Well I guess the Nauruians are a bit bemused about their country being called a terrible place to live. maybe a Indonesian refugee camp would be more to their liking?

The funniest part though is the good rectors concern about sending people "back in the arms of their abusers". there is a royal commission going on at the moment detailing the churches long history of doing just that with our children.

"It’s an idea that Western culture learnt from its Christian heritage, and it’s called grace. err see point two, perhaps read it a couple of times. The Church has no moral ground on which to throw stones at the rest of us.

No mention that the abusers were more than likely illegal immigrants. Interesting to note that their no moral outrage when a young aboriginal girl after being abused was sent to 'her people' only to be pack raped.

btw As a Christian I am appalled by the unbiblical stand taken by so called churchmen. They are acting likle Greenie activist that have left their brains wherever. To try and get a little publicity from the Chritophobes in abc/fairfax is atrocious. There are millions of kids that you can use your own money on to help feed, educate, give better health etc to. This is certainly an obligation to all Christians however banging on alongside political activist like Trigg (who has been caught out lying) is atrocious. Ever thought of moving to Nauru and helping these 'refugees' if you feel so strongly about it?

The law must not only be an ass, it must be seen to be an ass.

There is only one solution to the Nauru problem. The only reason most of the illegals are still there is because their own country won't accept them back. Our government should increase the pressure on these governments to accept their nationals back.

The situation on Nauru is terrible. The only problem is that the situation in Europe, with its flood of illegals, is worse. Things are going to get very much worse because the basic cause of all this is overpopulation, and nothing is going to be done to limit future population increases. The swamping of social services in Europe is likely to cause the election of fascist governments, who will then have to use draconian measures to try and stem the flow. The next failed state is likely to be Libya, which will cause more millions to cross the Mediterranean.

Welcome to the 21st Century. The escalating price of food, coupled with another financial crash, is going to spread untold misery around the world as the four horsemen of the Apocalypse do their work of limiting the population.

Thank heavens we have a sea boundary.

P.S. For those readers who did not attend Sunday School, the four horsemen are War, Famine, Pestilence and Death.

So nice to see a bit of compassion instead of the usual rhetoric of hate.

I thought the spirit of Christ teaching focused on loving one's fellow man. I don't remember anything about only loving one's fellow man if they come from the same country. And what about that bit that goes something like do unto others as you would have done unto you? Away from religion, our national anthem tells us we have boundless plains to share. So many people insist on telling us that Australia is a Christian country (it's not) but refuse to act with Christian spirit.

Yes runner, if we make exceptions and allow these "publicly supported" numbskulls to force their completely nonsensical hysteria on us, and see us make an exception for women and children?

Perhaps if they worked and paid tax? They could move out of the dream castles in the clouds, where they have moved in as permanent residents?

The first thing you'll see is women and children packed in like sardines on overloaded rotting hulks risking their lives and that of their kids, in a new wave of trafficked humans.

Never again should we be forced to witness those terrible scenes at christmas Island, as kids and their parents drowned or were dashed against cruel and unforgiving rocks, before our very eyes, in seas that were just too dangerous to get rescue craft in!

Even so, some of our heroic naval personnel drove their RIBS in and even jumped into that life threatening malestrom to try and effect rescues.

Never ever again!

That said, we can make a case for speeding up the processing and resettlement of these folk.

Just never ever in Australia, the sugar on the table and the very core of the people smugglers successful business model!

As hard as it might seem, we have to remain steadfast and unmoved in order to completely shut down the people smugglers business model and the thousands of resultant deaths at sea.

Leaving they way open for thousands of genuine and vastly more deserving refugees!

Who have waited decades longer in far less hospitable conditions for their chance; and who just aren't well heeled enough to pay tens of thousands to criminals for transport, can instead, apply for the places these clearly desperate undeliberately undocumented folk are trying to steal!

There are limited places!

As always, the do-gooders do more harm than good!

Enough already!
Rhrosty.

"This group is seeking refuge from the refuge we offered them"

They are free to leave at any time and go elsewhere. They will be assisted with passage and resources. However that cannot be to Australia, where they previously tried to enter illegally.

Anyone who wants to return to the porous borders of Rudd and Galah'd+her treacherous Greens sidekicks is downright crazy or is in an emotional cocoon and in complete denial of world events.

