Stern

>> the furball of hypocrisy does stick in the throat <<

Then stop doing it.

Stern,
Yes the hypocrisy of the current government is almost unbelieveable.

Firstly they campaign, before the last election, that they will 'turn the boats back'. Then since have done everything to encourage the boats to come and now have a problem of their own making.

While maintaining they are tough on asylum seekers they continue to encourage, in which their 'humanatarian' policies has resulted in about 170 drownings.

With an election coming they now change again trying to convince us that an off shore facility will, on its own, stop the boats from coming.

The truth of the matter is that they do not have any intention of stopping the boats from coming and they care not about the poor sods that have drowned.

Everything Labor has done since being elected has been a complete fiasco. They could not run a chook raffle in a pub and lie simply to chase votes.

Hi Col

<< Rudd & Co were elected on a campaign of “mee too” >>

Yes…what a sterile policy vacuum that was. Talk about no gonads!

<< Now Gizzard’s Pacific Solution is what she denigrated as Howards Pacific Solution. >>

It is pretty much the same policy, isn’t it!

Nauru is the obvious place for a processing centre, being vastly more practical than undertaking long and very uncertain negotiations with East Timor and then no doubt having to pay through the nose to get a detention centre set up there if agreement is eventually reached, not to mention the very long timeline before it would be operational.

Gillard is loathe to do it, for one reason it seems – she would then be seen to be doing virtually exactly the same as what Howard did and what Labor had been so critical of for so long…instead of only undertaking 98% of the same policy!

For goodness sake, Gillard needs to bite the bullet and get the Nauru centre up and running and quickly get on with stopping onshore asylum seeking / people smuggling.

----
<< Everything Labor has done since being elected has been a complete fiasco. >>

Under Rudd, yes, just about.

Banjo, I just hope to goodness that Gillard will be different. Initial indications were good, but those indications changed very quickly.

A Nauru processing centre is such an obvious next move. If she can’t do that, then where is she at??

Col/Stern

>>>>>>> Isn't it a shame that not either party has the cojones (ovaries or balls) to really differentiate itself from the other party and get us out of this cycle of mediocrity. <<<<<<<<

First Ludwig quotes me and now you, needing inspiration, have quoted me as well. Blush.

No problem. Any time you are short on ideas of your own, you are welcome to plagiar... ooops I mean quote me.

Anyway, how's the Bentley going? Appreciating in value I hope. Perhaps you could give it a good run out to Tullamarine, and assist a few asylum seekers into Melbourne. They aren't nearly as smelly as the ones who arrive by boat - so you won't have worry over the leather seats.

Cheers

Maybe I've got it wrong, but I thought I read somewhere that there are currently more than forty million refugees, including internally displaced people, around the world. Forty million: some of them have been in camps and on the waiting list for fifteen years, some for twelve years, some for ten years, some for a year ...... in other words, a queue.

Some refugees are desperate enough to try to come to Australia by unseaworthy boat and - there's no other term for it - jump the queue. They might have perfectly good reasons for so desperately wanting to get out of their perilous situations, but in the process, they are, certainly through no fault of their own, jumping the queue.

My view is that we should expand the refugee intake to allow for these desperate people, once they have been 'processed'. After all, we really can't send them back - where to ? So keep a scheduled annual intake, plus those willing to risk their lives on the high seas.

There's another problem: most people who are welcoming of refugees might also oppose the war in Afghanistan. Fair enough, but think about it: if the US etc. pulled out of Afghanistan and left it to the Taliban, surely adherents to one of the most reactionary, right-wing ideologies in the world, what would happen to the officials there, and to all those women who have dared to lift their heads, and to the girls who have dared to go to school, and to their families ? Are we ready for literally millions more refugees suddenly fleeing certain death ?

Just a thought :)

Joe

NIce yarn, Dino. Not sure I'd necessarily hold up old prune face Chipp as some kind of icon of integrity. It's easy to be right on when your carping from the sidelines - as he was. I think the problem with Gillard's grasping attempt at a solution to the reffo crisis was that her request went through East Timor's president: a figurehead – which is like a foreign country trying to conduct policy through our Governor General. Very amateur indeed. There are no easy solutions here. But I did like how Gillard sought to gather views on the subject from right across the spectrum rather than just the cud chewing intelligentsia whose views are always the same anyway. In a democracy we should not be afraid to argue our point. We should not fear others disagreeing with us. Take off the gags!