Susan raises interesting issues in this, apart from the obvious ones she writes about.

One is the state of The Australian newspaper, which has turned into a DLP Catholic enclave for those who still hanker after Santamaria, probably more than Jesus even, and the appalling standard of journalism they bring to our breakfast tables.

Another is the way in which Tim Costello is somehow always regarded as 'a decent fellow' and quoted to justify all sorts of matters, probably because he appears to be such a contrast to his brother. But people forget that Tim is a Baptist, and that crew of 'Christians' own some of the most appalling views in our community, perhaps just as bad as Brethren and Scientology. It is the Baptists who are crashing through the open doors of our public schools installing 'Christian mentors' to work with students in an attempt to evangelise and proselytise to them.

Rudd is, of course, as horrible as Abbott when all is said and done. Both wear their hypocrite hat as 'believers' and pushers of 'faith', along with what looks like about 98% of all our nations MPs, state and federal.

Clearly, being a 'Christian' does not bring any intelligence with it, or at least, not as a guarantee.

These same politicians are eager for 'free trade', and they were all too eager to dispense with low skill jobs, exporting them to China, Thailand, India and all places 'Asia' in the pursuit of 'free trade', while absolutely failing to alter how our education system works.

As a result, we still have a 19th century schooling system, full of low skill staff and poor management, onto which has been built an underfunded and backwoods tech and uni' system, which requires we import skilled people.

Clearly, we cannot just allow endless people to come and live here, however they arrive, and we do need a population/environment/'growth' policy to work out where we go.

The actual 'boat people' saga should be seen for what it is. A human issue turned into political nonsense, for all the reasons Susan lists, and more.

Benk, I think you might be commenting on a different article? I do not take issue with racism in the article. I simply point out that we had a white Australia policy back then as an historical fact and that most of the refugees in camps at the moment are not white. You can draw your own conclusions about whether that has any significance. On the subject of racism generally I'm always wary, politicians treat 'our own' just as badly when it suits them and when they can get away with it. As for the Christian churches helping refugees, I make the point very clearly in the article that the churches have been at the forefront of assisting refugees and that perhaps the Christian politicians could follow their lead. If it wasn't for many churches, as well as people without faith or other faiths, many people on TPVs who were dumped in the community without support under the last government would not have survived. I still regularly turn to churches to ask for help with refugees who are having problems and most have been amazing in their support. In some other areas I may not be so fast to praise the work of the churches. Susan

Grim with his typical leftist deceit writes

'So far on this thread I have counted at least 3 atheists in favour of treating refugees compassionately, and 2 Christians in favour of turning their backs on their 'brothers'.'

What he means is that he has found 3 atheist happy to spend tax payers money to help these people even ij it means them drowning. He/she knows that Christians put their money where there mouth is personally rather than hiding behind ideology and expecting the taxpayer to fund their 'compassion'.

Pelican, it is just not true that Australia allows 'illegitimate unverified asylum seekers into the country at the expense of genuine asylum seekers' That's just an untruthful statement. People go through an extensive process to have their 'legitimacy' proved and Scott Morrison admitted this week that 97% of the people on Christmas Island are being found to be refugees at the moment - that means they are fleeing from persecution. If you think Christian values are so flexible then I think we have a right to ask exactly what our Christian politicans mean when they say they are family loving Christians. They present themselves to us in this way and I can't see the evidence in their words and their actions. What kind of Christianity do they represent? You can't just distort religious values to suit your political opportunism. If they want to pin the tag of Christianity on themselves we should expect that they practice what they preach. And really to accuse lawyers of profiting is really unfair - lawyers who work in this area often do more pro bono work than they do paid work. Susan

In his 2004 election campaign Liberal MP Don Randall claimed that Australia was "essentially a Christian nation, operating on Christian principles" and the electorate "want to know that they've got a Christian at the head of the Australian Government." I wonder what these principles are?

CJ,

The "motherhood" statement I was referring to was "but we need to reduce our skilled migration program and balance that reduction by investing in skills training for Australians"

A reduction in "hairdressers and cooks" is soon to be implemented, and will help.

It appeals to everyone, but as solution to the immediate it is completely useless (along with most of the greens suggestions)

And the rest of my post should have made that perfectly clear.

Under the non binding accord, Aus is required to give temporary residence to genuine refugees (as determined by itself)