Australia’s asylum seeker debate has become "toxic" despite most Australian welcoming a multicultural society, according to Queensland’s Assistant Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Rob Cavalluci.
Mr Cavallucci – himself the grandson of Italian immigrants who fled their Italian farm ahead of German troops in the dying days of WWII – said the complexity of the issue made the debate hard.
“It is difficult to get your head around why the debate is so toxic, in some senses,” Mr Cavallucci said.
“It’s not a debate about whether they are welcome or not.
“It’s a debate about people smuggling and people smugglers and the fact that criminal gangs in foreign lands are running the agenda.
“And I think that is what gets lost in it a bit.”
Mr Cavallucci, who has in the past 12 months overseen Queensland’s new Cultural Diversity Policy to better integrate refugees into Queensland’s community, said the debate had become awkward.
“The actions of the federal government – whether it is the current government or the previous government – has really been a face-off between the government of the day and the gangs who run the smuggling of the day,” Mr Cavallucci said.
“And I think the secrecy of the debate and the kind of awkwardness of the debate really revolves that issue.”
Mr Cavalluci – who was interviewed for Brisbane Times’ Multicultural Brisbane project – said most Australians welcomed those with a “genuine claim for asylum”.
“But when they see the agenda being run by people smugglers, that is difficult issue to reconcile,” he said.
He said he understood why people felt frustrated by the asylum seeker debate.
“I mean my family came out here on a boat as well,” he said.
“So I am not someone who does not support the notion of coming to Australia out of necessity.”
Mr Cavallucci said Queensland was “the best in the world” at multiculturalism and had successfully integrated migrants for a long time.
“Here in Queensland, we have proven ourselves to be the best at it in the world, in terms of achieving a multicultural society,” he said.
“All you have to do is look at Europe and ask whether they have been a multicultural success story."
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