Both Church and State alike have utilised the services of groups like those referred to by some as "the people smugglers" for hundreds if not thousands of years, especially during war or other times of trouble.

Thereafter, due to the absurd cost of most things in Australia, I do not expect the guvment to take any Humanitarian migrants at all.

What I do expect however is that you gather up all those within your jurisdiction in a safe and affordable manner, feed and medicate them and above all, do not further abuse these people (& children) any more than what they already have been.

That means, you must not lock them up in boxes (however nice that box may be) except when absolutely necessary for the purposes of security and medicine.

The Australian people do not want any more financial burden but they do want more jobs which calls for a nationalised response, not a free market response.

You can have a camp, where a sub set of the Australian rules apply, much like the "special zones" in special economic areas for use by multinationals as they exist in Asia.

Orientation to what life in Australia is all about can be a focus of learning.

As you remain unresolved amongst yourselves and insist on remaining so, it would be better that you did away with the cost of the Humanitarian intake all together and focused purely on a temporary, affordable solution, as opposed to continued abuse and the ever looming threat of future blowouts.

We have the technology to push up self supporting communities by making the deserts bloom and I believe there is much more to be gained than just that.

Note to DreamOn:

They've stopped coming.

The government has been paying crews to take boats back. Their passengers have quickly passed on the message that the next lot to get on a boat will do their money. And the next. And the next.

End of. To be more explicit for those who need it: people are not going to get on boats if they will end up back in Java where they started, and much poorer.

But thanks for a fascinating post shining light into the Utopian-totalitarian mind-set. It reminded me that, probably, even after Columbus, some monarchs were still warning ships' captains not to sail too close to the edge of the earth, or nearer those regions where there be dragons.

Cheers,

Joe

Foxy,

You have missed the point of the quote.

There is no point in establishing a good reputation if you are bankrupt. Setting a target of 50% with no analysis of the cost nor consequence, nor bipartisan support is extremely reckless and a political ambition at best. 30% is about the limit before the network becomes unstable.

As for scare campaigns the left are the masters having run more scare campaigns than anyone else