Boat people - what is the solution?

[Aussie]

Let's hope we can keep scum like this bitch out!

[Black Orchid]

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says his asylum seeker plan struck with Papua New Guinea remains unchanged.

Mr Rudd has recently signed an agreement with PNG, which will see refugees who come by boat to Australia resettled in the Pacific nation.

But in a Fairfax report on Saturday, PNG's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill says he has not agreed to settle all asylum seekers in his country and that Australia could resettle some refugees.

"There is no agreement that all genuine refugees will be settled in PNG," Mr O'Neill said.

"We will take what we think we are able to assist, but we are also aware that we have our own issues with refugees from West Papua."

Asylum seekers are shaping up as a major Australian election issue.

The Opposition, led by Tony Abbott, is pledging its own crackdown that would see all refugees put on three-year temporary visas and forced into a work-for-welfare program without family reunion, appeal or permanent residency rights.

Mr Abbott is favourite to win the September 7 poll according to opinion polls, and his party has seized on Mr O'Neill's remarks as evidence that the deal was "unravelling", along with ruling Labor's election campaign.

"The Papua New Guinea prime minister has made it very clear in this latest interview that the arrangement that Kevin Rudd claims to exist does not exist in those terms," Opposition Immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said.

*snip*

He has described asylum seekers as an "Australian issue", saying PNG "can easily walk away from it and allow Australia to deal with it."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-17/a ... rs/4894264" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;"

It appears that Rudd is the only one who has no clue as to what sort of agreement he actually made.