I have for years been a strong advocate for compliance with treaties regarding refugees, to limit our contribution to families, more particularly women and children. I do not see that any single men fit any definition of a refugee because they have a traditional role to act for change before taking the easy path. It is this part of character that I cynically refer as "adding to the cultural diversity of the Nation" by running away - not my observation, but the warm and fuzzy rhetoric of the Greens and those who would never allow these people in their home as an alternative to Christmas Island.

Speed up the transfer of families. It is through the children that there is a faster and more effective integration into an otherwise strange lifestyle. Suddenly, without a tribal influence on their well being, where females are not brought up uneducated ,barefoot, and pregnant from about 14. the age of "consent".

Susan M & David Jennings,
You ask why some people spend so much time on something they feel so negatively about.
I believe that with all the agitators, lobbyists, assorted ideologues and captains of grievance industries who are trying to impose their perspectives on this country's people and its government, many people feel powerless.
They are unable to stop these relentless juggernauts, which they perceive to be dragging their country down.
So they do what they can to express their opposition,
even though they often resent the time it takes.
Of course it would be very convenient for you all if your opponents were silenced.
But you should consider that the grievance industries already have the advantage.
Most people do not get paid to agitate for a living.
They mostly work real, productive jobs so that they can afford to pay taxes to support the agitators and ideologues.

Proxy, thanks for the answer. But don't you think that's all a bit paranoid? I find the battle for victim status politically interesting but strangely illogical. This country has problems but we are not in danger of being dragged down to anywhere. As bad as anything gets here we have welfare, we have food coupons, medicare - although people do fall through the cracks the wider picture is not bleak.

In 1988 the Fitzgerald report on immigration noted that, 'in a time of change… immigration frequently becomes a target. When there are forces moving in our society which people seem not to be able to identify, or to understand, or to halt, immigration as a cause seems easier to pinpoint, the change it brings becomes negatively perceived, and it is felt that by manipulating immigration this way or that way we can avoid having economic or social problems.' I believe that there is a negative obsession with boat arrivals because, as you say, people feel powerless, but their reasons for feeling powerless are more personal, or result from natural change in the country and the world, and have nothing to do with refugees. The boat arrivals are just an easy visible target.

Frank Brennan has been a strong critic of refugee policy but he is not radical - he has supported offshore processing on Christmas Island - so some of the comments on here are strange. There are many who seem willing to twist the facts on this issue for party political reasons and that to me is the worst of it.

(continued from last) It is actually very hard to find people who have a balanced well thought through position against asylum seekers that doesn't have at its base either politics or feelings of powerlessness about other issues, and obviously there is hatred and prejduce against outsiders that is evident in every country. And everyone has an opinion, even if they don't understand the complexties and detail of the issue people feel justified in making statements that are not factual. The amount of incorrect information that has been put out there in the past decade on this issue is extraordinary.

If you are suggesting that advocates for refugees are making any money out of this issue I think you have got the wrong end of the stick on that one. It comes at great cost (financial and other) to engage in advocacy and support for vulnerable people, whether they be refugees, homeless, disabled or other (and I'm not talking about people who carp from the sidelines with opinions from all sides). I just wish some of the strong energy that some people have that is used with such negativity could be channelled into creating positive things for this country.

Proxy you should consider dropping the "r" in your username. It would then be more in harmony with your views.

jjplug you should consider dropping the "jj" in your username,
subsituting "pull the" and then acting on what would be very good advice.