Several questions Bruce Haigh - Is it not time we questioned the Governments where these refugees are coming from. Why does the rest of the world not force Shri Lanka to look after all their people or do we accept the fact that this is this their way of reducing their responsibility. The same can be asked of many other countries where refugees come from such as China, India (two great emerging nations, both countries are now bragging about the number of billionaires they have produced over the past few years).
What about Afghanistan, we are sending our soldiers to fight their war. Our efforts on the war with the Taliban is totally unappreciated by the population and then we are asked to accept Afghani refugees as well. We have the same problem in Iraq. How deep are our pockets.
Australia might be a big country but we have a small tax paying population compared to other nations.
Also, with climate change shouldn't we be preparing for the plight of the people of the south pacific will be enduring because of the rising water level.
Australian taxpayers should be asked who should we help.
Also, I would like to point out another observation. When these refugees are released into the Australian community, how is it that none of them are ever settled in the Eastern Suburbs or the North Shore, they are always settled in the Western Suburbs. Its easy for someone to say, "bring all these refugees into Australia if you don't have to deal with the situation daily.

“Most people arriving by boat are found to be refugees after due process.”

Yes. But that doesn’t mean that they are genuine refugees at all. They arrive here without documents, and they are all clued up with the ‘right’ stories. There is no way that immigration officials can make an informed decision, and this is why most of the illegals are allowed to stay in Australia; it’s the easiest way out for politicians like Rudd, with eyes on the world stage, and without the guts to turn back boats.

Whether or not Tamils can speak to UN representatives in Sri Lanka is irrelevant in the case of the ones trying to get here in boats. There are UN offices in the countries they have passed through, including Indonesia where they could front up any time.

The excuse of visa overs-stayers being in greater numbers is also irrelevant. They should be tracked down and removed too. Bringing over-stayers into the argument is just more of the cock-eyed ‘logic’ Haig is notorious for. His attempt to connect illegals with ‘refugee policy’ is also is also daft; we have a refugee policy which has nothing to do with people paying large sums of money to dodge the process illegally.

Haig also accepts Rudd’s lies that the new surge in illegal boat arrivals has something to do with changes to the world situation and an increase in ‘refugees”. Nonsense! The surge in boat-born people looking for a better life is a direct result of Rudd’s own abandonment of any form of border protection. It’s amazing that he had the courage to do the right thing by asking Indonesia to halt the 225 illegals. Even so, he is the one who should be dealing with the problem by turning boats back; and he has since sent a patrol boat to aid more illegals in Malaysia and Indonesian waters when he should have left it to those two countries to do something about them.

Neither major party is competent to deal with this problem; only legitimate migrants we need should be allowed here.

The flood of refugees is a direct result of the change in legislation and the perception that is fed to prospective cashed up "refugees" fleeing to Aus.

The lastest boat load paid US$15 000 for a place (or 4x the Indonesian per capita income before tax) and were offered free accomodation in Indonesia. However, they wanted a better return for their money, i.e. the Australian gravy train.

The illegals that overstay their visa, do not get free health and accomodation, and are easily deported once discovered, so while it is easier and cheaper to arrive by plane, one cannot do so without documentation, it is far less cushy and has a greater chance of deportation.

What I don't see is the 10 yr sentence given to the pilots of these boats.

"People smugglers exist because of a tragic need, and referring to them as vermin and scum bags, betrays a surprising ignorance of the real world; it is un-Christian."

As we all know Christians profit from the misery of others by extorting a huge fee to send victims out crammed on unseaworthy boats.

It is mushy illogical sentiments like these from Bruce Haigh that endanger hundreds of lives on rickety boats.

Tamil civilians are kept forcibly behind barbed wires under appalling conditions without any freedom or any right to talk to their elected representatives. Australian government must send rights groups to inspect how they are treated in the camps to determine if the asylum seekers are genuine or bogus. After helping the government to chase these people from their homes where they lived happily for generations it's inhumane to score political advantage on this issue.

They looked like pretty civilized people to me , my kids thought the kids were beautiful , if they can prove their Tamils we should let them in .
We would just be equilibrating the scales of justice , when they were being mauled by their murderous countrymen what did we do , nothing ! Not even a murmur , how can we now claim they are not genuine refugees, we have proved beyond any doubt that we are not Racists remember the 5 Hay Hay Gollwogs so whats the problem lets welcome then in , thats my vote !

'Stop Sri Lanka, Not Its Refugees' as Mr. Michael Mullins put it that the right approach to the current situation is to prevent the Sri Lankan regime in continuing brutal treatment and barbarity to the island's minority. Tamils have been persecuted since 1948.

The novel form of unacknowledged detention of civilians is to punish tamils one more time with the paradigm of war on terror by Mr. Bush, according to surveys the worst ever President of the United States.

Are some other governments following suit?