That was my point. Those who can afford to get out of the joint do so by paying people-smugglers. Those who can't stay where they are. Just as the use of illegal recreational drugs, those who can afford to pay do so, those who can't turn to crime to fund it. Refining the stupid drug laws would do a lot for crime reduction. Australia being a bit more keen to help out with refugees and asylum-seekers would reduce the need for illegal involvement of people smugglers.
Then we need to re-think the whole issue. Labor was torn over it when it was in government because of opinion polls in a few marginals in western Sydney and elsewhere, marginals that would normally be reasonably safe for Labor in historical terms but which had a demographic change or perhaps more people reading the Daily Telegraph and similar Murdoch rags. The Tampa was the single incident which completely fouled up the issue and took us to where we are now.. Howard saw the opportunity and grabbed it and used it well to ensure the dog-whistling worked and he retained government. From there on it became an article of faith for the Coalition that going hard on asylum-seekers would give them those much-needed marginals. It's not about good policy any longer, it's about lying and misrepresenting and ensuring that a fairly politically ignorant set of electorates are held by the Tories.
What have the Indonesians been doing with $800million they have getting in Australian tax payer free aid every year for the last 30 years to help combat the problem? Nothing, because the more of these people that leave Indonesia, the less financial burden it is for them, and the more financial burden it becomes for us Australians to provide housing, health, education and welfare.
Where the Abbott govt is completely failing (among other things) on asylum-seekers is to fail to understand that deterrence isn't the answer. For deterrence to really work to keep out desperate asylum-seekers then their treatment by us would have to be as bad, if not worse, than their treatment at home. If we're not prepared to kill them outright then we should understand that the deterrence model is a fail and start looking at resolving as much of the real causes as we can possibly do or we re-think the whole approach and make it a proper policy rather than just dog-whistling to the nasties.
That might be true if Australia was the only destination, but its not. The issue is not about them facing persecution, its about a specific type of persecution, else anyone with any nature of criminal involvement could try and claim refugee status. The reality is now that in places like Sri Lanka it's not in civil war and the State is 'at peace' with all sides. Until its proven otherwise, returning boat people from Sri Lanka to Sri Lanka seems perfectly legit. I get a bit tired of listening to the media outlets like the ABC serve as a mouthpiece for disingenuous advocacy groups, when the ABC especially is meant to be trying to report the truth and 'advance' knowledge and understanding of the audience.
Operation Sovereign Borders may have deterred potential asylum seekers and human smugglers from attempting to reach Australia in the first place. There is no incentive for risking their lives at sea if asylum boats are more likely to be intercepted by the Royal Australian Navy and Australia has won a propaganda battle against illegal immigration. President Obama is urged to militarise America's southern borders by sending the National Guard and the administration's current policy, which allows any children who have reached the US illegally to stay in the country indefinitely, is creating huge incentives for potential illegal immigrants from Latin America to come to the US for a better life.
And here we go again, not long ago when a man doust himself in petrol and burnt alive here in Australia, being so afraid of being sent back. And what are our racist PM and his henchmen doing right now? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...g-Tamil-asylum-seekers-back-to-Sri-Lanka.html The world watches you, Toneee, no place to run, no place to hide, there comes the day and you have to face your God for your low racist actions..... Regards
Protecting the borders and actually enforcing an immigration policy, a basic task of every government, is now racism? That couldnt be further from the truth. This is good for Australia and also saves the lives of immigrants who would otherwise risk drowning, there really is no downside to this. For once the Australian gov did an excellent job. And please stop with baseless accusations of racism, I am sure if someone immigrates into Australia legally and contributes to their economy by having a job and an education, such an immigrant would not be rejected no matter their race. That fact alone rules out any racism.
Hmmm, protecting the borders against economy migrants is ok, refusing war refugees entrance into Australia and a proper and fair assessment is illegal, and wouldn't happen if those people were white skinned. It does happen, because they are dark, different, belong to an other religion, haven't got an English background and so on. I know it and you know it, and if we are honest with ourselves, we all know it. Racism is everywhere and comes in all shapes and sizes, however their is a stigma with this word nowadays, which makes it a bit of unfashionable to use, and I wonder why. You might not see it as racism, but it is, in my point of view anyway.... Regards
I wonder what Stalin or other terrible dictators would have answered to this question, if they were asked whether they were racists? You share the same sentiment as Abbott and his terrible followeres, you will never understand. You don't want to understand..... Regards
Its not like there is a war raging anywhere near Australia, most of those boat people are indeed economic migrants.
What is the UN doing about the situation in Sri Lanka, if people who are returned are getting killed? Seems like another Sierra Leone incident that the UN swept under the carpet because it was too big for them to handle, or interfered with their cocktail parties. Write to the UN and ask them what "they" are doing about this situation. Why does it always have to be Australia's problem when something happens in another country, is that not what the UN was created for - to handle international problems?
