Frank
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An Adelaide electrician facing deportation back to Scotland despite being brought out to fill gaps in the labour market is defying an Immigration Department order to leave the country.
Instead, Mark Green is using the precedent set last week by Immigration Minister Andrew Giles in granting permanent residency to Biloela’s Nadesalingam family from Sri Lanka to argue that he and his family should also be allowed to stay.
Mr Green, his wife, Kelly, and daughter, Rebecca, were scheduled to be deported from Adelaide at 10pm on Wednesday but have vowed to remain in Australia to fight for their right to stay.
Mr Giles confirmed on Wednesday night he would grant the Greens a one-month extension on their deportation order so that their lawyer’s submission could be considered.
Mr Green is on a bridging visa and has worked the entire time he has been in Australia, save for a few brief periods when the solar panel companies employing him went bust.
He has never sought or received any assistance from the Australian taxpayer.
Through their lawyer, the Greens are lodging a new appeal direct to the Immigration Minister framed around his intervention in the case of the Nadesalingam family last week. Mr Pangallo said there should be no difference between the treatment of the Nadesalingams and the Greens.
“In the Nadesalingam family matter, the minister exercised his power to allow the Sri Lankan family to remain permanently in Australia after ‘careful consideration of all relevant matters’,” Mr Pangallo said.
“I urge him to do the very same thing with the Greens.
“If not, the minister needs to explain how he can approve permanent residency to the Sri Lankan couple – who entered the country illegally – and their two young children, but deny the same approval to a family who entered the country legally and have been paying their own way, including taxes, for the past decade.
“The Greens are of excellent character and fill all the requirements of people seeking permanent residency in this country.
“They have never been a burden on taxpayers.
“They deserve to be granted permanent residency, particularly in the middle of a skilled workers crisis.”
Mr Green said he and his family loved Australia, had built their lives here and had no real connection to Scotland anymore.
“We want so desperately to stay in Australia,” he said.
“This has been our home for the past 10 years and a place where we have established a future for ourselves.
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