As well as the criminal gangs making millions out of people smuggling there is rapacious China, with other countries watching to follow its lead, ruthlessly acquiring land for military strategic uses and for the resources therein.

That is a very accurate piece that goes to the heart of the matter.

It is one thing to protect borders, quite another to persecute and destroy harmless women and children who've had it so much harder than us.

This is too close to what the nazis were up to in ww2.

I don't imagine anyone is going to take your bait with that foolish 'Nazi' stuff and your "persecute and destroy harmless women and children" bollocks.

Just as few would ever be likely to treat your reply on another thread as anything but stirring the proverbial,

"I would pay $5000 to get rid of a certain member of my family and consider it would be a good investment so cheap."
Posted by paul walter, Friday, 5 February 2016 10:16:38 AM
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=7176&page=0#220316

Curious that the test case was about a Bengali woman who doesn't have refugee status. There is no religious ar ethnic persecution in Bangladesh to my knowledge. Why can't she go back to Bangladesh?

It was heartening that the High Court actually supported Australia against whining illegals whose 'rights' are no concern of ours. Jensen's 'wanting' of the 12,000 Syrian extra potential threats to our safety and stability to arrive clearly shows that he, not the law, is the "ass". The Anglican Church has lurched to the Left in a desperate attempt for relevance. Sucking up to Islam, arch enemy of all other religions, is daft and suicidal. The Syrians (if they are in fact Syrians - doubt has been expressed - are 99% Muslim. The 'promise' to take in 'minority Christians' was hogwash because that group simply does not exist in sufficient numbers to make up anything close to 12,000.

As with everything else to do with 'refugees' , we have been lied to and cheated by politicians, lawyers and busybodies like Jensen.

Ignore the fact that it is now too late to find a solution to the refugee question and then come to terms with the cause.
Bush, Howard and Blair ganged up and carried out illegal invasions of two countries on a false premise, purely to try and control the oil supply.
If they had been stopped from this there would not be any refugees, illegal boat people call them what you like but dispossessed humans fleeing war torn violence is what they are. The violence has now spread to other countries and will keep spreading especially now global warming is adding to the horror.
Australia has only seen the start of the refugees arrivals as the world continues towards it's approaching crisis.
And please, all the usual gang of trolls, haters anti everything that does not agree with their twisted view of what the world should be like, keep it to yourselves we have heard it all before.
goodbye.
"Never argue with fools, you only lower yourself to their level".

Robert,

I'm not going to argue with you - as per your little quote -and I agree that is highly likely that the 'refugee' problem would not exist if we and the "coalition" had kept our noses out of the Middle East. However, I think the bit about oil has always been a phurphy.

The problem with the likes of this author is his failure to think about the consequence of his actions other than on the immediate people concerned.
We saw what happened last time we softened our approach to asylum seekers. A massive influx which if allowed to continue would have fundamentally changed the nature of Australian society.
we saw what happened when Angela Merkel rolled out the red carpet to refugees. Germany absolutely flooded with people who are not German. This will result in a serious backlash whereby the western world will no longer provide refuge at all.
As much as I feel compassion for displaced people, I feel my own primary responsibility lies in handing on to the next generation of Australians (my children) a country at least as good as the one I grew up in. This means retaining our cultural values and norms. This cannot be achieved with unrestrained immigration of people who do not share these values or norms. we only need to look to the events in Cologne on new years eve to see what happens when political correctness blinds us to the cultural differences which exist in the real world.

Why not let this poor people stay here in Australia is it not the Christian thing to do. This is big country plenty of space for many people to live in peace and in safe place, so why not let everyone stay here if they want to.

Australian govenment let me and my family to life here now so why not these other people who are to scareed to live in there original country live here in safe place. I don't understad why not.

Misanthrope says "Why not let everyone come here?"
Because if we do it will not be just these few dozen. It will be literally millions of people who do not share our culture or values. We will have ethnic enclaves where the people do not consider themselves Australians, and eventually religious wars. We will not be able to provide health care or education for our own people. Then this country which our ancestors have worked so hard to create will become a living hell, just like the places they have come from.
there is nothing wrong with providing asylum for some people, provided that does not destroy the country for our own children. So carefully managed immigration is the only reasonable approach. We are not responsible for all the misery in the world. We can only ensure that our own country is a good and decent place to live and raise a family.

The author should be well aware the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Australia learnt this when 1200+ people died due to the bleeding hearts, and Merkel is busy learning this now as Germans get ready to toss her out of office.

