Boat people - what is the solution?

[skippy]

If?
I am an inbred fuckwit...

''I say to Mr Rudd: stop making excuses, stop trying to say this is the world's problem, it's not. It's our problem and we need to take the appropriate action in this country, by this country, for this country to stop the boats and we need to do it now,'' Mr Abbott said. yet we are signatories to the UN Convention, both major parties were party to this. Surely we need to either withdraw from it or amend it to suit today's circumstances. Surely then on this very specific part of the problem Rudd has it right.

This followed comments from Mr Rudd on Wednesday, where he flagged for the first time a review of Australia's obligations under the United Nations Refugee Convention, as part of a new policy aimed at stemming the flow of asylum seeker boats. 'bout time Kevvy said something sensible on this issue.

The Prime Minister signalled the review as part of a three-pronged policy shift to address the issue globally, promote regional co-operation and tighten the refugee assessment process in Australia. Better late than ever eh

Mr Abbott said that the difficulty with the convention was the way it had been imported into Australian law, but did not suggest it had to be updated. Well perhaps he needs to rethink what should be done about it then.

''It's the things that we do here in Australia as Australians that matter. We should get cracking on doing what we need to in this country and on our orders to fix this problem. Not raise yet another red herring: which is Mr Rudd leading some kind of an international crusade to change an international rule,'' he said. It is the convention and our signature that is used to force us to act as we do that is no red herring.

No explanation of what Mr Rudd had in mind when he made his comments yesterday has been forthcoming from his office, although possible areas of focus are Australia's obligations to those who pass through countries where they could lodge refugee claims, and whether permanent residency should be afforded in the first instance. yes... we need to know what changes they are advocating. Something i've been advocating for years

Tony Abbott and the Libs need to shut up on this and stop the politicking... this is not a NO issue... this should be looked at on it's merits and adopted in conjunction with their other ideas.

Yes I mentioned that already.
i already criticised Abbott and co about that.

If the libs do a me too... then they'd just be copying Rudd's successful tactic during the election against Howard.

Pity Rudd didn't leave a working policy in place and consider the Convention changes like I did a decade ago... Conservatives have been asking for such action for years... Rudd messed with and broke a working policy and Labor and Rudd have done nothing about it to fix the thing that they broke with any success so far, including their latest idea... Rudd likes a conference especially if it is overseas... he is so far all talk and no action on this.

You'd have to expect that this policy will at least affect the economic refugees...
Odd though that now just before an election is due after years... decades of the people on the street telling our politicians what is going on only now they start to wake up or at least acknowledge what we've been saying.
Yes there are economic refugees. (Bob Carr says up to 100% of boat people from certain countries are economic refugees)
Yes there are people smugglers in our ethic communities. (Labor offers a $200,000 bounty on "Australian" people smugglers)
That Australia needs to be taken off the table for country shoppers.
That Indonesia needs to do more. (Indonesia ends visa farce for Iranians)

I have little dick syndrome

Yes, we already established that, you inbred fuckwit.

[Rorschach]

Skip... you don't have to prove to everyone what you are or that you are incapable of saying sorry or admitting it when you are wrong...



We already know all those things...
ps. I don't care about your breeding or what is wrong with your dick.

[mellie]

I'm so glad your back...

So you've got nothing then eh? How unusual for you.

You need to loosen your tinfoil hat there Conspiranut...

What conspiracy?

Rudds boat policy is an absolute riot, as was always the intention to justify the implementation of a more 'globalised' (UN devised) solution to what's ultimately a 'domestic' problem brought about by dumped Howard policy.

A policy that worked!

Furthermore...... Rudd only plans to feign stopping the boats for 12 months, then review the policy.... and after the election of course.

Ask yourselves, is Rudds conservative boat policy in anyway consistent with his wet dreams for a 'big Australia'?

His objective is to implement harsh policy that's doomed to fail, to justify the perceived need to change it again in just 12 months time...or less, if he can somehow justify the need to do so.

