Joint policy on asylum seekers?

[Rainbow Moonlight]

Any chance Abbott is not just playing wedge politics? Also, any idea of whether the support for Rudd relates to him stopping off shore processing- ie do aussies prefer this? Has Julia moved too far to the right already on the asylum seeker boat people issue?>

[Jovial Monk]

Excellent toerag Abbott is playing wedge politics.

Offshore (i.e. Nauru) processing is no longer an option and that should be recognised IMHO.

[Plough]

It is possible if the migration act is changed. A change that I am not in favour of btw. Process these people in australia. It is the only way to make sure that their human rights are respected.

[Aussie]

It is possible if the migration act is changed. A change that I am not in favour of btw. Process these people in australia. It is the only way to make sure that their human rights are respected.

True.....but it encourages rather than discourages the dangerous boat trip, and the arsehole grubs who 'smuggle.'

There is no easy answer.

As for Abbott, what PM of whatever pursuasion or sex would trust him? He is not a statesman, he is an opportunist.

[Plough]

All polis are oportunists. There are no statesmen left. That is from a by gone era. The ginger ninja is no statesperson they are all the same. All C u n t s

[Jovial Monk]

Yes, with onshore processing would come the boats.

Only real way the boats can be stopped: reduce the logjam of asylum seekers, take 40,000 from Malaysia and Indonesia and settle them into the community. Regions are crying out for labor, fruitpicking, teachers etc.

[Jovial Monk]

I had been reading about how thing were being vastly improved in Malaysia (e.g. the ASs could finally work legally there) and increasingly looking like it might evolve into a full regional processing centre. Do-gooders and the HC stopped that. i was right:

Ric Towle of the UNHCR in a recent interview talks of the need for a “regional cooperation framework so people don’t have to use the boats”. He also clearly distinguishes between a pacific and a regional solution. Towards the end of the interview he has this to say “what we do need to see sooner rather than later is a concrete set of activities and options that might involve offshore processing but which comply with the sort of conditions we are talking about”. He had already stated that protection safeguards were a work in progress and that both sides (ie Malaysia and Australia) had spent three months in serious discussion trying to accomodate the concerns that the UNHCR had had. He said that the two countries were responding favourably and that safeguards were being built into the arrangements.

An opportunity lost indeed! The Malaysian Solution was no fraud like the Pacific Solution! See: http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/09/06/wha ... -solution/

Sorry, no link was cited

[Jovial Monk]

And Howard's Pacific Solution was a complete fraud:

http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/09/06/wha ... -solution/

Nauru offer nothing towards a substantive AS processing solution. Malaysia does. It appears Tone won't cooperate to change the Migration Act to allow the Malaysian solution. Every boatload of AS that arrives (or sinks on the way, the cruelty of Pacific Solution or onshore processing) can now be laid at his door.