I don't think Albert Jacka would have given a "rolled gold" guarantee on a Medicare Safety Net and then reneged on it. I don't think he would chop and change policies and loyalties to suit a current whim, and I certainly can't imagine hime as a budgie-smuggling bodgie.

Sorry Bruce, you just haven't cut the mustard.

The best short summary I've seen recently of Rudd's and Abbott's ridiculous posturing on asylum seekers. Well said, Bruce. The main problem with these two prize fighters squaring up to each other on this issue is that the people who cop all the punches are the most vulnerable and downtrodden people in the world.

I didn’t see the debate. Not interested in two people talking about what they might or might not do. So, I might be wrong in thinking that the debate was all about health. But I see that asylum seekers have been brought up again by a poster on this thread.

Very topical, even if it wasn’t ‘debated’.

Today, there have been a couple of news items of interest on the subject. First on news.com is the headline: “Australia's asylum seeker numbers buck world trend, says UN”

This refers to the UN’s figures which show that coming to Australia have increased by 30%, while global numbers have remained steady.

So much for Minister for Home Affairs claiming that the increase in numbers – 26 this year already this year – is part of a world trend.

The Minister has been caught out trying to keep us quiet with totally incorrect information.

As usual, the report contains the ‘weasel word’ that yesterday’s boat was ‘intercepted’ by patrol vessels. The boat was not intercepted. It’s crew was looking for a patrol boat to escort them to Christmas Island. The navy does not intercept. It just has to wait for people smugglers to find them.

The other headline was: “Mass Immigration ‘kills Aussie Culture’”, which deals with overpopulation and its effect on life as we know it in Australia.

Health, population. It doesn’t matter what is debated. Action, not debate, is needed.

This is a pretty flimsy analysis that shows love for Tony Abbott and hatred for Rudd - just as well this is online 'opinion' because it is short on deeper truths. An 'individual in the best Australian tradition' says Bruce. Tony Abbott is an opportunist bully - that's not my Australian tradition. It might be fine to have him in your army if you are fighting a bloody war but we are trying to stamp out bullying in this country. I can't believe how gullible people are with Tony Abbott. He just needs to pose with grubs and budgie smugglers and he is supposedly 'real'... The Australia I want to live in is not quite so grubby.

Leigh perhaps you should read the UNHCR report and not the media headlines. Yes it is true that the world is not being flooded by asylum seekers as the refugee haters would have us believe but numerous countries recorded increases in 2009. From the report: 'There is a particularly large increase in the number of asylum applications registered in Denmark (+59%), Finland (+47%) and Norway (+19%).' Belgium also increased by 40%, etc. So although Australia's increase was 30% this is really not out of alignment with many other countries, while others have gone down for various reasons. Most of Australia's applications were from Chinese people arriving by plane, Afghanistan was the next source country (mostly boat arrivals) but worldwide applications from Afghan people rose by 45% in 2009. Afghanistan was the largest source country worldwide, the first time they have been at the top of the list since 2001 (a time when Australia was also receiving more applications from Afghanistan under John Howard)

Thanks Meander, you have posted exactly what I wanted to say when I read Leigh's bit of misinformation. Perhaps he didn't get far enough into the report to see the figures about the Chinese arriving by plane, or bother to check the UNHCR report for the detailed comparison with other countries. The last thing to be believed about refugees and asylum seekers are the MSM's headlines.

Predictably, Abbott is now reported (ABC news) as having issued a new challenge to Rudd, to debate asylum seekers! Just what the 'problem' about asylum seekers is, I'm not sure, and never have been; the problems are mostly for those seeking asylum. We are not being inundated. I can't stand matters like this, with their human punching bags, being made the subject of adversarial 'debate', where the leaders are merely doing it to assert some kind of mediatised ascendancy rather than determine the nation's humanitarian policy.

Whatever one might say about Rudd's mellifluous waffling yesterday (just one aspect of Rudd that I find unpleasant), there is a strong argument for the kind of action being proposed and for the Federal government to assert itself over bumptious, spin-obsessed state premiers.