Kevin Andrews

Last week I attended a series of policy discussions in Washington DC. Organised by the Heritage Foundation, the discussions brought together policy-makers from the major English-speaking countries - the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

In some countries such as Australia and the US, the conservative party has recently lost government. In Canada and New Zealand, they have won. The British are expected to go to the polls next year.

The meetings were informative. I came away with many policy ideas to contemplate in my new role as Chair of the Coalition’s Policy Review.

They added to ideas that I gleaned at a meeting of the European Centre-Right parties and think tanks two months ago. I also had the opportunity to speak to a range of other policy experts during the visits.

I will be announcing more details of the policy review process in coming weeks.

Truth a Casualty

While I was overseas, the Melbourne Herald-Sun columnist, Andrew Bolt, published two articles which vindicated my concerns last year about the incidence of crime amongst recent immigrants from parts of Africa.

Mr Bolt went back to the police crime data, which revealed that certain groups were over-represented in the commission of offences, not under-represented, as Commissioner Christine Nixon had claimed.

He said that Ms Nixon had misrepresented the data. My response is set out below.

What is most disconcerting about this episode is the willingness of some to smear anyone who seeks to raise legitimate issues about immigration, settlement and integration.

Kevin Andrews

 Media Release: (19 November 2008)

Federal Member for Menzies, Kevin Andrews said he felt vindicated when he read today’s Herald Sun article. Entitled ‘Race offence against truth’, the article, by Andrew Bolt, outlines how Victorian Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon fed a campaign of misinformation and abuse last year against him when he was Immigration Minister.

Mr Bolt says, “Queensland Premier Anna Bligh reached into the slop bucket to smear Andrews for “a pure form of racism” and said his comments belonged to the “deep south of America in the 1950s.” The Australian Democrats said he was deliberately stirring up hatred and the Howard Government was “not fit to govern”.

Mr Bolt goes on to say, “But perhaps the most crucial rebuke came from Nixon, who on 3AW accused this Howard government minister of simply being wrong”.

However, when the statistics were recently checked by Mr Bolt, despite earlier reassurances from Ms Nixon’s office confirming their accuracy, he found them to be misleading.

The Chief Commissioner of Police in effect damned Mr Andrews’ understanding of the situation by challenging his comment that African refugees, particularly Sudanese, seemed to have serious trouble settling here, when Ms Nixon said on an ABC program “Those Sudanese refugees are actually under-represented in the crime statistics.”

Not so. Today’s Herald Sun reports, “…Last year Nixon told us Sudanese refugees, if not all African refugees, were “under-represented in the crime statistic”. In fact, we now know they’re over-represented – by as much as eight times.”

“Andrews was right to worry and urge caution. Nixon was wrong to challenge his figures. And we, who relied on Nixon’s assurances, were grossly unfair to damn Andrews as a racist and a hatemonger for merely doing his duty. I’m sorry for my part in that”, writes Mr Bolt.

“Chief Commissioner Nixon was either using her position to play politics or was simply mistaken; I hope it’s the latter, in which case I look forward to her apology,” Mr Andrews said.

Full article: http:/www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24672971-5000117,00.html