JoN and Yuyutsu,

Abbott's promise was to stop the illegal boat arrivals. For more than 3 months there has not been a single boat arrival. While some boats are trying, they are failing, and the orange lifeboats arriving back in Indonesia are a potent sign of the failure of the human traffickers. The boat attempts are now also stopping with almost no orange lifeboats needing to be deployed.

On average under Labor about 20 people were dying at sea a month. The coalition's record so far is ZERO.

Dear SM,

That's wonderful news, the boats have been stopped, so Abbott fulfilled his promise.

I would never ask a man of honour to break their promise, so when I gave my preference to Abbott, for totally different reasons (stopping the NBN), I was aware that he would stop the boats, by hook or by crook.

However, Abbott never promised that he would stop the boats for this long or that long, only that he would stop them, so now he is no longer bound by that promise. Now he is allowed to use his brain again, his heart too.

Yuyutsu, "However, Abbott never promised that he would stop the boats for this long or that long, only that he would stop them, so now he is no longer bound by that promise. Now he is allowed to use his brain again, his heart too."

Isn't it great that Abbott is doing exactly that. He is stopping the boarder jumping of the very worst people Australia could have enter the place.

He is thinking of the long term, not just a sop to the conscience of fools, who care not at all for the future of Oz.

If he doesn't stop this garbage entering Oz, it is just a matter of time before we become the next Lebanon or Syria.

How anyone, with even half a brain, can not look at the world & understand that a sizable Muslim population is going to end in civil war, or repression if that population becomes very large, I really can't understand. Interesting that so many are academics isn't it?

Yuyutsu,

I don't believe that any of the voters think that Abbott promised to pause the boats.

Speegster is right, SPQR, "refugees" are a boon to our economy. The Vietnamese enclave of Cabramatta is the heroin capitol of Australia, responsible for the importation and sale of literally billions of dollars of heroin. This heroin money has has been a real boon to the local Cabramatta economy. There is probably a "trickle down" effect working there from all of that drug money that would benefit the economy of all of Australia.

The Lebanese "refugees" have also been a great boon to our economy through the creation of ever more jails, and job opportunities for prison officers, police, and council workers responsible for picking up all of the spent bullet casings lying in the streets of Lebanese and Arab areas. So too, are expanded job opportunities for welfare workers who will have to combat the benefits of multicultural immigration such as child brides, female circumcision "honour killings" plus the odd bomb.

We are even providing interesting job opportunities for Police by the introduction of ethnic specific crime squads, who curiously seem to apply themselves to policing certain crime and welfare prone ethnic and religious groups. I would rather not say which ones, because as Bolt found out, Freedom of Speech no longer exists in multicultural Australia.

We can also thank our refugee friends for such benefits as the Terrorism Act and the fact that the police can now search your home and car without probable cause. But we will have to live with that if we want to get the great economic benefits of multiculturalism

Dear Hasbeen,

<<How anyone, with even half a brain, can not look at the world & understand that a sizable Muslim population is going to end in civil war, or repression if that population becomes very large>>

Of course, but the only place in Australia where there is even a remote risk of that for the foreseeable future is Sydney.

To begin with, many asylum-seekers are not Muslims (or are non-practising Muslims) and many flee from that same Muslim repression that you mentioned.

Then, the number of arrivals who could make the journey to Australia without drowning on the way wouldn't be big enough to present any real threat, that is if Australia hadn't intercepted their boats and locked them up close to the start of their journey (both activities at the tax-payer's expense). The ocean itself provides adequate deterrence for free.

It would indeed be reasonable to deny Muslim asylum-seekers (or even other Muslim immigrants) entry into Sydney or even NSW, but why into the rest of the continent? Tasmania already stated that it would welcome those people with open arms, so why not allow them in for example on visas that only lets them remain in Tasmania (with no commonwealth welfare of course)?

Abbott's experiment worked! It was proven, so we are assured, that should the number of refugees ever become a problem, it is possible to stop them in just 6 months. Now that we know what to do if the need arises, we can afford to moth-ball the orange life-boats and relax.

Dear SM,

<<I don't believe that any of the voters think that Abbott promised to pause the boats.>>

Probably true for MOST Liberal voters - neat trick, Tony!

At least he kept his promise to the letter, so he won't go down in history together with Juliar ("there will be no carbon tax ... only carbon-dioxide").