Whoever we are, in making decisions about who comes to this country, we need to keep some perspective of the overall picture.
First, we should acknkowledge that we live in a finite world.
Second, it would be appropriate to acknowledge that, during the time (half hour?) spent reading this post and others, to the order of ten million people have been in the process of bonking. People have been at it, maybe between royalty's satin sheets, and certainly on flea-ridden cloth in Uganda. For lust, or for love, they were doing what has come naturally for mammals during the course of a hundred million years.
Third, far too much bonking takes place southout adequate precautions. As a result, more births than deaths occur: eacy year the world greets extra numbers (about equal to the population of Germany) clamoring for sustenance and a fair go.
Fourth, there is great disparity of living standards across the world, and about 20 million Australians are living much better than several billion others.
Fifth, the 6.4 billion people of the world are living beyond the environmental means of their own territories. And Australia is also flogging its environmental base to death just propping up the lifestyles of its 20 million.
Sixth and finally, world communications are such as to enable the comparatively deprived to see how much better-off are the more affluent: they know in which direction to head for improvement.
While cross-pollintation of human intellect is desirable, Australia will not be doing itself, or other communities, favours by fostering the rate of depletion of resources in promoting continuous population increase. We can best help those less fortunate by providing assitance in their own countries. And, while we can't stop them from bonking, we can provide greater assistance than at present in the means of decreasing their fertility.
We, while considering who should be allowed entry to Australia, should not take a blinkered view of the disturbing larger picture

Come on Aussie, come on, come on! You have all become to serious on this thread, we are dealing with a disspirited NEW Zealander who is advising us on immigration policy. This is family heritage warfare, good hearted rivalry. Who believes New Zealanders have the ultimate in immigration policy? Send all disgruntled NZ home, and the place will become a little happier, I say.

Meg didn't have to enter by boat that is the just her point of recognition. Planes fly over the ditch several times each day to the sheep paddocks and that method is less stressful. I suppose she flies home several times each year to see her relatives? It is just that home sickness is setting in again.

COLINSET.. bravo !
You might be amazed at how close your post was to the One Nation Immigration policy, which contrary to the 'left' inspired media blitz and the ensuing popular opinion was more about POPULATION than about race.
I'm not a Pauline Hanson fan myself, but I know good policy when I see it.

Your other points are also valid, and deserving of reflection.

Reaching out to other countries at the source of overpopulation is indeed a very good move.

OVERPOPULATION
I'll guarantee you one thing, once the population of India and other places reaches saturation point, they will send up a howl of protest about 'greedy racist white people from Australia' when we end up tightening our border control ever further !

POLITICAL OPPORTUNISM
Needless to say the Greens and Democrats will be at the forefront of the bleeding heart crowd, calling on government to 'share our abundance' etc.. (code for 'bring in more Green or Dem voters) Then there will be the obligatory 'family re-union' immigration increases and before we know it, 'race' wont be our problem, lack of water and other resources will !

Hey Bennie, “there has been an undercurrent of racism” in every country in the world since the year dot. Not just Australia. Every species on this planet from Chipmunks, to Primates, to Stickleback Lizards, defines a territory and defends it against all comers. A Groper might tolerate a Snapper invading his territory, but he or she will not be happy if another Groper swims in and starts poking around.

Do you have a front fence?

Racism just happens to be pretty normal behaviour, because it is simply a manifestation of normal competing in group/ out group hostility. And that has been going on since the year dot also. Racism can even be considered exemplary behaviour in wartime. No country, race, creed or culture has ever been immune to it’s effects because they are all secular and usually exclusive concepts by nature themselves. That is why every country in the world has a border and an army.

That border states “within these precincts the laws based upon OUR culture are supreme.”

Where two cultures co exist in a single territory, and their concepts of right and wrong are mutually exclusive, then you have a big problem. Tolerance of the minority by the majority is directly proportional to the degree to which the minority accepts the dominance of the majority culture. But where potentially hostile minorities are expanding through birth rate differentials or through immigration, hostility from the majority is normal behaviour. The majority knows that sooner or later, the two groups will polarise into competing factions for the same territory and a cultural clash must occur.

The result has always been civil strife, insurrection, terrorism, repression, demands for separatism and even civil war.

Oh and Bennie, the most reliable guide to a persons cultural values, and therefore their attitudes and behaviour, just happens to be the colour of their skin.

I'm curious, Redneck, that you wrote in your previous rant "the most reliable guide to a persons cultural values, and therefore their attitudes and behaviour, just happens to be the colour of their skin"

I am quite certain that the only thing I have in common with you IS the colour of my skin.

You are so full of hatred for anything or anyone that differs from your narrow little 'norm' your beliefs and what passes for your 'culture' are the antithesis to mine. I don't automatically HATE as you do, anyone simply because of the colour of their skin.

Therefore it can be argued that you and I differ completely in our cultural views - does this mean that one of us should leave Australia as you would have anyone who differs from you leave this society? In that case, pack your bags, as a sixth generation Aussie I'm not going anywhere. I'm making the decision here and I have decided that Australia doesn't need mean little trouble makers like you. You complain about encountering racism from others and it has never occurred to you that you are the cause. You create your own problems, redneck - either shape up or leave.

I have more in common with anyone of intelligent and compassion than I do with you.

(I predict really scathing rebuke from redneck - can hardly wait).

Having been away for a few days, I've just been perusing this thread. As others have expressed, the somewhat predictable torrent of xenophobic and racist bile is rather dismaying, but hardly surprising.

I'd like to thank Meg for her gentle perspective on Australia's greatest cultural deficit - i.e. the racism that has been integral, either overtly or more subtly, to settler culture ever since Captain Cook. While I don't think that the people who post in this forum are necessarily representative of all Australians, the kinds of hateful, intolerant and/or outright racist comments that tend to predominate here when these issues are discussed are instructive. It's as if the racist cancer in our culture moves around our collective social body, manifesting its tumorous presence in vilification of, variously, Aborigines, Chinese, Pacific Islanders, Greeks, Italians, "Balts", "Yugoslavs", Vietnamese, Lebanese and most recently Muslims.

The utter stupidity of this national cancer is succinctly expressed in this quotation from the most recent comment in this sad thread:

"the most reliable guide to a persons cultural values, and therefore their attitudes and behaviour, just happens to be the colour of their skin."

Sigh.