The claim by this author that Indonesia does not have the means to stop the boats was negated weeks ago by the statement from an Australian admiral that Indonesia had 150 patrol boats, all of them based in the north of Indonesia where they do little, instead of putting some in the South where they can prevent Indonesians boats and crew committing criminal acts against Australia.

What this author fails to appreciate is that the Indonesian government is Muslim , they are still rightfully sore at Australia for encouraging separatism in Indonesia over east Timor, and if they can make life difficult for us, they will.

The more social problems that Indonesia can create in Australia, and the more Muslims they can allow to settle in Australia, the better for Indonesia. It is time to realise that our neighbour is a hostile state intent on doing us harm and the sooner we stop sucking up to them with our monetary aid and good intentions, the better.

Refusing to take back illegal immigrants which the Indonesian government has allowed to land in it's territory and who have been rescued by Australian patrol boats in Indonesian waters is unacceptable to the Australian people. it is not quite an act of war but it is a measure of their contempt for us.

Time for our radio operators to start relaying any calls of distress received from vessels in Indonesian search & rescue waters back to Indonesian authorities.

Our navy should only respond to any calls for assistance from official Indonesian authorities. In such a situation they could not refuse to take those picked up.

Meanwhile it is a fair bet that those Indonesians skimming the majority off the profits off the illegal boat people trade, are the same ones skimming off the majority of the aid we give Indonesia. A definite promise that continued aid depends on all illegal boats being stopped, & then followed through, would see the boats stopped damn quick.

I suppose this is too simple for our bureaucrats & politicians, & would require the termination of a huge number of public servants dealing with this rort.

I wonder how many know that our only amphibious warfare ship the ex RN ship Largs Bay, has been acting as a hotel for public servants at Manus Island for about 6 months.

The public servants bitch the accommodation is not good enough, although it is the best in our navy, & it is a waste of an awful lot of money.

About time we gave those bureaucrats some nice tents up there. We are about to enter our cyclone season. We need the capacity of this ship available for local emergency relief, not playing wet nurse to a bunch of illegal boat people, & a bunch of overpaid bureaucrats. It was very bad that we took days to get to help Cardwell last time. Nothing must be allowed to cause us doing that to Ozzies again. That ship must be available here.

It is about time we told the UN to service these so called refugees, as they do all over the world. The UN has to be good for something.

LEGO - thanks for your comments. Some points:

Sea power - Indonesia may have 150 patrol boats on the inventory. What proportion of this fleet is in working order is another matter. Further, patrol boats are unsuitable for Indian Ocean work at high intensity even when properly maintained. Just ask the Australian Navy about that.

Indonesia's intentions - well I've lived in Indonesia for eight years and aside from one-eyed fanatics (a class of person found in every country) I've found no evidence that anyone would like to take over Australia or has a secret plan to do so.

Well Scribe, that is interesting. These now clapped out tubs they use for the illegal people trade have been able to fish the Indian ocean for decades, but patrol boats can't.

At least, if they have no government boats on the Indian ocean side of the islands, there'll be none to interfere with our patrol boats towing the tubs back to that coast.

Time to take off the gloves. Good relationships with countries like Indonesia come to you, only when you show strength.

Dear Scribe.

They would be pretty funny naval patrol boats if they could not handle the same seas which Indonesian fishing boats packed to the rafters with illegal immigrants can handle with ease. And since so many of these boats get into trouble a hundred yards off the Indonesian coast and call for the Aussies to rescue them, I think that the Indonesian navy could cope with that, don't you?

As for how many are serviceable, I don't know. But some of them must be and they are all in the north of Indonesia apparently doing zilch while the Indos claim that that they are powerless to do anything, when they obviously are not making any effort at all.

I never said that Indonesia was plotting to invade Australia. What I am saying is that Indonesia is obviously a country which is hostile to Australia and it is high time we stopped sucking up to them and treated them like the hostile neighbour they are. No more aid for Indonesian forests. No more aid for Indonesian schools. No more the Aussie taxpayer bailing them out when their money is worthless. No more Indonesian immigrants. No more Indonesian families living in Australia remitting Australian money to Indonesia.

Since Australia is a first world country that is worth something and Indonesia is just another third world shiithole which hates all Imperialism except it's own, I put it to you that we are a lot more important to Indonesia, than they are to us.

Something occurred to me today.
After the 2004 Tsunami we didn't see an influx of "Asylum Seekers" from the affected areas and I guarantee we won't see a sudden flood of "refugees" from the Phillipines in coming months after the Typhoon.
Now, is the situation in Leyte in the next few years going to be worse than present day Iran, Sri Lanka, Pakistan or Afghanistan?
Why is it that "refugees" only seem to flee man made economic or political conditions, not natural disasters?