In 2009 Rudd stated that he was in favour of a Big Australia in response to a demographic projection in the government's Intergenerational Report which showed that the population of Australia would increase from 22 million in 2010 to 35 million in 2050.A portion of the growth involved continued high rates of immigration to Australia, which proved controversial. In April 2010 Rudd appointed Tony Burke to the position of Minister for Population and asked him to develop a population policy

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Australia


As usual, the 'tandem' tag-team GilliRudd relay governments agenda is to deceive Australians, over promise and under deliver.

[Rorschach]

Tony Abbott to put three-star commander in charge of military-led border protection campaign
July 25, 2013 - 11:55AM
David Wroe
Defence correspondent

Tony Abbott would put a three-star commander in charge of a military-led border protection campaign in a bid to outgun Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on the vexed issue of people-smuggling.

Declaring the waves of asylum-seekers arriving by boat a ''national emergency'', the Opposition Leader announced on Thursday that ''Operation Sovereign Borders'' would bring together the 12 agencies involved in border protection under one command.

The military supremo would be recommended by the Chief of the Defence Force, General David Hurley.

This would be an unusual arrangement. Typically, senior ranks report to the CDF General Hurley, who is in turn answerable to the defence minister.

Mr Abbott said the new structure would provide a unified chain-of-command, with the three-star commander reporting directly to the immigration minister. The Coalition said the cost of establishing the taskforce would be $10 million, however, it did not details the costs of implementing other parts of the policy.

''The crisis on our borders has become a national emergency,'' he told reporters in Brisbane.

He said the present system was disjointed, citing the cases of alleged people-smuggler Captain Emad and the case of Egyptian asylum-seeker Sayed Ahmed Abdellatif – claims against whom have lately been shown incorrect.

General Hurley issued a swift statement Thursday morning saying that contrary to some media reporting, he had not provided any advice or recommendations on the Coalition's policy. His role was to implement the policies of the government of the day, he said.

He also stressed that Operation Resolute, the border protection operation that is currently using about 500 Defence personnel, was ''difficult, dangerous and unrelenting''. they should call it Operation taxi...

The Coalition policy document released on Thursday states: ''Our current disjointed institutional arrangements within government do not provide an optimal structure for securing our borders.

''There must be one person responsible with all the necessary resources of government at his or her command.

''The scale of this problem requires the discipline and focus of a targeted military operation, placed under a single operational and ministerial command.''

The Coalition would finalise the protocols for turning back boats ''where it is safe to do so'' within the first 100 days of government.

In that time it would also lease and deploy extra vessels to relieve the Navy's patrol vessels of asylum-seeker transfers. And it would reintroduce the Howard-era temporary protection visas.

In the first 100 days it says it will also start increasing capacity at offshore detention centres and members of the Coalition frontbench will visit Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Nauru and Papua New Guinea to discuss ''operational matters''.

Mr Abbott said the Coalition would ''salvage what they could'' of the PNG solution announced last week by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd but denied the move was an admission that stopping the boats completely was an impossible task.

Coalition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said making border protection enforcement a military operation reflected the severity of the problem.

''This is a military led mission that brings a sense of urgency,'' he said.

''Using out fleets as a taxi service has to end.'' that will be good to see...

The Coalition says it has received ''informal'' advice from senior serving Defence personnel as well as more detailed help from retired military members.

Retired Army Major-General Jim Molan has been closely advising the Coalition on its policy and helped launch the plan in Brisbane.

Greens Senator Christine Milne, speaking in Brisbane on Thursday was scathing of Mr Abbott's announcement and Mr Rudd's PNG proposal.

''It's not politics, it's pure persecution which is coming from the Prime Minister and his PNG proposition,'' she told reporters.

''And now Tony Abbott is trying to go even further and using language around war, bringing in generals and the like.''

Senator Milne said both parties had forgotten that asylum seekers were people.

