Craig
thanks for this. I was sceptical when I first saw where your argument was heading, but you make some good points, and your first-hand experience gives some interesting insughts. I hope you're right.

What nonsense. If it is so great why did you leave and since when is human trading legal?

Fair dinkum, the racism implied in this article is astounding.

When refugees ask us for help we do not get to flog them off to places we know they cannot be protected and will never be allowed to be citizens.

If every country decided to trade and traffic humans to win racist votes then all refugees would die.

Thanks Rhian. I hope so too. It's a beautiful place and it deserves more than the shallow reactionary vitriol of people like Ms Shepherd or the patronising faux analysis that featured in Mr Haigh's piece informing policy.

If it turns out I'm wrong, then so be it, but unless people of good will try to do their best, then there can be no hope at all.

Since the forced council amalgamation in QLD the islands to the south of new guinea are gradually falling into a similar albeit not as drastic a situation. Probably orchestrated by the very same australian expats.

It does make one wonder how anyone can make a case for the dumping of refugees on a country with limited infrastructure and a less diverse population than its nearest industrially developed neighbour...the neighbour who is doing the dumping and the exploitation.

I'm fascinated by Tony Burke's comments in 2008 regarding Howard's Nauru solution"

Here it is in all its glory.

"... the Howard government sought to outsource our international protection obligations to less developed countries when we should have been shouldering them ourselves."

".....The Pacific Solution was not about maintaining integrity or public confidence in Australia’s arrangements. It was about the cynical politics of punishing refugees for domestic political purposes."

Exquisitely hypocritical - an all in the service of getting themselves re-elected.

Already we've seen the mountains of Western rubbish adorning beautiful unspoiled Manus.....

.......our shadow has fallen.

Good stuff Craig. It would be most excellent if this policy both stopped the boats and significantly helped lift the quality of life in New Guinea.

But I guess it won’t do both. If it stops the boats, then the additional aid to PNG will not continue for long, I presume. And vice-versa.