Subject: CND-EP Special for Austrilia, July 12, 1990

From: Bo Xiong <yawei>
Date: Tue, 10 Jul 90 23:20:56 -0500

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=====================  Europe / Pacific Section (CND-EP) =====================
                                 July 12, 1990

                 Special Issue on Immigration Affairs 
          Regarding Chinese Students in Australia (Series VII)
            (This issue is distributed to Australia only)

---------------------------- Table of Contents ---------------------------
No. Subject                                                     # of Lines

1. New Regulation on Chinese Nationals in Australia.....................70

2. Welfare of Chinese Students in Australia Is up to All of Us..........50
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1. New Regulation on Chinese Nationals in Australia
=====================================================================(70 lines)
Dear CND editor: 

The following news is about the new regulation on Chinese nationals in 
Australia which specifies the range of the rights people can have in the 
PRC special category and about which many Chinese students in Australia 
are concerned. Would you please forward this news to your readers in your 
next CND-EP edition?

A CND Reader
****** 
Canberra, Australia
10 July 1990

******************************************************************************
             New Regulation on Chinese Nationals in Australia
                 Media Release, Minister for Immigration,
                 Local Government and Ethic Affairs
                          10 July, 1990                 
******************************************************************************
       Successful Asylum Seekers to Have Access to Government Services

  Successful asylum claimants who are given four-year temporary residence 
permits under the government's new refugee and humanitarian policy will be 
given access to variety of Government services.

  CHINESE nationals who were in Australia on 20 June 1989 who are allowed to 
stay in Australia for four years under special temporary residence arrangement 
annouced recently will be given the same access.

  This was annouced today in a joint statement by the Minister for Immigration, 
Local Government and Ethic Affairs, Mr Gerry Hand, and the Minister for 
Finance, Mr Ralph Willis.
  
  The services are Special Benefit, Family Allowance, Family Allowance 
Supplement, Medicare, labour market programs, English language training and 
education.
  ......
    
  The government considered that is Special Benefit was denied to people in 
desperate need, it could lead to cases of severe hardship and destitution with
a consequential impact on the voluntary sector.

  Thus it was decided to extend the Benefit to the Chinese and other asylum 
seekers given temporary residence, but only where server hardship was 
demonstrated. There would be no automatic entitlement to it.

  On Medicare, the Ministers said access to the program was considered 
essential for survival.  ......

  Access to labour markets, they said, was highly desirable to encourage self-
sufficiency, to maximise likely useful contribution to the economy, and reduce 
the potential use of Social benefits. Successful claimants would be able to
participate in the FULL integrated range of labour market programs.

  The Ministers said a facility with the English language was fundamental to 
participation in the labour market and in community activities, and the 
government considered that the provision of language training to survival 
level was entirely appopriate.

  Access to the Adult Migrant Education Program would be given to all except 
those who had studies under English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas 
Students (ELICOS) programs.

  Any additional vocational language needs would be accessed on a case-by-case 
basis and met by labour market programs of the Department of Employment, 
Education and Training. 

  On other education needs, the Ministers sais access would be given to primary 
and secondary education and to the English-as-a-Second-Language program for the 
children of CHINESE and other successful asylum cliamants.

  The benefit will be available after the introduction of a new class of four-
year temporary Permit on 1 August 1990.

  Asylum seekers who lodged applications before 27 June 1990 will be able to 
gain access to these benefits by withdrawing their outstanding applications 
and reapplying under the new refugee and humanitarian arrangements last week.

Canberra, 10 July 1990
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2. Welfare of Chinese Students in Australia Is up to All of Us
=====================================================================(50 lines)
Newsgroups: aus.culture.china
>From: [email-masked] (Anthony Lee)
Date: 10 Jul 90 03:57:00 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Department, The University of Queensland, 
              Brisbane, Australia

I have no idea how many people are reading this newsgroup but there
is something very important I feel we must get across to the community of
Chinese students and probably the wider Australian community.

Many Chinese students, mainly student leaders e.g. Zhang Xuedong of 
National Union of Chinese Students (in Canberra) have
worked very hard to represent Chinese students in Australia.  In many
cases we give very little recognition of their efforts.   Many of us even
complain about their efforts.  In my opinion all student leaders have
done a very good job and I feel that it is about time the rest of the
Chinese students in this country start pulling their weight.  

All have us have their problems and hardship.  Whatever they may be
we should say to ourselves this.  "Do we want to survive ?"
My answer would be "yes", we need to because the future of China is
on our shoulders.  The students in China can no longer oppose a evil
and feudal government.  Therefore we ought it to our country to survive
in Australia.  It is time we forget about "me" and think about "us".

I propose that all Chinese students concern about their situation
should join the National Union and all other student organisations 
around the country should become sister organisations of the National
Union. Students joining the organisation should pay a membership fee.
This membership fee should be used to hire clerical and legal staff
in various states.  Those staff will work for the student leaders.
This would free the student leaders from clerical and legal work.
They can continue their studies and use other time to work out strategies
with advice from the legal staff.  

The membership of this national organisation should be voluntary but
student who won't join will have to represent themselves.
The student leaders of this organisation can just be the current leaders.
We can have some voting procedure if necessary but I do not want to
create more work for the student leaders.

This organisation should represent student welfare e.g. students who
have already lodged applications for PR.  Currently the Australian
government is encouraging students to withdraw their applications.
This is grossly unfair because they are forcing to joing the immigration
queue again in four years time by which stage there will be another
four years of applicants ahead of us in the queue.

Note, all these are only proposals and we need to have further discussion.
There is still one month to go (August) before the final detail of the
government's policy emerged but we cannot be complacent.

Finally, could someone passed this onto Zhang Xuedong and the gang down
there in ANU.

cheers Anthony
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