Does Australia have an illegal migrant problem, or do we have a compassion problem? EditorMichelle Pinidiscusses the tragic death of a young "non-resident" as One Nation dogwhistling intensifies.

IN DECEMBER, a young person died on the streets of Sydneys CBD his lifeless body unnoticed for six days. It is as though he were invisible, largely unseen even before his untimely death. He died alone.

You see, 32-year-oldBikram Lama, an international student from Nepal, was a non-resident. He washomeless when he died, the cause of his death still to be determined.

As a non-resident, Bikram was not entitled to social housing(or temporary housing),Centrelink, healthcare or any other support. Such things are reserved only for Australian citizens. Employment for non-residents is alsorestricted,with most only permitted to work less than48 hours per fortnight.

In Australia, non-residents are undocumented people, asylum seekers, New Zealand citizens (who arrived after 2001) and temporary visa holders many of these, international students, like Bikram.

This is not an isolated situation.Accordingto the City of Sydney, one in five homeless people is a non-residentof Australia. The situation is similar in other major Australian cities.

So when Pauline Hanson and her One Nation racist band speak about illegal migrants and try to blame all the woes of the disgruntled on them, these are the people they are vilifying. People like Bikram Lama. People who have, in fact, paid handsomely to come here. People who have done nothing wrong. People who are dying on the streets ofwealthy, well-heeled politicians like Pauline Hanson andBarnaby Joyce, and the media moguls and miners who fund these politicians and their hatred, such as Gina Rinehart.

The Government hasjust raised the student intake cap for struggling universities despite its promise to cut net migration.

Australian universities are now serious, money-making businesses. They run effective international campaigns to recruit overseas students, who pay more than Australian citizens to study here.

The cost of studying in Australia for international students isestimatedat between $45,000 and $95,000 per annum.

According to a Reserve Bankreport, international students contribute over $50 billion to the economy annually.

One Nations immigration policies, however,aim to:

One Nation also aspires to:

Like most One Nation rhetoric, the facts do not support itsclaims that temporary visa holders students or others are gouging our economy or rorting our support systems.

As Pauline Hanson's National Press Club appearance nears, Dr Abul Rizvi prepares a list of questions she has yet to answer.

The reality is that many are not wealthy and must go to extreme lengths to be educated here. Bikrams family struggled financially andhad to sell a portionof their farmland in their remote village, south of Kathmandu, to send him to Australia to study computer science, in the hope of a better future.

Indeed, if anyone is being rorted, it is temporary residents who pay exorbitant fees to study here and are then left to their own devices without a support system in sight when they are unable to sustain life here and are also unable to return home.

Bikram fell into hardship and failed to renew his passport, and as his life and hopes of a better future spiralled into homelessness, he lost contact with his family.

According to an ABCreport:

But this is not only about Bikram Lama devastating though his story is. And its not just about immigration hot topic though it is, courtesy of a spike in global interest in so-called populist parties like Pauline Hansons One Nation.

Despite the baseless dog-whistling, in case it isn't enough to bringstudents here under the false pretence of a better life and then letthem live and die on our streets when their money runs out, Hanson wants to:

And finally, if we should occasionally find our hearts and take in people seeking asylum, One Nation wants to:

This latter claim is perhaps the most ludicrous, since although party to the UN Refugee Convention, Australia has frequentlyviolatedit, most notably during the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison regime, which tortured refugees on Nauru and Manus Island for a decade.

Following Al Jazeeras revelations in How to Sell a Massacre, aired on Tuesday on the ABC, it is urgent that every party should preference Pauline Hansons One Nation last at the upcoming Federal election.

Indeed, if Australians need a group of people towards which to direct our angst for the failings of our society, we need to look no further thandemonstrablyracist politicians like Hanson. Pauline Hanson's One Nation,which was prepared tosell offpoliticians to America's National Rifle Association (NRA) and whose chief of staff is a convicted criminal.One Nation, whoseleader accepts private planes as gifts from billionairesand whose own salaryjumpedby $100,000 to $340,900 per annum afterfellow rorter, Barnaby Joyce, defected to One Nation, makingit an official minor party.

In return for their eye-watering salaries, this dogwhistling rabble continues to spread hate and division. It promises to help battlers, but instead, Hanson has votedagainstall of the following relief measures:

• raising JobSeeker;
• Disability Royal Commission reforms;
• increased childcare subsidies;
• paid family support;
• workplace protections;
• public school funding;
• TAFE anduniversity funding;
• affordable housing measures;
• social housing; and (of course)
• anymeasures that may assist new arrivals.

This story is not only about Bikram Lama or other non-residents.

This is about our compassion, or lack of it. Many Australians are doing it tough. Inequality is soaring, both here and globally. While the Albanese Governmentis at least attempting to address some of these issues, there is still much work to be done. This is undeniable.

But if we are comfortable blaming our problems on the most vulnerable, if we are okay with allowing young people who have already paid for the privilege to be here and who have much to contribute to sleep on our streets, desperate and alone, and if we are happy to walk past them, even as they take their last breaths, the problem lies with us.

This editorial wasoriginally publishedas part of the Independent Australia weekly newsletter.Subscribeto IA to access all our work from as little as $1.15 per week and help power our journalism throughout 2026.

Follow managing editor Michelle Pini@vmp9and [email protected], andIndependent Australia at@independentaus, FacebookHEREand InstagramHERE.

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