What You Can Do

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How can you advocate for low immigration?

1. Write a letter to the Federal Minister for Immigration
2. Write a letter to your Member for Parliament
3. Make an appointment to see your Member for Parliament
4. Write a letter to your local council (Mayor or councillor)
5. Write a letter to the Editor of a newspaper when related stories are published

Use the following points in your letter or mention them in your visit to your local member:

One of SPA’s objectives is “To advocate low immigration rates while rejecting any selection based on race.”

• SPA lobbies for zero net migration. That means that we believe that the number of people that permanently leave the country (those that emigrate) should determine the number of people that are allowed to permanently enter the country (those that immigrate). Of course, SPA rejects the notion that immigrants should be selected on the basis of their race.
• SPA believes that a larger component of immigrants should be refugees. SPA supports an increase, even a doubling of refugees, in the Humanitarian Program rather than the current large proportion of skilled migrants. Skilled immigration from developing countries amounts to poaching skills from those nations that need them the most in order to improve their social and economic status. They have spent lots of money training their people only to loose the skills to another country.
• SPA would also like to see New Zealanders added to the Migration Program. That will mean that the Government retains control over the total intake. We note Net Overseas Migration is way over 100,000. This must be brought under 70,000 immediately and reduced further thereafter.
• SPA believes that the government should concentrate their efforts on workforce planning including training and/or retraining of their existing population. This would ensure that Australia has the skills that it needs rather than resort to bringing the skills from overseas. If we looked inwards to address skill shortages by increasing traineeships, apprenticeships and other workforce planning strategies rather than look at other countries, it would also address the significant issues of unemployment and underemployment in our society. For example, unemployment amongst IT workers in Australia is now 13 per cent – a function of the inflated Skills Program that has allowed in too many IT workers.
• SPA lobbies for an increase in foreign aid to the UN recommended 0.7 per cent of GDP. There are many forces driving people out of their own countries that make them seek refuge in countries like ours. Some of the economic problems can be addressed at source by an increase in foreign aid, properly directed. In a less direct sense, Australia can deal with the problems of asylum seekers at source if it addresses the social and environmental reasons that drive them away from their own countries. Many countries are overpopulated with high unemployment levels. It is imperative that people in such countries have access to full family planning services so that they can get birth rates down to replacement levels quickly. A greater proportion of our overseas aid budget should thus be directed to education of women, to reproductive health and the provision of contraception.
• SPA lobbies for the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. On the environmental side, many low-lying countries are likely to be inundated by rising seas that will accompany global warming. This will mean that we will be responsible for many environmental refugees. Every effort must be made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions so that this process is slowed and the atmosphere stabilised.