I don't understand the mentality of our resident do-gooders, and in fact, no one with an ounce of intelligence can. They claim these people coming to Australia are in fear for their lives, but can hire & pay Indonesian smugglers $10,000 to smuggle them into our country through the backdoor, but will not pay $900 to fly themselves here. Why? Because if they arrived here by plane with a passport and visa - identification and wanted refugee status, they would not be granted refugee asylum, because their identification would prove they are not true refugees, but if they chuck all their identification away, and arrive here by boat and tell some bull crap story, they get granted refugee asylum. Unfortunately the do-gooders have not woken up to the games these so-called boat people have been playing, but some Australians ARE waking up and seeing them for what they are - financial opportunistic illegal aliens hell bent on getting here at any cost so they can leach off our fee welfare system The guy from Sri Lanka that lit himself on fire was known to have had serious mental problems before he even came to Australia, but these stupid do-gooder don't want to know that, they just want to blame everyone else just so they can feel good about themselves.
Yeap, I forgot, in a war torn country people march into travel agencies and book first class, using their master or visacard, gold edition.... Mate, I always thought my brain is twisted, but looking at your lines makes me aware that there are guys out there who are far worse off. Some of your lines are so disgustingly low, they don't deserve any comment. Although, on other subjects we do share sentiments, not on this one obviously.... Regards
It was my understand that Sri Lanka is not engaged in any civil war, or any international war. If people from Sri Lanka are fleeing their country because of persecution and being tortured & killed, then don't have a go at me catter, have a go a the lazy bastards in the UN, because its the JOB of the UN to stop people in their own countries from being systematically persecuted, tortured and killed. By the way, I believe what Abbott has recently done by hiding the facts from the Australians about returning people back to Sri Lanka without proper due process, who "could" be in real danger, is outrageous and disgusting behaviour. If he is found guilty of this action, there should be an immediate "no confidence" vote directed to him and his government.
Australians these days are so used to having the wool pulled over their eyes we've all become easily deluded. Some advocacy groups, and most Unions are dedicated to this 'art form' of misinformation to shape results... using ignorance as a tool, and making fools out of Australians. The issues in Sri Lanka are local Police issues. It is illegal to torture Tamils or anyone else. There is no civil war, there is no government backed persecution. What it boils down to is local's not satisfied with the professionalism of their authorities enforcement of human rights, due to occasional occurrences of cultural discrimination from the civil wars 5 years ago - so they decide to undertake economic migration to Australia because they're told by Tamil's here that they have a good chance of slipping through the system.... or at least did (when the ALP failed at its turn in government). It's not Australia's obligation to take in anyone who does not like how they are being treated, our obligations are when these nation states fail such as oppressive regimes or breakdowns in governance such as civil war. Sri Lanka currently does not meet the refugee obligation, or should not. Anyone would think these people are lawyers and spend the whole time making work for themselves. It just get's a bit annoying to see that disease spread into the population as inane stupidity.
CD and AT, both of your replies have a certain truth in them, however if we cannot guarantee that someone can live in peace in his country, we shouldn't send them back. No one burns himself alive for no reason, and I doubt it was because he was mentally ill. It all comes back to information these days, and it is an individual thing, to filter them so things make sense..... Regards
Economic migration is expected to get much much worse around the world. It cannot go on, else it will eventually bankrupt those richer nations. What good is it if all the proverbial rats jump aboard the life raft, only for it to sink as well. Unfortunately for those poorer nations they need to stay at home and work hard to build wealth themselves, otherwise the hard work done in the wealthy countries gets destroyed. It's like those nitwits who think a wealth divide is a bad thing LOL, the wealth divide must increase if we want to advance. The baseline will always be zero. It is much better to have much wealthier people at the top because it builds a wider wealth base for everyone else to climb. These days a lot of people are just too lazy to bother climbing....
If we apply your criteria regarding reffos then presently we would soon be living under sharia law. We have only 25m people in Australia at the moment and Buddhists oppress Muslims in Sri Lanka and Myanmar, and Sunni and Shia oppress each other throughout the M.E. It's alright to be morally pure and oppress the sinners but in this case you are playing with fire. And it is not racist to want to protect your cultural identity or the cultural identity of Australia.
Hmmm, and we are closer to the US then ever before, to their Maccas and unjustified wars, their culture of being world best, and freeing every nation on the planet, whether they want it or not.... Are we so different? Regards
That's just wrong. The US is an economic superpower and we are miniscule in comparison and suffer because of it. Australia is Allied with them for defense in an almost servile but necessary arrangement. But our culture, to which all immigrants adapt sooner or later, is closer to the British. I'd argue that you are proof of that.
The US used to be an economic superpower. Why would we suffer because of our size? Take Switzerland, are they suffering because they only have 6 or 7 million people? Why is it necessary to hold on to our past(allies WW1 and 2) in modern times? We used to be close to the Brits, nowadays that have changed, we are far closer to the US, imho. Regards
Well said. It is a simple fact of arithmetic, we are only a small country, we cannot continue to take on more and more freeloaders.
