I just wonder whether those concerned about the size of our population advocate reducing or eliminating the baby bonus?

The whole "Boat People" business is classic stuff-up by the ALP. We had a good working procedure. It is a classic case of, "If it aint broke, don't fix it!"

There are more important issues that should be prominent in the news. Personally, I would prefer to have the boat people here because they have risked a lot to get here and assume that most just want to live free from persecution and in peace.

These people have suffered enough. Time for humane principles to apply.

People who come to Australia need to be dealt with in the same manner, regardless of whether this is by boat or by plane.


Most illegal immigrants arrived by plane, with visa's, then just overstay them - a minute percentage by boat.

Many who arrived by boat became fine Australians.


Desperate people do not think clearly, they grasp opportunities as see them - even those which disadvantage them long term.



Exists no excuse for off-shore processing - except political games.

Offshore processing boat people is abusive to the applicant individuals, abusive to our international and national commitments to assist refugees.



Clearly we need construct more facilities within Australia where can effectively detain then process those who arrive without passports, visas.


As determined to be legitimate refugees immediately interim short term (1 or 2 year) visas need be issued. These revocable if later find claims false.



Our process needs be clear and open.

I agree with Rosemary, June, Paul, Rodzone, Lyn and Carol.
Just wanted to add my name to those comments and say that I am relieved that there are others 'out there' who think along the same lines as me.
Thank you.

I'm with Alison. Nice to hear so much good sense on this issue. If only Labor had concentrated on getting the real facts into the public domain rather than pandering to irrational fears they wouldn't be in the mess they are in on this issue. Most Labor ministers have really impressive media skills. Why didn't they use them, during the honeymoon period of their first term, to get the facts of this matter hammered into the Australian public's brains via interviews, ads and talkback. Had they done so it could now be part of generally accepted talkback wisdom that many more asylum seekers come by plane on student and visitor visas than come by boat and that however many asylum seekers arrive by boat or plane they do not affect the number of humanitarian refugees Australia accepts in any one year. If these facts had been drummed into the public the Liberal party would not have been able to whip up this issue again. But instead of trying to get the facts out into talkbackland Labor instead decided to make their policies look 'tough on boat people' and they've ended with policies that are beginning to look just as cruel and silly and pointless as Howard's.

About opponents of tough border protection the author said, "So they are focused on the outcome, not the process".

I take issue with that statement and believe that it's the other way 'round. Advocates of tough laws are most concerned with the ultimate outcome of how well these people will integrate and how productive they will be as citizens of this country. A good, stable, cohesive society will not be achieved by accepting everyone who arrives on our doorstep.

Their offspring here will be in drug gangs or terrorists. Look at the UK and France.

Australia and other Western Nations are doing nothing about the countries from which the refugees come to try and do something about it. Here in Australia it is about Popularity Polls rather than what has been done to rectify the circumstances which causes them to flee. There have been those who have been sent back only to be killed.

The arrival of a few illegal immigrants by boat is of itself of little consequence. What does matter is the precedent their arrival sets in the event of major social or political unrest in any one of the nations to our north. The little trickle we are currently experiencing would, in a sense, be analagous to the little crack in a Dutch dyke - relatively harmless at first but God help us when the dyke wall bursts. For that reason alone the boat people must be stopped. Not to do so is not in the long term national interest, regardless of talk about compassion and humanity.

Rachel, you say the outcome you're concerned about is how well they will integrate and how productive they will be. That's the outcome for Australia, not the outcome for the individual.

It's fair enough that Australians should voice concern for how their country will be affected by the arrival of uninvited newcomers. But Australia is a wealthy liberal democracy of 22 million people, with one of the world's most resilient economies and an already-established exemplary multicultural society which seems to function without major problems most of the time. So it's unlikely to be affected more than marginally by a few thousand boat-borne refugees, even if some of them are too traumatised ever to work again or to integrate.

On the other hand, if we reject individuals who can prove they are genuine refugees, the personal outcome for them is devastating. We need to take into account the conditions to which we are sending already traumatised people back: at best being squalidly warehoused in Indonesia, at worst being sent back to their home country to be killed.

