Leigh,

"As far as the general public knows, there is no evidence whatsoever that any of the illegal boat arrivals are genuine refugees fleeing from personal danger."

That's why their individual cases are heard and assessed. If they are false, they are sent back but if they are indeed found to be genuine - then what?

You are also quick to dismiss statements made by "an audience member" but have made a few totally unsupported statements of your own and seem more than willing to discredit others who are actually qualified to make such assessments, probably because you just don't like the results.

David, would you be in publicly funded employment, by any chance?

It is my experience that those who recive their income courtesy of the tax payer are the most likey to aprove of more tax payer funds being expended all over the place.

I guess it's the easy come easy go syndrome at play.

Whatever the outcome of this so-called debate, I hope the real truth about the LNP boat policy becomes known.

On ABC Radio some time ago, Alexander Downer admitted that they DID NOT STOP the boats from leaving. They just turned them around and towed them back into Indonesian waters. (Hence the subsequent problem with the Oceanic Viking.)

"The other thing we did, which we did more sotto voce was to tow the boats – I must say this is not something that has generated much publicity recently in Australia – we used to get the Navy not to guide the boats into the Australian shore line what we did was [laughs] we got the navy to tow the boats back to the Indonesian territorial waters, left the boats with enough fuel, food and so on to get to a port in Indonesia – guided them where to go – and them left them.

Obviously monitored them to make sure the boat was safe but disappeared over the horizon. And this worked very effectively, but we did this without any publicity, we didn’t run around boasting that we were doing this because we knew the Indonesian accepted these people back through gritted teeth. But what the present government has done is in a way is what we did over the Tampa make too much noise publicly, back the Indonesians into a corner and so then the Indonesians said they wouldn’t take the people, just as they wouldn’t take the people from the Tampa."

Therefore, the alleged public tough stance and the TPV fiasco had no effect on the pull factors. It was just window dressing for electoral consumption.

It will be interesting to see which way it goes now but I suspect it will be a race to see who is more brutal and dishonest.

Gee Hasbeen, would you be a an old white male of a working class or low middle class persuasion living off a moderate income in Queensland? Because its been my experience .....

I'm a university academic mate. Whether thats publicly funded anymore is very debatable. I'm also a lawyer with a firm. Thats private income. I work hard for my money and if I wasn't doing this I'd be doing something else. So my opinion is just as valid as yours. I'm just not as insecure.

According to the news Gillard intends to ship those who have been refused asylum back.

Considering that 60% of afghans have refused asylum, and there is a deal with Sri Lanka to guarantee the safety of returned refugees, that should mean that under Gillard, nearly all of those in detention will be deported.

Gillard is Howard lite.

Shadow Minister,
Re : “Considering that 60% of afghans have refused asylum…nearly all of those in detention will be deported.”

You missed the important second part, Shadow :

“But despite refusal rates for Afghans climbing to around 60 per cent, only two have been returned. In both cases, the returns were voluntary, with the other deportations held up in appeals.”
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/julia-gillard-to-send-back-boatpeople/story-e6frg6n6-1225887782751

There will be appeals from here till well after the next two elections –all at tax payers expense, of course.

I like some others I think this new policy has more to do with defusing it as an election issue than anything else.

PS: I see old CJ “IT’’LL BE MESSY BUT IT’S INEVITABLE” Morgan is bleating about the welfare of refugees, again –how ironic !