Leigh: << Ms. Chau is not my ‘equal’ as you state; she is not “just as Australian as (I am)” >>

Quite so. In fact, I think that Wesa Chau is a much better Australian than a bigoted prat like you.

jjplug,

What wonderful, convincing arguments you come up with! You must be proud of your intellect.

"Ms. Chau is not my ‘equal’ as you state; she is not “just as Australian as (I am)”,"

Oh dear. This is a sad and sorry way to look at the world. I think you'll fine that all the rest of us regard Ms Chau as your equal and as our equal.

"And, if you think it's OK for people to make negative comments about your country and get away with it, that's entirely your business. I think differently."

I find Germaine Greer annoying as well. Actually, much the same could be said of Tony Abbott.

"The Chinese, particularly, are always Chinese no matter where they are born or where they live."

I think Stern Hu would disagree, just quietly.

"We’ve recently had a federal a MP who served almost a term before it was realised that she was not an Australian Citizen!"
Actually, I think Pauline Hanson was an Australian. But she's now 100% British...

"she is allowed to say what she wants because our democracy and legal system is based on my British heritage."

I think you'll find that in our history there were people who are a part of our British heritage who tried to deny others the right to speak. There was all that drama between Charles I and Parliament in the 17th century.

I think that this is a perfect example of playing the man and not the ball because you have made an issue of Chau's heritage rather than her ideas.

If you actually read Ms Chau's article she makes a very sensible argument that the government should clear up the private education sector but that it should not over-react in doing so. More importantly, the government has to be ethical in the way in which it treats those students who are currently here and who have legitimate expectations regarding education and migration. We can't invite people in one week and treat them like dirt the next week.

Chau writes:

"It seems the government is panicking and instead of removing the providers and agents who have misled students into believing that there is a short cut to permanent residency, they punish the students instead."

I completely agree with this point. These students add a lot to our economy. They add in ways in which many people don't recognise. I love the fact that a lot of smart young people from Asia and wherever else our choosing to come to Australia to study. It adds a lot to our country in terms of diversity, youth, ambition and wealth. It makes Australia a better place because of that fact.

Personally, I'm comfortable with my British heritage and Australian identity. I don't think that its threatened by diversity. I guess its just a question of how secure you feel about yourself.

Vanna you seem to regard economics as some sort of zero sum game. This is a far too simplistic way to look at a domestic economy much less a globalised world economy. If we indulged your viewpoint we wouldn't trade with anybody.

It is really simplistic and false to view imports as bad and exports as good. Imports add a lot of wealth to our country by freeing up money for other productive uses.

Foreign students add a lot to our economy. Without them we could not run our universities. If anybody is actually getting a raw deal its the foreign students.

CJ, JJ, I echo your sentiments. CJ lets keep this thread a secret from Ngarmada lest our nefarious colonial intents be exposed!

On a side note, Bob Birrell is an opponent of migration. In the paper Vanna provided Birrell unsuccessfully tries to cast doubt on AEI's claim that international students add $15 billion to the Australian economy. In doing so, Bob Birrell launches an unnecessary and unconvincing attack on the ABS. I won't pick it apart here. But the $15 billion figure stands. Personally, I struggle to see how Monash University can continue to employ Bob Birrell, who argues against foreign students, whilst still accepting money from foreign students!

David Jennings,

Ms. Chau is not my equal as an Australian (if she is an Australian). That does not mean that I don’t regard her as an equal human being, which, of course she is. There is nothing sad about that.

I note that you still find it OK to have foreigners rubbish your country, but you insist on advising that Germaine Greer, Tony Abbott and I irritate you. Some would suggest that you have the old anti-Australian, self-hatred disease so common in people like you.

Stern Hu typifies an “Australian of convenience”. However, in line with Chinese Government attitude to people, his legal Australian status is obviously not going to help him one little bit. And, there is no way our Sinophile PM is going to do anything to help.

Who mentioned Pauline Hanson? Not me! She is not the politician I referred to. If you like to do a bit of digging, you’ll find out who it was. Don’t stay locked in the 17th Century with Charles 1st.

You can say that I ‘played the man’ until you are blue in the face. I totally disagree with you on that and everything else you say