Religions for Peace Australia lauds the Australian Government, its departments and agencies for the rapid response to Covid-19 and concurs that the actions of the National Cabinet and the government have bought themselves time to find a way out of the crisis. Religions for Peace Australia would like to draw attention to those who have fallen through the gaps in welfare and support from Centrelink and Medicare with no resources to support themselves, especially those on temporary visas.
Many other protections are being explored and resourced at this time, all of them aimed at protecting the community: the resourcing and stockpiling of PPE packages, construction of ventilators, creation of extra intensive care beds in hospitals and legal protection of front-line healthcare workers. These steps provide for protection of our community in many dimensions and give evidence to care and attention the National Cabinet and the government are giving to the needs of this time, the needs of all Australians.
The imposition of lockdown measures to get ahead of the curve and the engagement of law-enforcement agencies to protect our borders and self-isolation requirements are all laudatory actions that deserve the recognition and thanks of a great nation that is being protected by strong leadership.
Actions by Religions for Peace Australia
The Chair, Religions for Peace Australia, Emeritus Professor Desmond Cahill OAM has met on several occasions with the executive – who come from all states and represent all religions – to summarise what actions our networks have been undertaking and to bring the Prime Minister and Minister Tudge (acting Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs) updates on our works and offer of Religions for Peace Australia’s network assistance.
On 20 February the National Executive of Religions for Peace Australia called an emergency meeting and met with multifaith leaders in several states about Covid-19. As a consequence we made a joint COVID-19 CRISIS – AN INTERFAITH STATEMENT. We hope this statement will be helpful on a number of levels- practically, spiritually etc. We have sent this statement to many groups including Ministers in the Federal Parliament.
On Friday the 3rd of April there was a second COVID 19 meeting of the Religions for Peace Australia-wide network plus other religious leaders. Again, religious leaders from all Australian states and territories participated. At this meeting several welfare issues were raised:
Temporary Visa Holders/ Safe Haven Enterprise Visa Holders
- Temporary Visa Holders (in Urban and Regional Australia) are not covered under Jobkeeper nor Centrelink arrangements. For example, fruit pickers in Shepparton have work for about 6-8 more weeks but after that there will be little work for them. There are many overseas students who cannot return to their home countries due to closure of national borders and airlines shutting down routes. International students are required to guarantee they can support themselves in their first year of study. Many students had part time jobs – often in the hospitality industry – which has since gone into lockdown with no work available for them – have little or no money for a ticket home.
- We are concerned about International students in Year 2 and 3 who are near to completion of their studies. We suspect and hear that some Registered Training Organisations and new universities do not appear to be assisting students with reducing their fees nor with practical help such as where to get food. Currently there is no assistance package for this group and getting home is not easy.
- There are young backpackers in cities and regional areas who have lost their jobs and have no money for accommodation or food and can’t go home due to closure of national borders and airlines shutting down routes. There are asylum seekers on TPV and Safe Haven Enterprise Visas who have no access to Centrelink Payments or Jobkeeper arrangements and have lost their job. These peoples receive no economic or welfare assistance from the Australian government.
We draw attention to Minister Tudge’s statement on Saturday 4 April (Coronavirus and Temporary Visa Holders) and we seek leave to pass some observations on the visa holders mentioned the above three points:
Wage theft and underpayment of staff was brought to national awareness by the 7/11 issue which then led to restaurants being exposed, and Coles – Woolworths being exposed for chronic underpayment of staff. TPV and SHEV holders in regional Australia engaged in temporary work have little or no recourse to the strategies taken up in established and more visible workplaces.
Those who are on temporary visas and work in part-time or casual work in primary industry are often paid in cash or underpaid. Most will have little or no superannuation funds to draw on. Also these visa categories have been an important part of our economy and our future recovery. Quite a number of such visa categories come from the developing world and Pacific Islands where their families and health systems may not be able to support them if they return home.
On a practical level the communities of such categories (1-3 above) will remember how they were treated during this COVID crisis and this could affect the recovery of Australia’s education industry, seasonal worker visa program and Pacific Islander work programs.
Religions for Peace Australia – and many religious leaders who have met in concert with us – feel that it is morally and ethically concerning that during this COVID 19 crisis the Australian Government has decided that the Temporary Visa holders and Safe Haven Enterprise Visa holders (1-3 above) – who have helped develop our economy – are to be sent home, rather than have a package to support them and acknowledge their contribution to our productivity, progress and prosperity.
We congratulate the Government on the many economic packages put together and the efforts to buy time to find a way out of this national health crisis.
Notwithstanding the excellent work of the National Cabinet and the Australian Government, there remains a pertinent, overriding moral and ethical challenge to provide for the welfare of these visa groups Religions for Peace Australia – along with our participating religious leaders – have drawn attention to. We ought not to suffer the lapse of welfare and care for those temporary workers and residents who contribute to our national welfare and human flourishing as they do.
