British people often express astonishment that I should chose to live in London rather than Australia. Well I lived in Tamworth, NSW, Australia for two years, and this story doesn’t surprise me at all. But it does provide you with a pretty fair hint as to the explanation for my decision – Australia has gone politically and socially backward over the past decade.
Tamworth City Council voted this week to spurn an offer by the Department of Immigration to resettle the families [five Sudanese refugee families] for fear it could lead to a repetition of the Cronulla riots, said the Mayor, James Treloar.
Cr Treloar told the Herald people were worried that allowing the families to move to Tamworth “could lead to a Cronulla riots-type situation. Ask the people at Cronulla if they want more refugees.”
He added that “of the 12 Sudanese people who live in Tamworth, eight have been before the courts for everything from dangerous driving to rape. These people don’t respect authority … they come from countries where there are outbreaks of TB [tuberculosis] and polio. How can we trust the department to screen those things?”
The council lacked the health services to support the families, he said. Claims that racist elements had guided the vote were “a media beat-up”, he said.
This is not some tiny Hicksville, but a city of more than 100,000 – one of the biggest in country NSW.
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