it is heartening to see that in our society you can actually still say what you think and believe. Critizise the government? unheard of! But it feels like a breath of fresh air in a stifled room. Sorry I missed the Interview. Thank you, Bruce Haigh.

alfred

Australia should not be sending the desperate asylum seekers to Malaysia or any other countries in the region. We have the capacity to process these people and meet our international obligations. Our nation's image, reputation and self-esteem will improve if we do what is humane and in the best interest of Australia and its place in the world. PM Gillard and Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, need to be reminded that in 1999, the Republic of Macedonia welcomed more than 300,000 desperate people fleeing the war in Kosovo. With a tiny budget, the Macedonian Government provided them with food, shelter and dignity. Australia's leaders need to stop playing absurd political games and focus on how to get the best outcomes for this great nation. Breaking international laws is not the way forward.

This solution has just been condemned in both houses of parliament:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/labor-defeated-as-parliament-condemns-malaysia-solution/story-fn59niix-1226076260078

It is far worse even than the Pacific solution.

"Australia's leaders need to stop playing absurd political games and focus on how to get the best outcomes for this great nation."
The best outcome for this nation is to keep the nutjobs out- and to do this we need to screen each arrival's character and immediately deport anyone that falls short of our standards.

Strangely, I'm still wondering where this "international condemnation" is actually supposed to be coming from;
Can't be from America, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Germany, Austria, anywhere in Scandinavia, Japan or our immediate regional neighbours- as they want the same national rights of immigration control for themselves and as far as I'm aware, aren't kicking up a stink that we're doing it too.

It is indeed a sad state of affairs that the people of Australia, in their naivety, seem contented enough to let Gillard proceed with her ill-informed plan to dump boat people in Malaysia based on some strange interpretation of the UN Covenant on Human Rights.

It is illegal by any reading of the law.

To date, it is clear that Malaysia has not signed nor ratified the UN Law and there is apparently no intention to do so. So what our arrogant Prime Minister is doing by selecting a non-signatory is clearly giving the UN and its laws the big finger and she is doing it on behalf of the people of this country. What disregard she displays for the reputation of Australia after the hard work put in years ago. Where are the Senators, supposedly keeping an eye on matters that affect the States? Sadly, one has to remember by their actions that they are not truly representing the States, but their political parties. House of Review, a States House. A joke.

When signing the UN Covenant, the United States made reservations that none of the articles stated should restrict the right of free speech and association. Since the days of the pathetic George Bush and based on the false flag 9/11 charade, the introduction of the Patriot Act has allowed them to do that to themselves, the same law ratified again just last month by the President of Rhetoric, Obama. The once almost respected leader of the free world and model lawmaker, the US, has fallen a long way since those halcyon days of 1976.

In Australia, the acceptance by the people of our political leaders and their flocks, shows us clearly every day that the Parliament sits, sleeps, lies, argues, engages in theatrics, indulges in childishness petty behaviour and on, that we are also on the slippery slope downhill.

This whole Malaysian exercise is par for the course.

Dear Macedonian advocacy

There is an ever so subtle difference between accommodating probable genuine war REFUGEES crossing the border into a region which only recently became a separate country to the one they left to accepting people who have 'fled' across a number of countries to reach Australia via illegal and corrupt means.

Doesn't even compare in my books. In any case the idiocy of the incumbent Labor Government literally opening up business for the people smugglers and illegals is to blame for the mess. Any measure which dissuades either party is fine by me. No tears shed, sorry.

We should be treating this Rudd character as an international outlaw, for reopening the asylum seeker debacle.

Instead, this man has one of the cushiest jobs going and is looking like he might get a second go at being PM!!

Today the Prime Minister of Australia defied the will of the people.

After a majority of our representatives in both our houses of parliament voted to abandon the proposal to exchange asylum seekers for refugees, with Malaysia, the PM stated she will continue to pursue this course in the best interests of Australia.

Dictatorial unrepresentative government has arrived in Australia.

What a load of crap.

Brucey old mate, you know, and I know, that the overwhelming majority of Australians are vehemently opposed to the current crop of country shopping maritime asylum seekers, who are lobbing on the Australian taxpayer. We could not give a sheet about any “international treaties” which none of us directly voted to support, and which we would gladly abrogate in an instant, if the ruling classes ever did what the electorate wanted them to do.

