Phew!
Things getting too hot,Garry?
Imagine what it's like in real life. The correspondents here have been very restrained. And intelligent. Censorship is always a nasty word.
socratease

Hello Evan, A well written piece but I think we're all caught in 'Ground Hog Day'. Rudd is really no different to Abbott, fundamentally, when it comes to asylum seekers who arrive without authorisation.

I find it strange how Abbott is targetted by opponents of the old policy when the current government is no better. Pressure should be placed on the Government, more than the Opposition, as it is government that has power to change things.

The basic problem, as I see it, is that no-one thinks outside the square... hence 'Ground Hog Day'. What is needed urgently is for the hitherto unmentionable concept of 'open borders' to enter the public conversation. Otherwise, the need for a planned system, with quotas, will inevitably necessitate detention and deportation of those who are found not to be genuine refugees.

It will probably be up to young folk to raise the 'Open Borders' call. The kind of restrictions that Rudd is maintaining (mandatory detention is, after all, a Labor initiative) are relatively new, in historical terms. The free movement of people would result in a much bigger Australia, a dynamic, diverse and growing society but... oops... I've just alienated the Greens, who bizarrely think we're already over-populated.

Barry

I do not like to see people suffering and the plight of refugees touches me. I try to do my bit by monthly donations to several Organisations that do aid work in some of the most troubled areas of the world.

Likewise I love my Country and do not wish to have uninvited, unknown and illegal - yes illegal, immigrants putting me and my fellow Australians at risk of disease and pestilence, criminality and terror, social upheaval and economic strain.

Genuine "Asylum Seekers" - those truly at risk of persecution for no good reason, would be safe in any number of Countries they pass through before procuring an illicit boat trip to Australia.

The Howard Government policies not only protected our interests but also largely stopped the dangerous and despicable people smuggling trade. At least to our shores ...

Me - a "minority thinker"? I don't think so! Kevin is starting to feel the backlash from his support base and if he has any sense (of survival) whatsoever he will revise his disastrous policy to reflect the wishes of the democratic majority, if for no other reason.