Vet seasonal workers: rape victim's mum

An Australian woman whose eight-year-old daughter was raped by a former Papua New Guinean boyfriend is urging the Australian government to carefully vet candidates for a pilot seasonal workers' scheme.

Single mother-of-four Lynda Ridgeway formed a relationship with PNG student Raphael Eso after taking him in two years ago when he was studying at a Brisbane TAFE on an AusAID-funded scholarship.

She later discovered he was abusing her youngest child.

Eso, 32, was sentenced two years ago in a Brisbane court to five years in jail for one count of rape and two counts of attempted rape.

He was deported on September 1 this year, and banned from returning to Australia.

Ridgeway said Wednesday the Australian government must carefully vet candidates for a scheme that will let Pacific workers come to the country to do seasonal work.

"There needs to be a sex-offender list in PNG so they can be screened before coming here," she said.

"I know a lot goes on that doesn't get reported but if PNG workers are coming here we have to be sure none are like Eso."

But she admitted PNG's poor record keeping could pose a problem.

"Eso had been in Australia previously and run into trouble with police, so he put his name backwards and got in again," she said. (so the country lets him in again, because he did not do a good enough job the first time!!! )

Ridgeway said she was unhappy Eso had been deported before serving his full term.

"The Australian legal system has let me down, I feel cheated, they gave him parole after 22 months. It is ridiculous," she said.

A spokesman for PNG's Foreign Affairs Ministry said only PNG's finest workers would be put forward for the seasonal workers scheme.

In August, Foreign Minister Sam Abal said PNG officials would weed out louts who might spoil the opportunity for access to seasonal work in Australia.

"We will set stringent criteria for those who would be involved to take part, including that their character and behaviour would be acceptable," he said.

Up to 2,500 workers from Kiribati, PNG, Tonga and Vanuatu will participate in the three-year pilot scheme.

Starting from later this year, participants will work for up to seven months a year in regional Australia's horticulture industry, where there is a labour shortage.

ninemsn 15 Oct 2008

You DO NOT NEED to be a superpower to catalogue people, e.g Hitler, IBM USA (the same). All you need is a bit of ink (Hitler), and maybe a few reams of paper (IBM - the more civil way) .

This is DELIBERATE politics to create upheaval.

IDEA : Why don't we import this TRASH and place it in CANBERRA, so the law makers can see how this effects society, and not some poor defenceless single mother.