the local MP's office (Jenny Macklin) from 10.00am to 11.00am on Saturday 1st October (149 Burgundy St Heidelberg).

I'll repeat again the obvious. The current refugee system is irrational. The sensible option is to offer to resettle asylum seekers in countries which are the most similar in living standards and culture to those they are leaving. This would give no incentive to those who are economic migrants and it would be the least disruptive in terms of culture and identity to the host nation. The scheme could be funded from a pool paid into by the wealthier nations.

Hopefully the resistance in Eltham will grow over coming weeks.