I support Bronwyn's arguments.
The number of refugees a country takes through its resettlement program is only part of the story, so we cannot argue that we are taking in high numbers of refugees, in either absolute terms or per capita.
It is also a fact that the great majority of "boat people" arriving in Australia in recent years (including those on the Tampa) have been determined to be genuine refugees, despite attempts by some politicians to demonise them.
The way we extended mandatory detention into indefinite detention was also discriminatory (only applied to boat people) and cruel (especially where children were involved).
The temporary Protection visa system is also discriminatory and unjust.
The Pacific Solution might be funny if it appeared in a Monty Python sketch, but unbelievable as a way to treat refugees.
And, even at its peak, the numbers of people seeking asylum here (which is their right under international law) has never been high, especially compared to other countries.
For a country of immigrants we seem to have turned slightly xenophobic. Indigenous Australians must see a certain irony in this.

plerdsus

Advocating that Australia adopts a more compassionate view towards refugees doesn't make me an unrealistic optimist who believes we're about to enter some new golden age as you put it. Far from it; I am as aware as you are of the problems facing this world and foresee a bleak future as much as you do. I too am concerned about peak oil and the enormous environmental and population pressures confronting us all. I fear that the effects of climate change could quite easily see a doubling of the world's 40 million refugees in the next few decades. I also understand that Australia is a dry continent and that we can't keep increasing our population figures much beyond what they already are. And I certainly don't have any faith in technology digging us out of this hole as you suggest. Retreating isn't the answer though; we have to engage with the world, not put up barriers.

I am not advocating an open door policy towards refugees, just a fairer and more humane system than we have at the moment. We can easily afford to take in 20 000 refugees a year. We should reign in the huge numbers of skilled migrants we are bringing in, which only create brain drain in other countries as is occurring in New Zealand right now. Australia has to play its part in resettling refugees. This will help restore our damaged international reputation. It will help us create good will in the region and we will become a safer place as a result. Being seen as America's deputy, which we have under Howard, has made us much more of a target than we ever were before. What sort of message do we send the world when we put up barriers and say we'll be right Jack, the rest of you can go hang? That's certainly not the sort of country I want to live in.

Bobby, you have stated

I support Bronwyn's arguments.
The number of refugees a country takes through its resettlement program is only part of the story, so we cannot argue that we are taking in high numbers of refugees, in either absolute terms or per capita.

However, that was NOT the question that Bronwyn originally criticized. She disagreed with the statement "We are already taking a larger proportion of refugees per head THAN ALMOST ANY OTHER COUNTRY".
So the original statement never claimed we were taking a high number of refugees in either absolute or per capita terms. Using your logic it would easily be possible for Australia to have the highest per capita intake in the world yet you could still claim it was not high.
The statement was basically one of COMPARISON to other comparable countries. By this standard I think you would be hard pressed to say the statement is false. Have a look at the figures which support the statement. For example we took nearly 1/4 of the USA's intake yet our population is less than 1/10 of the USA. If you could come up with say 5 other countries that take in more per capita ( provided they are not silly examples, see my post above) I would agree with you.

Bobby, you also stated

It is also a fact that the great majority of "boat people" arriving in Australia in recent years (including those on the Tampa) have been determined to be genuine refugees, despite attempts by some politicians to demonise them.

Yes, I believe that statement in precise terms to be correct. However, you are assuming that all non genuine refugees are found out. That is obviously false. Its very difficult to prove where someone is from if they have no papers etc. I believe ( correct me if I'm wrong) the onus is on our government to prove the asylum seeker is non genuine. Recently in Sweden they had a scandal when it was found out that the Iraq embassy there had previously given out false documents to 1000s of asylum seekers.

It's like being in a time warp with the same suspects screaming out the same lies and drivel.
1. We are signatory to the refugee convention by choice and under that convention we have guaranteed to check the claims of refugees and not send them back to danger, and we guaranteed not to penalise people due to lack of documents or method of arrival. You folk have been told that about 1 million times in the last 6 years and taken not a blind bit of notice haven't you?
2. Indonesia had not done any of the above.
3. Locking up refugees is an obscenity when we then bomb their countries to bits and make it worse - we have helped to create another 4 million refugees squatting on the Afghan borders with nowhere to go and 4.5 million Iraqi refugees yet we refuse to help them.
4. In 18 years only 15,000 refugees came on boats while 90 million tourists came on ships and planes. Get a grip you ridiculous people.
5. We are the floods, us, we whose ancestors stole the land from the indigenous people are the floods of refugees from all over the world who rocked up without permission and committed genocide.

Now will some of you stop whining and whinging and address some facts instead of your rambling hatreds?

98% of Afghans, Iraqis and Iranians who came on the boats are now becoming citizens of Australia after Howard squandered over $2.5 BILLION locking them up or keeping them out.

Yet another outpouring of drivel and hatred from The Queen of the Undead, she who never sleeps, Marilyn Shepherd.
Still happily sucking on the public teat in this “pissant country”, to quote her own words , still unwilling to shift her bile-ridden putrescent carcass offshore to some distant and imagined Utopia. Marilyn, you would do us all a favour, yourself included, if you crawled off into some dark corner and quietly expired. Your repetitious lunatic ravings have become very, very boring.

Yet another outpouring of drivel and hatred from "Zorro", who hides behind a nickname to attack someone personally without contributing anything at all to the discussion about the political manipulation of the issue of asylum seekers.

At least Marilyn Shepherd has the moral courage to identify herself with her ideas - which are actually relevant to the topic, unlike Zorro's.