Muslim immigration likened to bird flu
By Nick Ralston
Herald Sun
Article from: AAP
August 23, 2007 03:12pm
A NSW Senate candidate has compared the immigration of Muslims to Australia to the bird flu and says it should stop.
Christian Democratic Party (CDP) Senate candidate Paul Green called today for a moratorium on Muslim immigration while a study on its social impacts was carried out.
He said it would be easier to carry out such a study with the country's Muslim population at 300,000, rather than three million at a later date.
A study would also give the Australian people a chance to have a say on the immigration program, Mr Green said.
He said that in the last 12 months, a number of local Muslim senior clerics had made statements that were not of “the Australian nature”.
“If there was bird flu coming from a people's group across the nation would we not halt, assess the risk management of what it means to Australia and then assess the factors and then say, is it not safe to continue that or withhold it until it is dealt with,” he said.
“We are saying there's cracks in the foundation, we need to address them.”
Mr Green said Australia would suffer the same fate as “Britain, France and Holland” unless the study was carried out.
However, he said the social impact study would not form part of any political deal done with the Liberal Party for preference swapping ahead of this year's federal election.
Christian Democrats leader Fred Nile said his party's immigration policy also called on a priority for Christians who have been persecuted, particularly in Muslim countries, to be allowed into Australia.
“It's a very broad policy, and it is certainly not racist,” Mr Nile said.
“We don't care where the people come from, what colour of the skin they are, we are happy to accept them, particularly the Christians who have been persecuted.”
Mr Nile said he believed the Federal Government was already starting to adopt some of the CDP policies.
