Speegster,

I admit I misread, but you also completely missed the point. The remaining detainees are a labor legacy, as Howard left Krudd only 4 detainees, so the $bns being spent is yet another Labor / greens legacy.

As for your laughable claim of the illegals being net contributors, as 85% or so of these migrants are still unemployed several years after achieving residence, please pull the other leg, but it is complete BS.

Dear Yvonne,

Certainly, I agree that questioning others and especially those in authority is extremely important: what I find is that there is not enough of it in Australia, that Australians tend to accept rules and authority like sheep, far more than in other countries. Obviously there are exceptions.

One of the things that (most) Australians take for granted is the authority of medical doctors. The state currently gives doctors unprecedented powers, including (but not limited) in matters of life and death, but only those accredited and registered with the AMA and complying with its specific methods, disciplines and philosophy are granted those privileges while all others are prohibited by law from helping people with their health issues. So certain people are allowed to interfere with your body even without your consent while others who have your consent are considered criminals if they do.

The author, by saying "but please don't punish the poor patients", implies that it is right and proper to punish the people whom those patients chose to be treated by.

---

Now a word to everyone here vehemently either supporting or opposing asylum-seekers: why do you need to quarrel?

Let those who love those boat-travellers, adopt them, sponsor them, bring them into their homes and feed them.

And let those who hate those boat-travellers, lock them up, incarcerate them in detention camps, perhaps even apply torture and harvest their organs if that's what makes them tick...

There are more than plenty of boat-travelling asylum-seekers for everyone to get their share - so no need to fight over them!

But please, both sides of this debate, please do it with your own money rather than with my tax-money.

@speegster

<< skilled immigrants making the greatest contribution …>>
Err! Speegster old chap, it may have missed your notice but most asylum scammers are NOT skilled –if they were skilled migrants they would have availed of the skilled migrant program. The only skills that asylum scammers have in abundance is the ability to remember the lines the smugglers & advocates fed them –they are excellent at rote learning lines –but there ain’t a lot of need for that skill.

That is why so many of them are long term unemployed –and many of those that do find employment have to take advantage of special opportunities (PC code for) work positions or education positions which have been reserved for them and denied to other Australians--a cost you refuse to recognize.

You no doubt have a big warm heart -- but your compassion is wasted on the asylum scammers most of them are hardened schemers.

This is a typical timeline for most Middle Easterners trying to boat from Indonesia (in the Rudd –Gillard era):
1) They plan their sting well in advance in their home countries.
2) They jet into Malaysia or Indonesia (with ID papers) looking for all intents and purpose just like another load of Middle Eastern tourists.
3) They rest and recreate for weeks whilst they negotiate passage (often bribing Indo. officialdom).
4) Then they change change down into their civvies –destroy their papers, but not their mobile phones— and hop a slow boat to Oz (in the sure and certain knowledge that once they land they will be aided and abetted by a gaggle of speegster’s who will ignore all of their indiscretions , coach them on what to say and do, and do their utmost to subvert controls.

Wake-up speegster you’re being had, take-up a more constructive crusade.

@Shadow Minister, I'm afraid it's you who completely missed the point. We could be processing them all onshore in the community much more cheaply and humanely, and Labor are just as much to blame with their only slightly less humane policies. Just because we send them back (in ever increasingly expensive lifeboats), doesn't mean the desperate circumstances they are fleeing will change.

This is where people like you and me differ: I say we give them a fair go to make their case, and if they're genuine refugees we act like responsible and compassionate global citizens and give them a fresh start in our "boundless plains to share"; you prefer to be unAustralian and not give them a fair go, and bury your head in nimbyism because it doesn't matter because they're darkie foreigners and therefore animals and not human.

@SPQR your "typical timeline" is pure redneck fantasy. The difference is I've had actual ongoing exposure to the process, through asylum seekers, refugee lawyers, doctors, and Department of Immigration employees and officials, and know for a fact that you're spouting unadulterated nonsense. You've literally pulled it out of...thin air.

I will not "take up a more constructive crusade", and in fact your willful deception only strengthens my active resolve; what I will do is stop wasting valuable time pointlessly arguing with airhead bigots who concoct elaborate fairytales to further their racist agenda.

speegster, you miss the point, they are not under any threat from
whence they came. They are not refugees under the UN definition as
they passed through other safe countries !
It is about time argument on that point ceased.
As far as detention is concerned the government should be able to
ascertain from their language and accent, issue them with one way
travel documents and put them on a plane, handcuffed to a seat if needs be.
If their countries object, just tell them we object also and
"We have had enough and we are not going to take it anymore ?"

It is beyond time that they stopped pussyfooting around with them.

speegster,

In early 2008 there were virtually no detainees and about 100 immigrants coming illegally by sea. Then KRudd decided that We could be processing them all onshore much more cheaply and humanely, and the boats increased exponentially, with arrivals peaking at about 4000 per month, more than 1200 people were killed, and the cost of handling the illegal immigrants increased vastly or nearly 6x.

With over 40m refugees world wide, and over 400m living in dangerous circumstances the number of potential refugees is limitless, and those who had the cash to pay what most refugees earned in a lifetime were very seldom the most needy.

This is where people like you and me differ, seeing the bodies of women and children killed by the Labor / greens stupidity, and knowing that up to 2000 more died and were never recovered is appalling. Your dog whistling by calling everyone racists that opposes the fruity ideas that killed thousands is feeble, when the same immigration laws are applied to non darkies that enter illegally albeit in smaller numbers.