vanstone must be sacked!!

From Crikey.com

Another Liberal detention dissident emerges


By Christian Kerr

A ham fisted immigration minister with all the subtlety of a grand piano falling 30 stories – see the transcript of this morning's AM – running a cruel, incompetent and unaccountable department isn't just an ugly mix. It's deeply disturbing. And it's worrying more and more members of the Howard Government.

Unity – or the appearance of unity and unanimity – has always been one of the government's strong points, but the depth of distress unleashed by the Cornelia Rau and Vivian Solon cases is disturbing more and more Coalition MPs. Other aspects of the heavy-handed tactics by the lad from immigration seem to have won Petro Georgiou, the leader of the internal revolt against the government's immigration policy, a new recruit: Louise Markus, the neophyte MP for Greenway in Sydney's Hills district.

Markus is playing it very softly-softly, though. She's only raised her concerns in her local paper, the Blacktown Sun. Last week the Sun reported how a local student, 16-year-old Blacktown High pupil Valentia Gythalovesa, had been hauled off to Villawood Detention centre after her Indonesian parents overstayed their visas.

Valentia is the second child from the area detained in recent months. 14-year-old Sylvestre Aben was taken from his home to Villawood in February. He has since won approval to stay in Australia.

Immigration rules say that Valentia is entitled to stay with a close relative or family friend, rather than being in detention.

Staff from the school contacted Markus, who was initially polite but non-committal in her reply. “The family has not contacted me to ask for my assistance at this stage. Obviously, if they do, I would be pleased to examine their case and express my support to the minister if appropriate,” the Sun reported last week.

Things have clearly moved quickly. This week the Sun reports that Markus has promised to lobby on Valentia's behalf, and she has agreed to meet the Blacktown High School community to discuss the matter further. Markus, according to the Sun, has also been in contact with the Department of Immigration and is organising to meet with Valentia's family.

Liberals are supposed to back individuals against heavy-handed, faceless bureaucracies. Immigration's incompetence should be repulsive to every Liberal value.

Is Markus's move a sign of a looming larger revolt?