However, the leaders of both the main tweedledum/tweedledee political parties know that they can not ignore the electorate too much, or there will be an electoral backlash in which both will suffer. I noted that nowhere in your sermon did you even mention the will of the Australian people. It is obvious that democracy is an inconvenience to the sort of Australia that you envision.

You have your quixotic humanitarian ideals, and you want them implemented regardless of what your fellow citizens want. That is why your rant is so heavy on finger wagging morality and completely ignores public opinion. The only opinions which you give currency too is to your fellow Internationalists around the world, to whom you claim Australia will be an outlaw state.

Well Bruce, here is two fingers full of righteous indignation to every one of those chardonnay sucking Gucci socialists. Australia is a sovereign state and we will make our own laws. And Bruce, that is the only Human Right that I am interested in. We will decide who comes here and the circumstances by which they arrive. This opinion is shared by all right thinking people in all of the western countries now besieged by the people of failed priest and mullah ridden states, who breed like flies, and who’s religious and cultural values will always make their societies dysfunctional.

The times that are a changin' Bruce. You had better get with the program, or it is you and your friends who will become "outlaws" in your own countries.

Where have you been for the last year or 3 rexw?

It has taken that long of the Oz public kicking little Julia in the butt, hard & often, to get her to remove Brown from her ear, & start listening to the Oz people.

A huge percentage of Oz is sick to death of ideas like yours, held by a very small percentage of the public, being imposed on the majority.

I think Labor has finally realised it doesn't have to buy the ratbag vote a dozen times. The ratbags are welded on, at least those who haven't gone mouldy green, & beyond redemption. No point loosing the votes of sensible people by pandering to ratbags on every policy.

Lets hope they show the same sense on a few other policies in the coming months. It would be nice to be able to put Labor back into the worth considering box, from the beyond hope box.

Hasbeen,

More "wisdom"?

Wasn't it you who suggested in another thread that we should lock asylum seekers in a room and provide them with a very sharp knife?

Quote:
"If they do kill themselves, we will know they were genuine,(probably frightened of what the family will do to them for wasting the money), & should give them a decent burial.

If not, they were lying, we don't want them, send them back."

If this is an example of "Oz" sensibilities, perhaps we are all in the "beyond hope" box.

I watched Lateline last night and was totally confused.
Tony Jones spoke of a Kurdish asylum seeker who apparently
had been assessed as a genuine refugee however his wife and four year old son were in detention on Christmas Island and were in danger of being sent back - to where? Tony Jones could not get a satisfactory answer. I just didn't get it - how one family member could be accepted and yet his wife and child who apparently had arrived a bit later to Australia were now being considered under new "laws" since
the government had come up with the "Malaysian" solution. I found all this a bit bizarre.

As for the asylum issue in general - I wonder how many in the community really feel the way some posters seem to think they do?
Perhaps having a Referendum on the subject would be the way to find out. That should satisfy everyone.

Lexi it is obvious the bloke is a better liar. He managed to hold the fiction that he was in danger. As if we don't have enough con men already, without getting thousands more by boat.

Lexi one of my grand fathers, my father, & I have all fought for this country, & my son is in the defence force, ready to do so.

Having fought for our birthright we are not prepared to let any one give it away to any yobbo who drifts in, by boat or any other way.

Those who want top give it away are likely to find increasing problems with us. We have been a bit too easy going to date, but that is most likely to change.

When we perceived the people wanting to come here were good people they were welcomed. Now we see far too many of those coming are not good people.

It is time for those who want to impose their personal benevolence upon us to pull their collective heads in, before they find it being done for them by a very irate population. I reserve the right to bestow my own benevolence upon those of my own choosing. I have not granted that right to any bleeding heart or academic.

Dear Hasbeen,

I hear you and understand how you feel. Members of my family feel the same way as yourself. My family paid their dues to this country. They worked ver hard for everything they've got. They contributed in blood, sweat, and tears. However, I personally feel uneasy regarding the question of refugees simply because my family members were refugees so how can I now deny the same opportunities to others that my family was given? And how can we tell the difference between what's real and what's a con. Where and how do we draw the line?