More starvation is caused by dislocation and abuse of people in war in Africa and from government corruption than from drought.

Redneck - "Once again, you imply that no government has the right to prevent people from crossing it's borders."

I did not imply this. Governments have the right to set quotas and to conduct security checks. They do not have the right to discriminate on the basis of race though and they do not have the right to lock up innocent and needy people in detention centres for years on end.

Governments have responsibilities also. In a globalized world where Australia's fortunes are increasingly dependent on those of other nations, we should play our part in assisting in the resettlement of the world's twenty-plus million refugees.

"Tell me Bronnie. How did you develop this hatred for your own people? Why is it that you consider the welfare of every other person in the world to be more important than the peacefull functioning of your own society?"

I do not hate my fellow Australians. Caring about the welfare of the world's displaced people and caring about the peaceful functioning of our own society are not mutually exclusive. We can do both.

Divergence - "The problem is that numbers don't stay small without mandatory detention, as we can tell from looking at Europe and North America."

Australia's remoteness protects us from this situation. We are not easily reached nor are we a favoured destination. Most asylum seekers know little if anything about Australia.

Bronwyn,

You are ignoring the effects of chain migration. Once someone from village X gets into Australia, he is then in a position to encourage his friends and relatives in village X to come and to give them support while they settle in. After a certain point demand really snowballs, and once this demand exists, it pays people smugglers to service the route. Britain and the US could also be considered remote for most asylum seekers, but people apparently have no trouble reaching them.

It is easy to say that you want to help everyone, but global resources per person are such that everyone would be living in poverty if they were shared equally, and, of course, the situation is getting worse as world population grows. See the Redefining Progress environmental footprints if you doubt this. Britain spent 2 billion pounds in 2002 alone on asylum seekers. Obviously this money was then not available to help homeless British people, children needing special education, old people who need cataract surgery, etc. "If I say that all men are my brothers, I have no brother."