I'd like to remind you of Howard's putative remedy, the "Border Protection Bill 2001" of the TAMPA era, which seems still to resonate for so many.

austlii.org/au/legis/cth/bill/bpb2001212/

Australia has not yet found a day that we can truely call "Australia Day". That day will be the one that finds us able to reconcile past deeds and misdeeds, together with an embrace of the future.

That will not happen whilst heads are in the sand.

Bronwyn,

You are the typical bleeding heart. To answer you:

"They don't all pay that much" Thats why I used the word average.

"People who are desperate enough to undertake a terrifying trip across the ocean in a tiny unseaworthy boat and are strong enough to survive it are worthy enough for me" - A short hop from Indonesia in a fishing boat, Hardly the Kon Tiki. Your "worthy" sights are not very high.

"Again, who are you to judge?" - A tax payer trying not to pay for the entire world's bludgers.

"You obviously know nothing about conditions in refugee camps" - Actually I do, and the illegals with the cash to hire a boat, generally aren't in them, or in any state of squallor.

Your mistake is to associate these asylum seekers with those unfortunates scratching out an existence in a camp. They are perfectly capable of fending for themselves in another nation, just Aus is a better provider.

Great article David. It has been almost amusing seeing the same old screeching from the wingnut brigade. Don't think it is anything new though. It all sounds very, very familiar.

'Freethinking' and 'conservative' are not two words that often go together in this country. It is quite insulting really to equate the mindless following of the silly bleatings of a few with 'conservatism'.

How sad that it is so easy to whip up such a large group of people into a right royal frenzy just by putting together 'boat' and 'asylum seekers'.

Shadow minister, how do you know how much a people smuggler charges? Do you know any? How do you know you are using accurate currency conversion rates?

So many of you call yourself 'conservative'and enemy of the 'left', but how can there be democracy without different views on how to deliver a free democratic society if you don't really trust our political process or our judicial process to deliver? And this so close to ANZAC day.

There is a crisis happening in Sri Lanka, there is an increase in action in Iraq, Afganistan is very unstable and it increasingly looks like Pakistan is teetering on the brink of becoming a failed state. Why on Earth do any of you think that Australia will be immune from this? Little Italy has had some 35,000 asylum seekers. Know how many countries where traversed getting to Italy?

Some of you need to take a chill pill. Have a bit more faith in our processes. We are simply going to have to dilligently process each of these persons on their claims. We're part of the world, we are affected by what happens elsewhere (checked your super lately?) so get over it.

Leigh: << There is nothing more pathetic than seeing someone like David Silkoff whining about people who don’t agree with his point of view >>

Yes there is - it's seeing the usual heartless bastards rallying to the defence of Australia's worst gutter rag and its odious hacks - particularly the execrable Bolt.

Bronwyn, thanks for your excellent response to those who indulge in such self-righteous condescension in speaking of the relative 'worthiness' of refugees or asylum seekers. You beat me to it.

The 'illegal immigrant' does not exist, except if he or she happens to have arrived by plane with a visa. These are the true 'illegals', overstaying their visas and thus remaining illegally in the country. They ARE well heeled and compose 95% of those who seek residence; about half of them fail. Facts like these appear to be of no interest to people like Leigh and Shadow Minister.

Other facts escape Shadow Minister: he/she claims Malaysia would accept refugees and this therefore reveals the economic motives of the asylum seekers. Malaysia does have many 'illegal' migrants, from places like Burma, Aceh, Sri Lanka, but does not recognise them or afford refugees any protection. They work in Malaysia in appalling conditions, without rights and in constant fear. This is from the Amnesty International website:

"Malaysia also does not recognize refugees and asylum seekers. Malaysian law, especially the Immigration Act does not distinguish a person as a refugee or as a person in need of temporary protection. The Act also excludes validity of documents granted by the UNHCR that accord such people with International Protection. Reports over the years witness the Malaysian government clamping down on refugees and asylum seekers and subject them to violent arrest, inhumane and prolonged detention, whipping and forcible deportation. Malaysia also currently deploy the People's Volunteer Corps (RELA), an organization of uniformed part-time volunteers with very wide arrest and seizure powers to hunt down migrants whom they believe as ‘illegal’.

While Malaysia is not a party to the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, it is nonetheless bound by the fundamental principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits any person being returned to a country where they face serious human rights violations."

This explains, in part, why 'boat people' arriving in Malaysia are usually moved on to Indonesia via the Straits of Malacca

The truth is that people who talk like Shadow Minister could not care less about the 50 million refugees and displaced persons around the world. I've heard them; some of them are 'friends' and colleagues who presume that you'll agree with them when they snigger conspiratorially about the 'boat people', 'We don't want them'. They don't want migrants from Afghanistan or Iraq no matter how long they waited in some fictitious queue, but they always use 'queue jumping' as their rationale.

'A tax payer trying not to pay for the entire world's bludgers'.
This tells one all one needs to know about the author. No doubt Shadow Minister has a healthy sense of entitlement to the "taxpayers'" magnanimity to go with the nauseating sanctimony.