Yabby, "the other two can purchase their Australian visas by paying people smugglers"?

I thought the big argument was that the Afghans and Sri Lankans don't have any papers, let alone Australian visas.

I didn't know people smugglers sold Australian visas. I thought the argument is that they tell people to destroy all their documents.

The reality is people keep arriving in boats and that isn't going to stop anytime soon. So what do you want to do with these people, Yabby? Find out if they are genuine refugees and re-settle them? Or tell them they've jumped the queue and turn the boats back and drown them?

In practice it hardly matters that it's "unfair." What matters is that they're here, they're going to keep arriving, and we have to work with that reality. You can complain about unfairness all you like, that isn't going to stop them coming, and it isn't going to stop the problem of how to deal with them when they get here.

The world's unfair. Work with it. Being even more unfair isn't going to redress the balance. Treating the Afghans and Sri Lankans badly isn't going to help the Burmese one bit.

Wow, what a hysterical article!

There are certainly legitimate concerns about Gillard, or Rudd or Howard before her, not dealing with visa overstayers.

But the author’s extremely strong condemnatory language of these people just destroys her credibility, as does her branding of Gillard’s or Abbott’s policies on asylum seekers as racist.

There is absolutely no need for the racist slur… and it is totally wrong!

Can’t we talk about the vexed issue of asylum seekers and other immigration law infringers, and our national refugee and international aid programs, with a somewhat more level head than Jennifer Wilson appears to have?

Yes of course Gillard should be addressing visa overstayers, although I don’t think that they are anywhere near as bad as the author is making out.

But the author has missed a huge aspect of this whole debate – she has had nothing to say about Australia’s formal refugee or international aid programs or how they could be improved. Surely this is of at least as much relevance to the asylum seeking issue as visa overstayers. http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=10682#176652

Leigh asks:

<< Why are there so many people coming here, legally and illegally, if we are such monstrous racists? >>

Would you care to answer this question Jennifer?

*The world's unfair. Work with it*

You don't say? Does that perhaps explain your bias towards
Sri Lankans and Aghans and against the Burmese who happen
to be poorer?

What is your real agenda, for clearly its not about
fairness.

*You can complain about unfairness all you like, that isn't going to stop them coming, and it isn't going to stop the problem of how to deal with them when they get here.*

Quite simple Briar. Protection visas only for those who come here
by boat or plane, permanent residency for those from refugee
camps, like the Burmese. That should fix it. As things are
improving daily in Sri Lanka, the first can start heading home
already.

It never ceases to amaze me how Australia is always accused of racism by the very people it provides so much effort to support, even the blatantly non-deserving. I can't recall anyone calling the refugee producing countries racist. When the western peace forces go in to try to stabilize these countries then our ignorant academic background journoes scream blue murder from the roof tops. Isn't it about time these home grown terrorists are told to shut up & stop de-stabilizing the efforts of those who really do care & make an effort to find a solution ? If people like Jennifer are so convinced that they have the answer then go ahead & go to the refugee factories & stop production. Bet they haven't got the guts to do so. It's much easier to bleat racism isn't it ?

Despite the fact that Australia has been obsessed with keeping non-'white' immigrants out of the country since before Federation, I don't think that as a nation we're any more racist than most other countries. However, that evidently doesn't stop our politicians from quite deliberately appealing to the bigotry of the minority in order to try and stay in power.

Having said that, if OLO is anything to go by, many of the more vocal opponents of humane treatment of asylum seekers most definitely fall into that racist minority who give the rest of us a bad name.