I look forward to an article from Bruce on every single person on the planet and their individual plight.

Everyone has a story Bruce, and like my mum used to say, everyone has a problem.

They are not all the same,

We cannot save everyone, nor should we try to.

I know the left love the squeaky wheel process as an activist tool, but it has become a drone and in that drone loses any kind of message to us.

It's not our fault every person who comes here has a background that may or may not be tainted, they are uninvited who come by boat (excepting the pull factor the ALP created in lowering the Howard government's policies, that worked to keep people from behaving in this manner) and there people have transited several countries to get here, so need to accept that they are accountable for their actions, not us.

We accept the majority of people who come here, rightly or wrongly and it is disingenuous to lay at our feet the accusation that we are unjust, because of one individual's self inflicted situation.

Such is life.

A little bit of compassion wouldn't go astray ocassionally.

David

While this article is written in a very adversarial way I do agree with one statement in it.

"Seeing the Australian public is paying for their permanent detention, we are entitled to know what they have done and if necessary see them charged in a court of law. As they have been observed 24 hours a day and all their communications accessible to ASIO and Serco over the years they have been in detention, there should be clear evidence by now against them, if ASIO adverse reports have any substance."

Secrecy is like water, a little can keep a country healthy - a lot can kill it.

Excellent article, but as a lawyer I find it frustrating to read because of what it doesn't discuss.

He says that the ASIO decision is unreviewable, and I think he implies - it's not clear - but I think it is so - that these decisions are made without providing the person affected an opportunity to view the evidence against him, to respond to it, and to make his own case in reply to that evidence.

As well as being a feature of the procedure of courts and tribunals, these rights have been recognised by courts as generally applicable under the rubric of "natural justice". (Why they don't apply to ASIO assessments I don't know, but presumably because of some specific legislative exemption).

Moreover it is important to recognise that such rights are not just some sort of technicality. In general you can't be sure you're making the correct decision without affording these rights to the person affected. Now I may be getting a bit personal - due to my own experiences - but I would say that while anyone who denies the truth of what I've just said is ignorant, any lawyer who denies the truth of it is, quite simply, lying.

Bruce Haigh,

“A Sri Lankan refugee is caught in the Kafkaesque grip of ASIO and the Sri Lankan government”

Nonsense!

In Australia no one can be kept indefinitely in prison for any reason whatsoever.

If the facts are as you have purported them, it is only question of challenging the ones responsible for keeping Mr.Denisan Santhiyoku in jail with a writ of Habeas Corpus.

I am prepared to be part of any group that can contribute towards such challenge

The Tamil insurgents in Sri Lanka were all Communazis, we don't need any more of them here.

A better idea would be to round up all members of the RED/green, getup, GAYLP/alp, Socialist Alliance & deport them to China, North Korea, Cuba, etc.