I feel sad for the boat people. All that way on shark infested seas to end up in prison. Its a most ungodly attitude to send them back to the misery they came from. I dare say that in China some would get the bullet. Doesnt Jesus say "give to those in need, to those who ask?" Such a huge country we have but many of us with such small hearts.

Is the civil society mentioned by the author allowed to make the rules? If so, why would a Sri Lankan refugee baulk at a new life in Tierra del Fuego or Tonga? News of the world reaching us via newspapers, TV and radio mentions no incidents of oppression in those two locations. As a matter of fact Tierra del Fuego is a carefree idyll beyond the reach of Sri Lankan agents of oppression who seek to make the lives of those 72 Sri Lankan refugees miserable. If several countries step forward and take these refugees it will be a costly burden for the Sri Lankan government to monitor their activities. Monitoring their behaviour may well be impossible if the 72 refugees find their way to 20 countries.

I am willing to bet that the residents of Tierra del Fuego would be champing at the bit, keen to showcase their town and even keener to cloak Sri Lankan refugees in peace, free from oppression.

Why is it so difficult for people to accept that for more than 150 years the most basic political fact in Australia is that we are not going to accept hordes of people from the north. Those who bewail the fact that Howard's action over Tampa was applauded by an overwhelming majority of electors simply don't recognise that the Immigration Restriction Act was the first piece of legislation passed by the Federal Parliament.

The fact that the overwhelming majority of illegal immigrants are economic refugees is not surprising considering the difference in standard of living. What I find bewildering is the concept that they have some sort of right of entry to Australia. Are there that many masochists in Australia? I suppose they are so far to the left that they cannot understand that public areas in Australia are the collective private property of the citizens here, as is the case in every other country, and foreigners enter by leave. The principles of territoriality are older than humankind, as they are exhibited by many other species.

We are particularly fortunate to be the only country in the world that has the four things needed to survive the 21st century:

(a) a surplus of food.

(b) a surplus of energy.

(c) a surplus of minerals.

(d) and, most importantly, a sea boundary.

We are already taking a larger proportion of refugees per hard than almost any other country. Where are we supposed to draw the line? We may soon know, if Rudd wins the coming election and the people smugglers in Djakarta start advertising for new customers.

Hopefully LABOR and any other party will be as tight as common sense and responsible government dictates, on the issue of Border Security.

ANY government which allows unfettered access to its shores by undocumented or.. law flouting country shoppers.. which speak its last words "Oh..but they seemed such nice people" as it goes down the gurgler of total self destruction.

-The Kmers learnt this about the Thais at Anchor wat
-The Ivorians learned this about migrants from neighbouring countries.
-The Australian aboriginals learnt this the HARD way with the white population.. too late for them though...

ITS NOT TOO LATE FOR US... to learrnnnnnnnn about what unfettered uncontrolled, easy access by foreigners will do to this country.

We either learn it now... or we suffer the consequences.

We learn quickly to detect 'political opportunism' masquerading as 'compassion' by people like the author perhaps.. or the Greens and Democrats and Socialist Alliance rent-a-crowd...

OR....

We cave in to their opportunism and hypcritical self seeking 'compassion' and find ourselves over-run.

Now.. I can hear that same crowd yelling 'racist....xenophobe... blah blah..' and I say 'water off a duckies back' :)

Don't bother.. I follow the good old Scottish philosophy of 'common sense'

I agree that Nauru is a dumb idea.. they simply need to be tight and uncompromising and provide enough facilities at Christmas Island..and declare it a non migration zone.. and to be blunt.. TO HELL with the UN and the mind blowingly stuuuupid convnetions we were dull enough to sign.

Frank, what planet do you come from?
Our social welfare system is busting at the seams, and my tax dollars, ever increasing, are supporting it. You and your leftist comrades think we can have open doors to just anyone who jumps in a boat? There are processes to enter this country - if these people cannot follow these processes, then they deserve to be handled within the constraints of the Pacific Solution. You and your do-gooder advocate friends do not reflect the Australian majority.

I am sick and tired of people like the author and Peter Costello complaining about the plight of others in the world and doing nothing to help the original people of this land where they live.

Lets set the record straight, our communities have no water, sanitation or employment because we were forcebly removed from our land on to missions so that their land could be farmed or mined without any compensation or benefits to us at all.

Yet to the discuss of Indigenous Australians, when the tsunami or other natural event hits white communities like Inisfail or Asia we have Costello and Howard giving money made from our stolen resources to help those people in the Billions.

Untill you resolve the mess created by your invasion of our lands and the destruction of our economy, the plight of others outside of our shores is irrelavant.