8 September, 2015. 14:46

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact

NATHAN DECANTER earns a little more than somebody on the NewStart allowance. Each morning, he rises at 4:30am to make the hour long commute to his job at an abattoir in Rockhampton. While he certainly wasn’t, by his own admission, the best student at school – he can still read and write English. Not only that, he was taught how to add and subtract. His knowledge of Australian history is far better than any foreigner, let alone an asylum seeker. But as the news broke this morning that the government was planning to take in more Syrian refugees, Nathan’s world came crumbling down around him.

“My job is already under threat from these people,” he said. “Half the floor staff are Muslim. When will it end?”

Like many others around the country, Nathan and other high school educated Australians are starting to panic as a tsunami of refugees is starting to form off the Australian coast. Despite knowing the language, being lifelong members of the wider community and having a place to call home, Nathan’s job is currently under threat by a person who has none of those things.

According to Grace Perkins from Amnesty International Australia, if your job is under threat from a Syrian asylum seeker, then you must be “fucking useless”.

“These people fleeing the civil war in Syria have left their homes with absolutely nothing,” she said. “When these refugees arrive here, they have the clothes on their back – that’s it. If you’re worried about any of these people taking your job, you need to take a look at yourself closely because ultimately, you’re fucking hopeless.”

The red-headed megaphone of Australian racism Pauline Hanson has come to the defence of people like Nathan, who plan to spend the next few sleepless nights researching far-right support groups in their areas. Speaking this morning on Channel Seven’s Sunrise light entertainment programme, Hanson said there would be a backlash against Tony Abbott if he went limp on immigration.

Unfortunately, the former One Nation leader claimed that refugee children in Rockhampton high schools were “extremely high maintenance” and “damaged goods”. When asked whether these incidents may be in response to the less-than-hospitable welcome they received into the Rocky community or the fact that they were probably provoked by locals, Ms Hanson said that was “beside the point”.

“These people are coming into Australian communities and wrecking them,” she said. “If they were provoked by some serious old-fashioned racism, then they should learn to get used to it. This isn’t Vienna or Berlin – this is North Queensland.”