Boat people - what is the solution?

[Rorschach]

Devil's still in detail for Rudd
July 28, 2013
Chris Johnson
National Political Correspondent

Kevin Rudd's strategy is becoming abundantly clear.

Under Julia Gillard's prime ministership it was apparent the electorate was very much in the mood for change.

Australians were looking to Tony Abbott for it but Rudd is on a mission to convince them they have now had the change they were craving.

No need to switch prime ministers; the Labor Party has done it for you.

But the strategy might be unravelling because what we are suddenly seeing more of is not a new prime minister but a rehash of everything we didn't like about Rudd when he had the gig first time around.

And as the election date draws nearer there is sure to be more evidence of his erratic behaviour, snap decisions, dummy spits and incoherent explanations.

There will also be less and less of the united face Labor is desperately trying to fool the electorate with. I doubt it will ever stop trying to fool the electorate. Sadly some of the electorate is just plain dumb.

It is a ridiculous notion to accept that the current Australian Labor Party is anywhere close to being a bunch of happy campers who have put their internal differences, petty squabbles and deep hatreds behind them.

As one very senior Labor MP told this column: ''Oh yes, we still hate Rudd and he is still a vindictive and crazy person, but he will save some furniture. The people out there seem to like him.'' like I said DUMB!!!

Another put it a little more bluntly: ''Win or lose the election, there is payback coming for Kevin. He is getting his way now because we need to win some seats. But the party won't be tolerating his antics for too long.''

In the meantime Australia has got a prime minister who thinks he's a rock star and an election about to be fought purely on populist issues.

''I don't think any one of us was silly enough to think Rudd wouldn't be bringing his massive ego back to the Lodge with him,'' one Labor MP said.

''All the talk of being more consultative and having learnt his lessons is just hollow talk. But we do need him if we are to have any chance in the election.

''That's just the sad state of affairs for the party right now.''

And yet another: ''Rudd's a time bomb. We are just praying that when the blast goes off it's not in our faces.'' These are the people some of you want in power??? what evs eh..

The fact that a good number within the Labor caucus have been willing, even anonymously, to casually make such comments when asked for their opinions gives an indication of the frustrated mood the government is taking into the election.

The ALP has gone from feeling hopeless under Gillard to finding renewed vigour with the return to Rudd, to a sudden sense of nervous deja vu at their new-old PM's style.

It's not the workaholic ''eddie-everywhere'' campaigning they loathe - most Labor MPs love that about Rudd.

It's his ''my way or the highway'' attitude to everyone around him, his wont to announce policy on the run and his lack of follow-through that they distrust.

''In the dying days of his leadership last time we all saw some very erratic behaviour from Kevin,'' one Labor MP said. Nothing's changed.

''It's just the beginning of his leadership this time but we are already seeing similar behaviour from him.''

Rudd's appalling lurch to the right over asylum seekers provides a good example.

It will win him and the party votes, which, in the end, is all that matters at this point in the electoral cycle. So you have to ask yourself just what are these people about if it isn't about representing the people and listening to their concerns.

But it didn't take long for things to get messy. As one part of Rudd's plan after another started coming unstuck, he had no answers.

''Get used to it,'' a senior Labor operative said.

''This will be what we'll be in for during the entire election campaign. Rudd will make an announcement and then move on to the next thing, leaving behind the details for others to come up with and try to explain. That's just his style.''

Who needs details in an election campaign? Obviously not Labor supporters...

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/devils-st ... z2aJgwvfja" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You don't have to believe me and others about kevvy, just ask his fellow MPs...

[Rorschach]

EDITORIAL: Rudd's new border policy: will it work?
by Peter Westmore
News Weekly, August 3, 2013

On two critical issues where the ALP was deeply out of step with public opinion, asylum-seekers and the carbon tax, Rudd has done a U-turn of historic proportions, now pursuing policies which vindicate the approach taken by the Opposition leader, Tony Abbott, over recent years.

When Kevin Rudd was first elected in 2007, he instituted a radical shift in Australia’s policy towards unlawful boat arrivals, abandoning the Howard government’s policy of offshore processing of asylum-seekers (the “Pacific Solution”), and abandoning the temporary protection visas given to those granted refugee status.

At the time, Rudd’s policy was acclaimed by much of the media.

It inevitably prompted the growth of people-trafficking, as people-smugglers saw onshore processing and the granting of permanent residence as a guarantee of resettlement in Australia.

The number of boat arrivals jumped from just 148 in 2007 to 2,726 in 2009, and then to 6,555 in 2010, prompting growing alarm at the failure of border protection, and resentment that people-smugglers were getting people to the top of the refugee queue for $10,000 a head.

The failure of Rudd’s policy was one of the factors which precipitated the challenge by Julia Gillard in 2010. When Kevin Rudd was challenged by Gillard in 2010, he promised that there would be “no lurch to the right” over asylum-seekers, but he was forced out.

Although Gillard promised that she would end the influx of boats, by re-opening the Manus Island and Nauru offshore processing centres, she effectively continued Rudd’s policy.

