Bob Brown; not all bad.
Austrolabe, and later Catallaxy have raised the issue of the inherent xenophobia within the Greens, publishing the comments of, 'increasingly demented and despotic Bob Brown' on the questioning of migrant doctors after the UK terrorism attacks.
Mr Brown says all immigrants should be screened just as thoroughly as asylum seekers.
“Maybe there’s a wake-up here to the Government, which has been very keen to bring in people who have more than a quarter of a million dollars,” he said.
“That will buy you a way straight into Australia, if you’ve got that in your back pocket, or with high skills, but they need to be no less vetted than the poorest person.” http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/03/1968884.htm?section=australia
I always knew the Greens were against immigrants and Catallaxy got it right with the headline, ‘Greens stirring up xenophobia’, Austrolabe wasn’t quite as on the ball with, ‘Greens: Let’s fear the Foreign Doctor’ but at least they tried;
‘Greens Senator Bob Brown is in the media arguing that the arrest ‘proves’ highly-skilled immigrants, such as overseas doctors, are not being vetted appropriately and therefore pose a security risk’
Yes, that’s exactly what he said, read it again, that’s how it reads to me. These bleeding hearts going around suggesting he wasn’t saying that at all are just trying to be tricky. This proves it, the Greens must be racist.
Not that I disagree with his sentiments entirely, but it annoys me that the Greens get extra kudos for this imaginary nonsense that they are all multicultural friendly. It’s simply tricky, tricky, tricky.
If the Greens keep this up I might have problems stopping the wife voting for them at the next election. Then again, if they keep this up, and drop the silly global warming business, they might be WORTH voting for.
My father in law was a doctor, so I think I can write with some credibility on these medical terrorisms matters.
3 comments:
This proves it, the Greens must be racist.
Really? I thought the Catallaxy headline was stoush magnet hyperboly.
The Greens immigration policy as I understand it is that we should slow it down in order to establish sustainable practices that would enable to have a larger population (eg water management). Priority should be given to immigrants in need (ie refugees).
The Greens are also motivated by an internationalist sentiment to restrict the emmigration of professionals from their underdeveloped countries. They feel that they should be helping build their own countries.
This is oversimplistic but it's basically what they believe.
I believe these goals have noble motivations, supremely flawed method, are profoundly impractical and would probably result in economic penalties and unforeseen injustice.
But neither Brown's statement as linked by you nor anything else you've said prove that Brown or any other Green is racist.
This is what Brown said in your link
Maybe theres a wake-up here to the Government, which has been very keen to bring in people who have more than a quarter of a million dollars," he said...
That will buy you a way straight into Australia, if you've got that in your back pocket, or with high skills, but they need to be no less vetted than the poorest person.
He talking rich/poor different standards. He also seems to be making errors about security standards and immigration classifications.
But he's not saying anything racist.
And demented? Despotic? Hardly? Were a despot to take over the Greens and turn it into a nightmare of Pol Pot dementions it wouldn't be this guy.
But I guess its easier than simply discussing his ideas and suggestions intelligently and making counterpoint...
Oh well. Welcome to the Wingnut Brigade. You've got plenty of company.
Hi Adrien
Thanks for your constructive criticism. I find the phrase wingnut really interesting, but I thought, from my limited reading that the complementary term for a rigid left wing ideologue was a Moonbat. Can you shed some light on this matter?
My reference to Bob Brown as, ''increasingly
demented and despotic' came from the link attached to the quote. I don't think I'm really qualified yet to make a judgement on quite how demented or despotic he is, but I'm working on it.
Taking your arguments on Bob Browns feelings on immigration, perhaps the Catallaxy headline wasn't too far off the mark. Wouldn't it serve the Greens policy to stir up xenophobia?
It also doesn't detract from my suggestion that the Greens get bonus kudos from the perception that they are all multicultural friendly. They may well be fine with different races and creeds but only as long as they don't cause a drain on the environment by coming here? And isn't that really no different to the old argument that immigration should be minimised to prevent foreigners taking all the jobs?
I'm just starting this blog and hopefully, in the future I will be able to better analyse commentary such as Bob Brown's. At the moment I'm really just fleshing out my basic viewpoints for new readers.
Nonetheless, thanks heaps for your comments, it also gave me a chance to check out your own blog
and I found your post on, '
The Rights and Morals of Nations' very interesting, well written and backed up with some great research. Even though I don't agree with a lot of your arguments. If I get a chance I will pop over and leave a comment.
Cheers and keep up the good work.
Xavier
Thanks for the interest in the Nations' rights post. Not to shamelessly self-promote but if you're interested in that you might be interested in this as well.
I don't think the Greens stance in necessarilly the same as the foreigners taking our jobs argument. Neither is necessarilly rooted in xenophobia. But the ecological arguments about immigration (not that I endorse them) do have a sound basis that the job argument doesn't. Immigrants create more employment. However ecologically there are limits to the resources of any geographical zone. Water for example is comparatively scarce in this country and an immigration intake that outstrips sustainable use of water will eventually lead to problems.
That said I don't think the answer is to cancel economically advantageous immigration.
The Greens' immigration policy might benefit from xenophobia but they're not likely to push that button. Most of the Greens are left-liberal professional types for whom xenophobia is unacceptable. Regardless the comparison with (fellow ecologists) Nazis etc the Greens are composed of people who just won't take that road. Of course the composition of the party might shift and that might change.
There is nothing inherently right or left-wing about green politics. In fact some of the most effective eco-politicians are from the right: Teddy Roosevelt, Arnold Schwarzanegger etc.
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