Tasmania will have to thank Abbott for inventing a whole new industry which will provide thousands of jobs.
With his "buy up the boats" plan, Tasmania the home of timber boat building and quality trees, can now swing into action and turn out Indonesian style boats for export to Indonesia when their supply runs out. This could be an open ended industry with demand increasing as the world situation worsens.
Sri Lanka, Viet Nam, and all of the Pacific island nations would be customers for Tasmanian boats if Abbott extends the scheme to them.
The UTAS could take over the wooden boat building school and teach Australians instead of importing foreign students.

I would be up for a Tassie built timber fishing boat.
If I could place an order and collect it at Coral Bay WA via Indonesia, at a marked down price of course, it would have to be a good thing for all concerned.
I really do wonder about the pollies that currently haunt the halls of Parliament House.
The local Scout troop, CWA, Quilters or fishing club could come up with better policies than those being presented by our supposed leaders.
For the first time ever I have no idea who to vote for.
SD

Robert Le Page,

Yup...the stupidest Coalition policy in the history of stupid Coalition policies.

Poirot,

I'll supply the lump of wood, if you can tell me what's wrong with simply flying people back to Indonesia ? If they have let it without valid exit documents, technically they are still there: they haven't left to go somewhere else. Officially, they would still be in Indonesia. Use that lump of wood to correct me if I'm wrong.

There are 46-47 million refugees and displaced persons around the world: many have found out how easy it is (or they thought it was) to get into Australia, and have flown to Indonesia on the off-chance. Many others have put their names down, filled out all the right forms and waited. In a queue. They are not visible to Sarah Hanson-Young, but the people on the boats are, hence the bitter tears.

So:

1. raise the quota to 30,000 per year, and provide more staff in Indonesia to process the increase in valid forms;

2. Gather 'boat-people' at Christmas island, make sure they are okay and well-fed, and fly them back to Indonesia, by Garuda Airlines, top-dollar, paid for by Australia.

3. Indonesia should be compensated per capita for the inconvenience.

4. The people who are flown back should be assisted to fill out all the proper forms as quickly as possible, and encouraged to get to the back of the queue, and to wait their turn.

Which they could have done much more conveniently from the camps to which they have presumably fled from the oppressive regimes of their homelands, rather than gathered up all the scarce resources of their relations to fly to Indonesia and get on a leaky boat, and thence to Christmas Island and back to Indonesia again.

Am I just too simple to understand what's wrong with this idea ? Poirot, please put me out of my misery.

Cheers :)

Joe
www.firstsources.info

I think it's a great idea, as long as he follows through.

A few hundred of these boats could be used for target practice. After a few weeks practice our navy should have learnt what to do with any boat entering our national waters, without the correct paperwork.

Currently all they know to do with them is lasso them. Once they have learnt what that big thing on the foredeck is for, ate boat problem will stop quick time.

Yep a brilliant plan, once the second half is added.

I was of the understanding that the boats used for people smuggling were old, un unsed fishing boats.