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The Forum > Article Comments > An island fortress mentality > Comments

An island fortress mentality : Comments

By Peter van Vliet, published 25/5/2009

What it is about Australia that makes us so alarmist about our relatively small number of asylum seekers.

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From last year's Immigration Report to June 2008-

Total arrivals/departures = 25,700,000
Visa Overstayers taken into detention = 1283
Visa overstayers who breached Visa conditions=323
Unlawful non-citizens located = 10722
Removals and departures = 8404
Clearances refused at airports/seaports = 1613

Boat arrivals = 25

Crisis?
Posted by wobbles, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 9:04:36 AM
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Ah, but wobbles - you're not counting all those pernicious "illegals" that Banjo can find on the Department of Immigration and Citizenship website, but nobody else can.

Australia is under threat by literally HUNDREDS of desperate refugees in leaky boats. Man the Barricades! Repel boarders! Blow them out of the water!

We will fight them on the beaches...
Posted by CJ Morgan, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 9:13:06 AM
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I wholly agree with Ludwig’s response to this article.

the issue with fixing a small leak in the dam wall is because, whilst a small leak might be tolerable and accommodated , its prolonged erosive effect upon the dam fabric soon opens up the breach and turns the small tickle which passes through into a torrent which floods all before it.

Certainly, if we consider the numbers of people who would freely seek to come to Australia today and we allowed them all unfettered access, what is, presently, the population of Australia would be swept aside and reduced to a minority before them.

OF course we do have a responsibility to also ensure everyone seeking access is
Free of infectious diseases
Free of a criminal past
Able to function, assimilate and is tolerant of the wider Australian community, which it is seeking to participate in.

From the behavior of some criminally inclined individuals and ethnic gangs, it would seem a number of migrants fail on the last point and should be deported immediately their prison sentences have been served. I am of course, referring to the murderers who escaped to Thailand, after killing an Australian at the weekend, those who seek to make their fortune in the illegal supply of narcotics and of course that pathetic excuse for a human who was, properly deported back to Serbia a couple of years ago.
Posted by Col Rouge, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 9:34:12 AM
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wobbles,
Without checking on your quoted stats, they sound about right. This really shows the effectiveness of the previous policy. Have a look at the previous year also. The Rudd policy came into being after your stats ended on 30-6-08. Now read article from todays Aus to see what has happened since.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25544176-601,00.html

We have apprehended 749 illegals and the Indonesians have apprehended 900. Over 1500 in total that were attempting to come by boat.

There is no doubt that the lure of permanent residency, after a couple of months paid for holiday on barmy Christmas Island, is the lure and like the Indonesians say we can expect more and more.

There is no alarm, but we simply need to make it far less attractive for the illegals to risk the trip. I applaud the Indonesians for their efforts in prevention
Posted by Banjo, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 9:59:29 A
Posted by Banjo, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 10:05:14 AM
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The answer to Peter van Vliet's question could be that within living memory a very significant proportion of the population of a then very culturally homogenous Australia saw at first hand some of the conditions and attitudes that prevailed elsewhere in the world during a time of world war in which it was perceived Australia itself was under threat. The message passed on by these numerous eyewitnesses was pretty much unanimous: preserve the cultural homogeniety of Australia as a bulwark against the tensions that had been seen as having led to, and exacerbated, the conflict they had witnessed.

In those times Australia was seen by Australians as anything but an 'island fortress'. In attempting to create such an analogy, Peter van Vliet has perhaps conflated the perceptions of extreme vulnerability of Australia's relatively small population to cultural swamping should restriction as to who could enter the country be relaxed, with the undeniable fact that the country is an (albeit very large and difficult to patrol) island and therefore somehow invulnerable.

Contemporaneously with the threats to Australia posed by two world wars there had existed a disaffected element within Australian society that wanted political power and to set a new direction for Australian society. This element knew it was virtually impossible to force through unwanted change against the checks and balances of the British constitutional monarchical polity that was, and still is, Australia, whilst ever such cultural homogeniety persisted.

The disaffected element believed it had to change the cultural basis of Australian society in order to make its grab for power believably legitimate. It saw dramatically increased non-British immigration as the means to that end.

The big lie that has been promoted for many years now is that because there had been a natural acceptance of migrants of predominantly British origin that were perceived as offerring little threat to cultural homogeniety in Australia, Australia therefore was, and is, a 'racist' society.

The problem that this disaffected element, one that now sees itself as an elite within Australian society, has, is that it has believed its own big lie.
Posted by Forrest Gumpp, Thursday, 28 May 2009 7:54:10 AM
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Forrest, very interesting comments you make.

So this disaffected element that has believed its own lies .. do you mean the people who now insist we open our borders up and welcome everyone where ever they come from and by whatever means.

I note on OLO there is an element that castigates anyone who questions whether our borders should be completely open, and believe we should not be stopping boat or other immigrant peoples for even a moment. They deride others often before they post anything, I'm guessing to intimidate and bully any responses in opposition to what they believe is correct thinking for Australians, political correctness in other words. Just an observation, they clearly expect contrary views and that's their way of dealing with it.

This element insists we should welcome them all immediately into our community. Is that who you're talking about? I don't see Australia as necessarily racist, but I do see a lot of folks who are nervous and unsure how our society will evolve now with so many disparate groups.

What do you think will come out of this? I'm interested genuinely in your opinion on this.
Posted by rpg, Thursday, 28 May 2009 8:43:09 AM
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