The degree of adversity of outcome for our country hardly registers on the same scale as the potential adversity for the individuals. It costs us so little to prevent so much trauma. Aren't we at least big enough to take this idea on board? Or have we become so self-obsessed we can no longer extend a helping hand to a few desperate fugitives from oppression?

.... is it a sign that voters in entrenched pockets of incipient racism ...?

How, except by the hand of an actual "racist," (whatever that is -- but you seem to know) is "race" injected into this discussion, which aught be about Rule of Law and about the federal government's (and especially of its effective part - the isolated and elitist Socialist International subservient and serving mandarin-wannabe permanent "public 'service's'") ongoing abrogation of its duty to protect our sovereign borders against immigration-outcome-seeking foreign invasion?

Or is it that the Alinskyist interjection of the word "racist" works to demonize most of the debaters -- and/or to effectively change the subject?

Cordially

Brian Richard Allen
Lost Angels - Califobambicated 90028
And The Very Far Abroad

The usual Liberal claotrap with no sense of responsinilty

The reality is the vast majority of Australians are quite happy with boatpeople. It is only the vocal tiny minority that have the ear of the mainstream right-wing online papers where the likes Andrew Bolt, et al, and other right-wing Murdoch commentators (Albrechtsen, Sheridan & co) lurk that are pushing the so-called boatpeople debate and blowing out of all proportion. Gillard, by picking up their gauntlet, has played straight into their hands. The consequences may be more than she bargained for in the long term.
http://lataan.blogspot.com/2010/07/australia-from-whites-only-racist.html

I am a Greens voter.But I am more objective on this issue.Why is it considered racist to want to see some refugees enter the country through the PROPER channels, and not pay crooks to get them here ? I believe many but not ALL, fit this category.It has nothing to do with the colour of their skin, or their cultural background e.t.c.
If these people are genuine, then why don't they accept refuge in the first/nearest country that is suitable ? No. They choose Australia, because they know they will receive more and better material benefits here - i.e. a higher standard of living.In other words, they see us as a soft touch.
No doubt there are a lot of genuine ones out there.But those that aren't, should be called for what they are - illegal immigrants - and treated as such.That's not being harsh or lacking compassion.It's the reality.

Illegal entrants is how I view them and I don't give a rats whether some little PC dropkick thinks I'm xenophobic. And it's all 'we think there's ethnic votes in this' Labors fault. The idiots changed the Howard Govts policy and they've all come sailing in. Oh of course Labor blames 'co-incidence' yeah right!
I agree it's not the biggest issue - Healthcare and education are falling further behind and the only thing that's kept/keeping us out of global recession is the mineral boom - not the fiscal policy of our current crop of incompetents.
I'm as stupid as the next mug voter - believed it was time for a change of government and had high hopes for Kev. Look where it's ended? And in QLD we have the totally inept Anna Bligh and her motley crew selling off public assets like there's no tomorrow ... God forbid we should stop selling coal and iron ore - we'll come to a grinding painful halt. Total disillusionment! I am voting conservative the rest of my life ...

NJL writes"I am as stupid as the next mug voter- etc",
Precisely ,he is,but at least he has an opinion and he or she will vote accordingly.
Uninformed raves from both sides of the political fence don't add to the Refugee debate but do confirm my belief that if you could magically change the political sophistocation of the Australian electorate into water and put same into a swimmingpool and then jumped in the deep end, you would not get your knees wet.

While I agree that the boat people issue is not the most important facing our nation, I am concerned on a couple of counts. Firstly, how is it so easy for boats, any number of boats, carrying any number of people, to get to our shores unnoticed until the last minute. A hostile country could clearly do the same thing if it was so inclined. Secondly, for every boat load of people we receive, who we know have paid a fair amount of money so they have means at their disposal, the same number of people in genuine refugee camps all over the world who are in more urgent need in horrific circumstances are bumped back down the list - that's why they are called queue jumpers.