Unfortunately, most of the discussion is taking place in a factual vacuum, not least because the government does not regard it as necessary to actually inform us, their employers, as to exactly what is happening. Have the boats really been stopped from coming? We don't know, for "operational reasons". It is true they are not reaching our coastline but that is not the same thing.

We do know for example, that 88% of those whose claims for refugee status are processed are found to be genuine refugees, yet the government, and many of the above commenters, write as thought they are undeserving flotsam trying to arrive in this land of milk and honey.

We also know that just about everything said about the Indonesian government and its refugee policies is both profoundly ignorant and carries with it more than a hint of racism. How could they do a good job: they don't even speak English!

We also know that modern ships carry state of the art navigation equipment and know within a few square metres exactly where they are at any given moment, that self same equipment letting them know exactly where national maritime boundaries are. To pretend otherwise with weasel words such as "inadvertent" incursions into Indonesia's territorial waters is simply an insult to our intelligence.

Australia's policies in this area are simply a disgrace, and the fact that Nutter and his Tory mates think it is a good thing only shows how low we have sunk.

Cripes I thought Bruce Haigh's article was tripe, this one takes the cake.

Illegals on Indonesian boats regularly and flagrantly breach Australia's maritime integrity; the traitors of the left never complain about that; now, in an exercise succeeding in ending the corrupt illegal boat people industry in Indonesia is castigated by the usual nitwits and moralisers of the left.

If the people concerned by these illegals were genuinely concerned about refugees they would be supporting the government in ending this belligerent form of immigration and drawing attention to the plight of the real refugees rotting in camps around the world who do not have the $1000s for bribing corrupt Indonesians to get to Australia so they can then get on the Australian welfare system.

Asylum seekers are not "illegals", those on OLO who make derogatory comments against Asylum seekers, forget that it was Australia who invaded the sovereign countries of Iraq and Afghanistan; accordingly we must take responsibility for our actions.

All the blabbing here about the Navy not knowing how to navigate are totally wrong. Nobody seems to understand that international boundaries are not shown on navigational charts - you know, the ones used by the Navy ... and customs ... and everyone actually. So whilst ships know exactly where they are (including the bow and stern ... as noted by one commenter) they don't know accurately where the boundary is between the high seas and territorial seas.

This is an imaginary line calculated as 12 miles off another imaginary line called the baseline which is according to a complicated formula. No problem if the coast is straight cliffs, no bays, inlets, offshore reefs or sandbanks etc, with small tidal range. But each of those factors has to be considered as some constitute territory and some alter the baseline but others don't. So a ship can calculate it is 12 miles off the coast, but still be within territorial sea. And that shows why it can be inadvertent and repeated ... until someone notices. It wasn't the Indons who noticed. It was us.

Perhaps we'll soon see Indonesia's territorial sea marked on our charts. And also we look forward to the Indon navy making its presence felt where it should have been all along ... enforcing Indonesian law by preventing vessels departing illegally and fulfilling Indon search and rescue obligations.

Interesting argument by Kipp who apparently is going to leave Australia in disgust any time soon.

The illegals are real refugees because in his opinion Australia invaded Iraq and Afghanistan and therefore to assuage our guilt we should punish ourselves by accepting militant muslims who almost uniformly reject our culture and want to replace it with Sharia.

No. We invaded Iraq to get rid of Saddam, one of the world's worst monsters. No doubt Kipp would be happy if he were still in power and rivalling that Chinese puppet, Kim Jong-un.

And we got rid of the Taliban in Afghanistan, a group which uses children to blow themselves up and routinely executes women.

I can't express my objection to such views strongly enough.

And what about the Iranians? What did we do to them or are they guilt framed real refugees because of some general insult by the West to islam, so we have to have these people who hate our culture here as well?

Australia has always been betrayed by the left; the issue of the boat people is just another way that the left can express their hatred of our society.

Kipp,
What idiotic dribble. The Coalition forces did not invade those countries. They went in to sort out the mess caused by idiots like yourself. They had no intention of ever staying there.