''We need to change our attitude here, deterrence does not work.'' There is no deterrence...

She said a regional agreement worked out through diplomacy was needed to find safer pathways to Australia for asylum seekers in Indonesia. How about NO PATHWAYS... dopey Green...

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/ ... z2a1E9Qvs5" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Neferti]

The entire Immigration policy/legislation needs a good shake up. I am all for genuine asylum seekers, from war torn countries, etc in fear of their lives, being processed ASAP. However, we must look at what "benefits" these people are entitled to - immediately!

After WW2 when we had a mass of immigrants who were affected and seeking asylum, they got to live in "camps" but the men folk had to sign up for several years to do labour to "earn their keep". No dole back then! Nothing was free and these (and their kids and grand kids) are some of our best Aussies now. They did not expect a free ride and were happy to work their way.

Australia has its own poor and under nourished who live on the streets - some of these people have been responsible (or not) for their own situation but, surely, our first priority is to look after our own? Should all large towns and Cities have 4 star accommodation available, at Taxpayers expense, for everybody who is having a bad time? I think not!

The average Australian who is eligible for Government accommodation has to go on a long, long waiting list ...... I understand that it could be 2 years or more. Some of these people are single mothers with kids but there are families out there that have suffered bad times .... and don't let us forget the single males who have been taken to the cleaners after a divorce!

Ask around and find out how difficult it actually is for someone who has been retrenched to get on the Dole. Yet Asylum seekers are given a "package". No wonder they think we are a soft touch!

There are plenty of Aussies who know how to rort the system, and they even skite about it. Everyone knows someone that they should dob in, but don't.

The other problem I see with all these people on boats is that they come with diseases like TB which had been eradicated in Australia for 50 (?) years? This is deadly and passed on by like the common cold. Great. Who has total confidence that the Medicos who check these people actually do proper tests? TB was a huge killer way back. We don't want it in Australia again, do we?

So. Rudd has no idea and cares less, it is all about popularity with him. Only the Liberals can do something about this problem.

[IQS.RLOW]

The only solution to stopping the boats is to toss Rudd and his merry band of fuckwits out on their arses. With rate of boats seeming to increase after Kevvies little boy tough talk, it is obvious the people smugglers have seen through Rudd and the ALP in exactly the same same way conservatives do.

He's a shallow posturing dickhead who couldnt organise a BBQ and everyone knows it. In 2007 he showed the people smugglers that he was a soft lefty marshmallow and the ALP is lead around by the nose by a bunch of weak hand wringing sooky softcocks who spent the 12 years in opposition whining about the job Howard did and now its proof positive that for 12 years the ALP had no idea what the fuck they were whining about and spent the next 6 completely fucking it up.

The ALP should be dismantled and banned from ever running for anything to do with govt again, including NGOs, local council, boy scouts, girl guides and chook raffles. They couldn't sell biscuits door to door without fucking it up.

[Neferti]

[IQS.RLOW]

This is the solution that Rudd, Gillard, the ALP and their supporters offers. It's all they have ever offered and they want it to continue, simply because they can't admit that Howard got it right.

[Jovial_Monk]

Going by the polls it seems the PNG option is the solution!

[Rorschach]

Going by the polls it seems the PNG option is the solution!

How very Howard, how very Coalition... not the least bit Labor at all and after all, Kevvy did dismantle what had worked and caused the problem we have today. Imagine the hue and cry from the LW luvvies and media if it was an Abbott policy

You know what the real popular solution is?

People coming by boat will not be settled in Australia.

That is the key to this so-called policy's popularity.

I even agree with that. If only it was going to be that simple if only they could organise and implement something that worked properly.

Unfortunately it may not have the legs to stand on and like Timor and Malaysia, 2 of Labor's past failures, might just bite the dust too. Already there is dissent in PNG about it from politicians and the populous.

I hope it works... but the early signs are not good.