My pet hate even worse than vicars who ignore their churches paedophiles are lawyers. Let's disallow lawyers from the process.
The refugee can make their own case after being told one lie and you are out for good. They all lie so none will get in.
Then we can concentrate on a proper immigration process and yes block peoples who history has shown are not in Australia's interest. In NSW there is a Middle East Organised Crime Squad, what does that tell you?

The Churches and Charities want them here for 1 reason they get millions of dollars to look after them from the Government.

A side benefit is it allows the Government to hide the real cost of refugees. A least this Government has the guts to send them away not like Dudd and Dillard.

If they stay the others will know they can do the same.

misanthrope - Why not? Look at the troubles Europe are in with the open door policy, crime rates going way up etc.

They now have woken up and are going to deport hundreds of thousand economic invaders.

You want them here, I and most Australians do not.

Q: If you noted, as you drove out or a small country town, several refugee advocate lawyer's buried up to their necks in sand, what would that indicate?
A: A serious local shortage of sand!
Rhrosty.

Matthew 25:32-46

seems like it is not just on Nauru where refugees are raping kids

http://www.news.com.au/world/europe/10yearold-raped-by-iraqi-migrant-at-swimming-pool-in-vienna/news-story/69abed188e157e2f425d8c204fa50f17

I see the usual Chicken Little stuff about the country being swamped by heaps of undeserving refugees.

This issue was about 270-odd traumatised women, kids and babies in need of the healing force of the Australian Fair Go.

Remember that? Never kick someone when they're down. Used to be something we prided ourselves on.

What I see on this thread is ignorance, prejudice and stomach turning cowardice.

I am most impressed by the reply of Plerdsus:

"The law must not only be an ass, it must be seen to be an ass."

Well the law need not be an ass, but it must be seen as such.

So if it was up to me, I would secretly accept all refugees on condition of silence and give them visas under changed-identities so that we are told that they were brought from refugee-camps in Jordan and Africa, etc.

Meanwhile, to deter others I would keep a group of actors on Nauru, kicking and screaming and telling horrible stories of atrocities and injustice.

This will necessarily attract every stone of condemnation - and so it should.

This is what Christian grace is all about - being good, rather than being seen as good. I hope that this is what's actually happening, but of course we will never know, nor should we.

Having babies while in detention proves one thing. These people simply cannot control themselves, which is the very reason so many of them are in such poverty in the first place.

In order to be a good strong ruler of a nation, one must be able to remove emotion from the situation, because at the end of the day these people arrived illegally and simply cannot be settled in our country, ever. You want to live here you go about immigrating the right way.

As for immigrating, we as a nation are currently in unchartered waters as we face uncertainty because right now we are not meeting our financial commitments.

So in order to take in even more people, the first criteria for immigrants should be, that they have something to offer. I say this because we simply cant afford any more passengers.

So while this is a terrible situation, the simple fact is its a case of self inflicted pain, and chances are some cases were deliberate in an attempt to gain asylum.

As for the churches having an opinion, what hypocrites. No amount of good deeds will undo their wrongs.

I can’t believe this guy has a doctorate from anywhere, let alone Oxford. One thing you can say about his article is that the logic presented seems to match the grammar and scholarship displayed by the author.

“These are people that have tried to gain asylum” -- people who have tried to gain asylum
“The attempt was then made to use law to prevent the government to return this group” - to use the law to prevent the government returning this group.
“as well the might” – as well they might
“And here’s the question, I must, as a theologian and a Christian pastor ask:” - And here’s the question I must, as a theologian and a Christian pastor, ask:
“put in harms way” – put in harm’s way
“This [responsibility] is quite literally the case with Minister Dutton” - How can responsibility be anything but literal. Can Dutton be metaphorically responsible for something?
“We could [refrain from sending them back], but because natural justice demands it, we won’t.” – Does this Oxford post graduate even know the meaning of the term natural justice? It means anyone adversely susceptible to a government decision has a right to be heard in appeal. It has nothing to do with what he is talking about.

seems like just as Trigg made up guns in her head so abc made or at least passed on the fantasy of a 5 year old boy being raped on Nauru. Surely Mr Jensen should base his conclusions on truth rather than fantasy. You will rarely get the truth from socialist/regressives. Winning a spot in the Drum is not worth trading your integrity.