Oh and right behind E Hitler Sykes comes Bruce Goebbels Haigh. Leigh you are a cruel abusive bigot. Please stop expressing your opinion. Hitler Sykes and Goebbels Haigh are the only people allowed to say what is right and what is not. Leigh your only job here is to agree with them.

Haig,

Refugees might not be classified as illegals but, as we don't know anything about people arriving illegally (by the laws of any country) they cannot be classified as refugees. You might also do some thinking about the archaic and inappropriate 1951 Convention which was not designed for today's situation. Like the idiot, Sykes, you hate anyone to disagree with your childish outlook on everything.

Ozzie,

There will always be people like Sykes and Haig. They are best ignored. I responded to Haig this time only because I'm amazed to think that a person who thinks he knows all the answers still believes it's OK to rock up to any country, having destroyed your documents and been coached in the sob stories that work on our poorly trained immigration officials. The UN, for all its faults, is not so easilty fooled; and that's why the illegals avoid the UN offices on the way here.

Haig also dislikes me because I criticise his solicited articles. He needs to toughen up like other contributors. Unlike real writers, he doesn't expect anyone to question his personal thinking.

Leigh, you can also offer my sock to Greg Barns; you are also absolutely right when you say that Ruddock/Howard did what Australians wanted done. An opinion poll initially showed 92% support for halting illegal entry. That was just before the howling of the intelligentsia started to put our heads right.

Bruce Haigh, there are 15 million refugees according to the UNHCR, and yes you’re right, the Migration Act distinguishes between refugees and illegal immigrants. Firstly, though, there is a process by Australia and the UNHCR to determine their status which comes “before” the Migration Act kicks in. Your point is?

The endless bleating by refugee advocates is based upon their immediate jumping to conclusions that all boat people are refugees and acceptance of privately funded queue jumping, people smugglers. I can’t imagine how you sleep at night knowing that your values are causing so much additional suffering to these poor souls. You really are a rotten lot.

The Australian sense of fair play is alive and well however, many of us are provoked by the accusation that we are bigots, racists and human rights abusers simply because we support the current international rules

Oh Yes, so you are involved in developing gold mining in Bolivia, a place that has a dubious human rights history.

One hopes Greg that you espouse the same human rights and working conditions on your mine workers as you are currently lecturing us about

Race hate crime reminds me of my fear of speeding and reckless drivers. Everytime I go out in the car I live in fear and suffer anxiety. Every single vehicle is a potential weapon ready to be used against me. Does this make me a racist, xenophobic or part of a dark underbelly?

Irrational. Perhaps. Why? Because there is not enough done to police speed.

I was in Sutherland Shire in the lead up to the riots. There was a lot of intimidation, rapes, crime that were directed toward non- Arabic and I received on my doorstep one day, a letter that threatened the lives of my offspring because they were white. I did not have children and had no interaction to inspire such a letter, so presume wrong address but very unsettling. Had I children I would have been forced from my home, a refugee if you like. I believe there were many such internal refugees over the other side of the Georges River.

However the local refugee, unprotected by police paralysed by fear of being charge with racism, divisive media reporting, persecuted by a minority had no such agency as the UN or outlet for protection. In fact those that profess to be the advocate of the refugee joined in the queue to persecute labelling them racist, backward, redneck and the list goes on.

Australians are very accepting and welcoming people... to a point. It is long past due date they were treated with respect. Afterall the policies of both sides sought to divide us so both equally responsible in my eyes.

I deplore the liberal party policies but prefer the other side admit they were part of the problem, never part of any solution.

So liberal party guilty as they held responsibilty of government at the time but then were the supposed supporters of human rights. Unprotected citizens, or those that feel unprotected, have every right to protect themselves. Isn't that what the boat people are doing?

Why all the name calling and derision?

I think we are all agreed Australia like every other country in the world is entitled to an orderly immigration process.
Anyone who does't think this please say so and give a reasoned argument for your position.

Greg you haven't advocated any position except to say 10,000 boat people should be allowed to stay in Ausralia. Would you clarify this. Is that in total, or per anum? Does it mean we need to make an off-setting reduction in our usual 13,000 per annum humanitariam intake from those waiting in camps around the world? Or do you propose no limit on numbers of our overall annual humanitarian intake.

If you think numbers be limited what should they be limited to .. 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 ... 10 million? If you have a cut off point how would you achieve it?

I refuse to accept your view that there are not many many 10's of thousands of refugees who wouldn't want to come to Australia. It doesn't take into account the reality of the numbers of refugees around the world or that there are going to be increasing social upheaveals in many third world countries.