Ludwig, I would have thought you would know they're emoticons, given that you use others frequently. Are you being disingenuous?

For Cornflower's benefit, since they obviously don't appear in her Reader's Digest, here's a list of them and what they mean:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emoticons

I hope this helps --!--

If refugees become a problem for labor at the next election it will be Labor's own fault for not loudly repeating over and over again, for the benefit of stupid voters, that the numbers of refugees arriving here are negligible when compared with our total intake of migrants.

Of course the numbers of our total intake of migrants might well be a problem for Labor, as like me, most Australians think they are way too high and include ethnic groups known to have caused too many troubles in other countries before us. The media, as is often the case, does nothing to educate us sensibly about these matters.

Horus

Your comments regarding my last post are completely fatuous.

I did not divide people into "holiday makers" and "boat people", I was clarifying Yabby's misconception that all people who arrive by plane and overstay their visas are backpackers. Please focus.

Ginx

I too found Graham's description of the conservative labelling of asylum seekers as "immigrants" a new slant on an old game. That's a new one on me, having had to listen to 11 years of the term "illegal aliens" spouted from Howard down and continued by his relic supporters today in the far-right of the Liberal party. Completely disingenuous.

The only point I agree with GY, is that despite the numbers of boat people being so small and most often found to be genuine, refugees will continue to be an election issue. Simply because it suits both Labor and the Libs to keep us looking in that direction.

That the focus should be on issues such as sustainable clean energy, separation of church and state, degraded infrastructure, health, education and transitioning from non-renewable resources to renewables, is being deliberately covered over.

As much as I like Julia Gillard as PM, while she continues to dance to the tune of the vested interests of the big-business lobby I don't see much chance of change.

Severin, the stats don't lie. Yes, the Liberal respondents often used the word "immigration" and "illegal" together, but that is what they see it as. Not refugees or asylum seekers but another way for people to immigrate. They use immigration on its own twice as frequently as immigration with illegal.

I don't think I've every heard John Howard use the term "illegal alien" - that's US terminology. Maybe he used it a couple of times, but I'd be interested in any evidence you can show that he used it all the time.

I don't understand what you think you have to gain by shooting the messenger. It is not creditable behaviour. But the Libs will be happy if you keep at it. I didn't mention it in the article because I couldn't justify it on this particular piece of research, but the issue also works for the Liberals because ordinary decent Australians don't like being called racist by intolerant members of the commentariat or anyone else. They see that as being prejudice.

Every time someone condemns someone as racist for their position on asylum seekers without trying to understand them and accepting that their view could be valid votes move away from Labor in protest.

*I was clarifying Yabby's misconception that all people who arrive by plane and overstay their visas are backpackers.*

Severin, I never claimed that. Please stop shooting down your
own strawman arguments and focus on what was actually written
by others.

Friends, there is a great deal of passion on this thread. The problem seems to centre around what to do with these boat people. There seems to be three solutions:

1. Sink the boats.

2. Drag the boats back to where they came from.

3. Process the unfortunate people on Nauru.

There is however a fourth solution. Invade and occupy New Zealand (which should only take a weekend), then turn it into a giant boat people processing factory. Problem solved.

And, as an added bonus, we wouldn't have to suffer the humiliation which the All Blacks mete out to us each year or allow the New Zealanders to take all our good jobs!