as Robert Manne pointed out it is time for the left to swallow their pride and admit they were wrong in order to prevent more tradegy. And to think they continue to take the high moral ground is unbelievable. Mr Howard had been shown to be more compassionate than the Gillard/Brown Government by a long way. The left has always put ideology above human life.

Ojnab & Hasbeen,
Thanks for giving me hope that there are still people out there who can see & think.

People smugglers ? What about the New Zealand government ?
According to the courier mail ( 23/12/11 ) they've unloaded 50.000 of their unemployed over here in the last year alone !
And they will "still" call New Zealand home !
Welfare not offered ? Ask and thou shalt receive !
With the Chinese Government being offered the front door keys to Australia by Gillard and company,
it's no surprise Indian call centre supervisors recognise our stupidity and pass this on to trainees !

Arthur Bell.

What sort of person would support a convention which treats people unequally, encourages the desperate to risk and occasionally lose their lives on perilous voyages, and supports organised criminals? Yet time and again the Refugee Convention is given an unassailable status: Refugees suffer more than enough, so why unnecessarily add to their suffering? Time for Australia to opt out of this harmful anachronism.

What sort of person would support a convention which treats people unequally, encourages the desperate to risk and occasionally lose their lives on perilous voyages, and supports organised criminals?
Fester,
Throw this question at those who send them. Also ask them when they expect to achieve their agenda in Australia.

Individual

The agenda is profit. Over a million for the last boatload and it sank. No refunds, sorry, and the payoffs I would guess go right up the hierarchy. Much the same for Indonesian pirates.

The agenda for corrupt Indonesians is for Australia to remain a signatory of an idiotic convention so they can continue to profit from the death and misery of desperate people. Plenty of Aussies profiting from the idiocy as well, and more than the Indonesians at that.