In 2012, the number of asylum-seekers jumped to 17,202, and so far this year the same number have arrived already. The Nauru, Christmas Island and Manus Island detention centres are overflowing, and the Australian government has been forced to open new centres on the mainland and let some asylum-seekers out into the community. At least a thousand more are believed to have drowned at sea.

The Rudd-Gillard policy encouraged people-smugglers to push more and more asylum-seekers — often economic refugees — into Australia, ahead of thousands of genuine refugees languishing in squalid camps.

The continued failure of Labor’s border protection policy, and its enormous cost, contributed to the collapse in support for the Gillard government, and her defeat by Kevin Rudd in June.

After travelling to both Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, Rudd has now unveiled a new uncosted scheme based on shifting all asylum-seekers to Papua New Guinea for processing by PNG officials and, for those granted refugee status, resettlement in PNG.

Full-page newspaper and TV advertisements have declared, “If you arrive by boat in Australia without a visa, you won’t be settled in Australia.” Rudd has vowed he will smash the people-smugglers’ business model.

The problem is that, after six years of Labor government, offshore detention facilities are almost non-existent. Manus Island in PNG is supposed to take 600 asylum-seekers, but is currently holding less than half that number. Rioters recently destroyed almost all the facilities at the Nauru detention centre.

The fact is that Papua New Guinea has no facilities to accept thousands of asylum-seekers a month. It cannot process and settle them in appropriate housing and employment, given that most Papua New Guineans do not have Western-style housing or employment.

Nor will it get the support of PNG’s fractious parliament, given the almost total opposition to the policy in Papua New Guinea, and the fact that Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s party is a distinct minority in both the Cabinet and the Parliament.

This part of Rudd’s policy is therefore a fantasy, however much it might meet the public’s insistence that the government “do something”. The Rudd government’s policy of offering a reward for information leading to the imprisonment of people-smugglers is a positive initiative, but it should be widened to include information which leads to their arrest in Australia, Indonesia or any other country.

Rudd’s U-turn ends forever Labor’s claim that the Opposition’s policy of turning back the boats when safe to do so is unworkable or inhumane.

The Abbott policy of co-operation with Indonesia to prevent people-smuggling is clearly feasible, now that Jakarta has said it will prevent entry into Indonesia of Iranians without visas. This policy should be extended to Iraqis, Afghans and people from Pakistan, the other major sources of boat-people landing in Indonesia en route for Australia.

Further, as Neil James from the Australia Defence Association recently pointed out, Indonesia has international obligations to prevent people-smuggling and stop breaches of its own law by boats departing Indonesia illegally. Australia should assist it to do so, both through defence co-operation and by supporting the Indonesian police, as has been done with counter-terrorism.

People-trafficking can be stopped, but it will take more than a two-page policy announcement to do it.

Peter Westmore is national president of the National Civic Council.

[Neferti]

How many boats have been sighted since Rudd called the Election? Can't say that I have read anything much about Asylum Seekers for a while.

I am not sure what the main point will actually turn out to be for this Election. I think "boat arrivals" and "asylum seekers" has gone off the boil. We are back to which bloke looks more Prime Ministerial or some such crap. Bugger Australia and the economy, etc, let's have the best looking (male) pollie, hey? Great idea. Only a Lefty would think that one up.

[Rorschach]

Been about 1 a day still.

[Black Orchid]

More than 15,000 asylum seekers have arrived by boat in Australian territory this year.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/ ... KX20130724" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That was in July so about 600 people a week. It certainly hasn't "gone off the boil" for many. A daily occurrence and second page news at the moment to Kevvy's hair.

[Neferti]

Been about 1 a day still.

Now we are in Election Mode the normal public have tuned out. Even more than usual! Only us tragics on "political forums" will talk about it.

The ads will annoy.

Thus far, I haven't seen a political ad on Foxtel.

Good old Rupe.

[Neferti]

More than 15,000 asylum seekers have arrived by boat in Australian territory this year.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/ ... KX20130724" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That was in July so about 600 people a week. It certainly hasn't "gone off the boil" for many. A daily occurrence and second page news at the moment to Kevvy's hair.

It IS a problem, I realise, but if I haven't seen anything about it .......what about those people who tune out about" politics"?

[Rorschach]

Now that Ramadan is over should we be expecting more boats to be coming?

[Jovial_Monk]

PBG is the solution!

‘Asylum seekers are demanding their money back from people smugglers en masse in Indonesia, Immigration Minister Tony Burke said on Wednesday, adding there is “no doubt” the government’s hardline policies aimed at deterring boat people was getting through.’

http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politi ... 2rer8.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Rorschach]

Tony Burke was tentative with his claim re the PNG solution, yet the morons are running with it in desperation.
If only it would work.
If only it was going to last longer than the next month.
Straight from the most powerful female pollie in PNG, which backs up what I and others have already said re the PNG solution.
Also Nauru has stated they will not resettle anyone there and the Solomons have outright rejected the approaches of the government.

http://www.2gb.com/article/alan-jones-dame-carol-kidu" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Not to mention the poor of PNG ready to be used as people smugglers... to ferry "refugees" across to Australia.

http://www.whitsundaytimes.com.au/news/ ... c/1957078/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;