I am not sure if anyone has noticed but you may have seen Boris Johnson getting terribly excited about an ‘Australian style immigration points system’ lately.

I have a couple of Australian people who work for me and I am fortunate enough to have couple of friends who live out there. Asking about their immigration system is quite interesting stuff because in many aspects it is not all that Boris Johnson makes it out to be. Could this be Johnson bullshitting again. Surely not?

A View From Australia!

In fact, everyone I have spoken to can’t understand why he almost wets his pants with excitement when he talks about it, as it is full of flaws and oddities. Whilst some aspects of the Australian points system may be, on the face of it, sensible, one friend who lives out there, said the following;

“The ironic bit is the UK holding Australia as a good example for migration. Australia contravenes Human Rights with its treatment of refugees. They process them offshore and accept only a tiny number. Ironically, the largest number of people overstaying their visas are probably British backpackers not returning home”.

He went on to say that the Australian Labor (Labour) Party introduced a bill to allow in detained refugees if they were seriously ill. In the last year that amounted to just 200 people, but the Conservative Party managed to get the law overturned. Fair minded Australians were disgusted.

There is also an odd situation where if you are accepted, say, as a teacher, it is highly likely you will be immediately sent to racist Hicksville town. According to my friend, no right-minded Australian civilian would want to live in these places, let alone an outsider.

I am not qualified to say, but I have been told by several Australians that these backwater towns can be really nasty and vindictive places. I have an Australian friend from Cairns who travels to the UK and plays cricket for our team in Hampshire. He told me that Australia’s and violent and racist citizens live in these places. The local bars are not recommended, unless you are fan of being punched in the face.

Is Australia Racist?

Throw in a couple of hundred years of apartheid style abuse of aborigines and it would be easy to conclude that Australia is way behind the UK when it comes to racial tolerance and the basic human rights of refugees.

However, to generalise Australians as racists is a bit unfair. I have worked with loads of people from Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. The only time I don’t like them is when The Ashes is on and it brings out partisan and occasionally intolerable behaviour that we all feel guilty about after.

The Australians I know are funny, self-depreciating and liberal minded, but I guess they do all come from major cities, so it is what you would expect I suppose. A prime example of how multiculturalism enhances tolerance in big cities as opposed to small town Australia.

However, anyone trying to pretend an Australian immigration system is the answer to the UK’s woes, are deluding themselves.

Its just more Boris Johnson bullshit.