Evans opens door to foreign athletes

Another day, another moronic decision by Immigration Minister Chris Evans.

From the ABC:

Immigration Minister Chris Evans says foreign-born elite athletes will soon find it easier to represent Australia, thanks to planned changes to Australia's Citizenship Act.

Speaking alongside Russian-born skater Tatiana Borodulina in Sydney this morning, Senator Evans said changes to the rules meant Borodulina would be eligible to compete for Australia at next year's Winter Olympics in Canada.

While Borodulina has been representing Australia at World Cup level, citizenship is required for the Olympics.

The proposed amendments - to be introduced into Federal Parliament next month - will reduce the residency requirements from four years to two for athletes of 'distinguished sporting talent'.

"This is a quirk caused by the change in 2007 that basically meant an Olympian transferring or coming to this country couldn't compete at the next Olympics," Senator Evans said.

"That's clearly not in our interests and it's not fair on the athletes."

Senator Evans says there was a record influx of more than 600,000 temporary residents over the past year, mainly foreign students and working holiday visa holders.

"Our permanent numbers are down a little bit as a result of us cutting the intake in order to cope with the economic crisis, but there's a lot of people coming through Australia for work, holiday, and study," he said.

He says that while he is not looking at a clampdown, Australia needs to understand what impact the temporary residents have.

"We've got to have a much better longer term planning framework and work with the states to assess the impacts on the cities and other resources."

As one poster at the ABC site commented:

"This shouldn't be lauded as a 'step forward for athletes'. It's a SLAP IN THE FACE for every Aussie kid practicing their sport in the hope of one day representing their country."

Aussie kids? Who cares about them? Certainly not the Immigration Minister. Chris Evans and the Rudd Government are already forcing Aussie kids to compete with a myriad Third World immigrants for access to career and educational opportunities, housing, public services, as well as the chance to represent their country in sport at an international level. But then again, at the rapid rate at which immigration is transforming Australia into a colony of the Third World, Aussie kids won't have a country left to represent for much longer, at least not a country that they'll be able to recognise as their own.

"We've got to have a much better longer term planning framework and work with the states to assess the impacts on the cities and other resources."

Gee, Chris, why didn't you think of that before you opened the immigration floodgates?