What a stupid piece this is Duncan!

You write a long preamble and then only hint at your actual point, which is I guess that somehow Australia is wrong in the way that we treat boat arrivals form Indonesia.

Clarity and simplicity should be your watch words when writing about politics and diplomacy not hints and implications as you have offered here.

< We cannot show leadership because we've abandoned that ideal. We cannot teach ethics because we've been gutted of that quality through our inability to fix the asylum seeker problem that has killed hundreds and brought anguish to thousands. >

Yes indeed Duncan. But it would have helped your argument immensely if you’d offered a solution to this mess.

Why is it that I feel you would completely condemn any suggested solution?

You’d denounce Nauru, Malaysia, TPVs and turning the boats back, am I right?

If you’d seen one or more of these things as solutions, then you would have said so in the article, surely.

Look, the solution is obvious. Give a date after which no more arrivals will be tolerated. Then turn back the boats.

Yes that would be a dangerous business for all concerned. But it would only involve a few boats, after which they’d STOP COMING! The door would be decisively closed.

Asylum seekers would then stop using Indonesia as a intermediary. Thus, this would be the best policy for upholding good relations with Indonesia.

No more deaths at sea. No more people smuggling. No more terrible anguish.

Our government should then start to very strongly promote our offshore refugee programs and international aid programs that address refugeeism, telling the people exactly what we do, in order to demonstrate that Australia is and always has been a very humanitarian country on the world stage.

Well said Ludwig

Turn the boats around use Naru and this would reduce the amounts of boats that are trying to come here and reduce the risk to any lives.

THe people smugglers see Australia as a soft touch at the moment, and that is because we are. There is nothing wrong with a country being firm and in control of who gets into their country and how they get there, that shows loyalty and respect to those who are tax paying citizens, and where their money is being spent and on what.
We can still be and always will be known as the country with a soul, because we do look after the under dog and we do care about other human beings, but it should not be at the expense of our intelligence and or to people who are already living here and who are doing it tough.
What annoys hard working Australians is, when money is being spent housing feeding clothing these people, and we have 3rd 4th generation Australians living in tents, or caravans because they cant get work, or cant afford to pay high rent, our older generation cant afford to turn on their lights, their is miss guided loyalty in this country.
We have to get this balance right, and charity begins at home people.

Duncan
Your piece starts with a virtually unknown and unpublicised hookup between two educational institutions which you spin into Australia lecturing Indonesia about ethics.. in fact we are doing nothing of the sort. That would apply if a government minister was making statements. The individual academics can say what they like without being accused of double standards, as they are not involved in public policy.

You also don't say what Australia is doing wrong on the boat people, although it seems to have escaped your attention that the government's policy on that issue has collapsed recently.

The only solution is to wait out the 18 months, after which we will have ethical leadership again.

Your call for "Shame" is nonsense. How would the electorate have foreseen the absolute abandonment of principle by our present PM, and her ability, through corruption, to thwart the will of the people.

Like Whitlam, this woman is a temporary besmirching of our otherwise wholesome image.

The real shame belongs to morons who plan on getting richer in making their fellow Australians poorer by calling for immigration including more boat people INTO poor communities away from THEIR elite homes.

These people tend to be upper class business people or social undergraduate climbers who depend on big low class markets underwritten by extremely aspirational and aggressive immigrants.

The Rich persons refugee Bottom line: Let in boat people after 30 days in detention so they can make OUR small very vocal minority of Australians rich. BUT not in OUR backyards and make sure that all the social and infrastructure cost blowouts MUST be passed onto poorer communities. These costs must include higher electricity, road, education and health costs while we the rich get big discouints from stupid entrepreneurial State Governments.

Only in Australia can morons rule social mores and beggar their fellow citizens while getting filthy rich. The last nation to espouse such fraudulent NATIONALISM and BLEEDING HEART commercialism was NAZI Germany.

When business people PAY the added infrastucture that THEIR boat refugees demand and when they build large refugee communities in Carss Park and the North Shore for refugee communities to enjoy, WE the majority will show them and their phony humanitarianism some respect.

Until then ---these Q&A frequenting morons had best find some other way to make money!
The MAJORITY of Australians are putting these cowards and their AAA sucking Political backers on NOTICE.