Australian Migrants Incensed At Higher Hostel Charges

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31316, 11 March 1967, Page 17

Australian Migrants Incensed At Higher Hostel Charges

(Special Crspdt. N.Z.P.AJ SYDNEY, March 9. Angry migrants throughout Australia are threatening to place advertisements in British and European newspapers say - ing: “Don’t come down under—it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”

The migrants, who are living in Federal Government hostels, are in “virtual revolt” against their living conditions, a Labour Senator has told the Government

Migrants in four States, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia, have formed a committee to protest against increased tariff rates for their accommodation in the hostels. The heads of 35 migrant families at Preston hostel, in Melbourne, have been summonsed to appear in court next month for failing to pay the increased charges, introduced on January 28. About 65 other families at the hostel are expected to receive summonses this week. Legal action against migrants who have refused to pay the new charges in other States is expected to follow. Most of the migrants are British families, who are living in former army corrugated iron Nissen huts or single workers’ camps converted to hostels.

Senator George Poyser, of Victoria, told the Senate: “These migrants are completely disillusioned because they feel they have been spoofed. “They see quite clearly that they have been misled with overseas propaganda on the type of accommodation, on employment—particularly in South Australia or Queensland—and in relation to the time they have to stay In hostels before finding" their own homes."

Senator Poyser said conditions in some hostels were “An utter disgrace—they are unfit for human habitation.” Increases ranging from 50 cents for a baby under one year, to $1.25 for children aged between 16 and 21, have been introduced by Commonwealth Hostels, Ltd., which runs the hostels for the Government.

Under the new tariffs a father and a working wife with two children between 11

and 16 would pay $30.60 (about £N.Z.I2 2s sd) a week—a rise of s4.ls—for accommodation and three meals a day at the hostels. The Federal Minister of Labour and National Service, Mr L. Bury, has refused a request to revoke the increases from a deputation representing migrants in the Four States.

The migrants have appealed to Australian trade unions for legal and financial backing. The 16,000-member Vic-

torian Electrical Trade Union has promised its support. The migrants claim that the increases, brought in because of rising food and labour costs, will further delay their chances of saving enough money for the deposit on a home of their own.

The migrants are allowed to stay in the hostels no longer than their first two years in Australia. After that time they must find their own accommodation. Mr J. R. Fraser, Labour member for the Australian Capital Territory, has also said migrant hostels need urgent and -immediate improvements, and he has urged the Government to build selfcontained flats to replace them.

The Federal Government, aware of a big increase in the number of dissatisfied migrants returning home, is concerned over the outcry, but is understood to be determined that migrants should pay their share of the rising costs of the heavilysubsidised hostels.