Australian visa.
Good thing the government gets to decide who comes to Oz.
Posted on 08/21/2009 9:01:06 PM PDT by myknowledge
KEVIN Rudd has decreed his government will never "get a permit slip from another country" before deciding who should receive a visa to enter Australia, as the Coalition made contradictory statements about whether it agreed a visit by Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer should have been allowed.
In a statement reminiscent of John Howard's "I will determine who comes to this country" pledge on asylum seekers, Mr Rudd said yesterday: "The government I lead is one where Australia makes decisions on who it issues visas to or not. The Liberal Party is now saying that when it comes to Australia's visa policy we've got to get a permit slip from another country, in this case China."
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman and deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop has accused the Rudd government of "bungling" the issuing of the visa to Ms Kadeer and of "failing to work constructively with China".
She told The Weekend Australian that the Coalition was not criticising the decision to give Ms Kadeer a visa, but rather the way the bilateral relationship had been mishandled.
"The opposition agrees with the granting of the visa to Rebiya Kadeer ... but we would not have let the relationship deteriorate so far ... deteriorate to near crisis point," she said.
Former Howard government immigration minister Philip Ruddock said on Thursday that issuing the visa was "certainly a mistake" but then said yesterday that his comments had been taken out of context. "It cannot be dealt with in a yes-no answer," he told ABC radio.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.news.com.au ...
Australian visa.
Good thing the government gets to decide who comes to Oz.
being an island continent kinda helps :p
So just what is Kadeer planning to do in Oz?
When you guys get gun rights back, I’ll be filling out my immigration papers. I would love to live there and escape the mess happening here.
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