Horus, yes clearly some refugees scuttle their boats - usually if they believe they are at risk of being pushed back or towed to a country where they don't have protection (such as Indonesia).

You are also seeking to smear an entire group of thousands of people on the basis that a small number may have done teh wrong thing such as make false claims. The majority of asylum seekers on boats are clearly refugees - that's been established over and over again. The fact there may be a few willing to risk their lives to try to con their way into a country is hardly a reason to smear thousands of others, let alone return them to danger, persecution or death.

And my apologies Shadow Minister, the reason why my comments appear to be "rehashing what happened years ago" is because I have had to counter the major factual errors that get being posted here. As you know, one can only do 700 words a day in commenting, so it doesn't leave much space for "suggestions for workable approaches to the issues of today."

For shorthand versions, I think the approach flagged in this article http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/refugee-crisis-calls-for-new-approach-20091107-i2e7.html or in the report outlined in this piece http://asiancorrespondent.com/andrew-bartlett-blog/new-report-documents-conditions-for.htm
go to the sort of approach we need to aim towards long-term.

Andrew, you are playing with words once again! You admit that the CO of the HMAS Adelaide stated under oath that, “The vessel was only ever marginally seaworthy…….” So, it was made seaworthy twice by the RAN and was sabotaged continually over several days. The lives of the SUNCs were never at risk and the HMAS Adelaide was prepared to accompany the vessel if it steamed under its own power. Of course the SUNCs refused to steam north and attempted to scuttle the boat by, among other things, setting fire to it twice. We can all read the evidence Andrew. The eyewitness reports are clearly stated in the four pages of signals that I posted earlier. Have you ever studied the signals Andrew? Are you aware of the contents? Can you say, hand on heart, that the SUNCs did not attempt to scuttle the vessel?

Are you playing with words again when you describe my use of the term “illegals” as factually wrong and deliberately misleading? Are you saying that it is quite legal for SUNCs to enter Australian waters and land on Australian sovereign territory? Are you saying the instructions given to the CO of the Adelaide to keep them out of Australian waters was an illegal instruction? If it was illegal, why was the policy and the actions committed by the Rudd Labor Govt.?

Where am I being factually wrong and deliberately misleading?

Can you please quote the Chief of Defence, Admiral Barrie, saying that no children were recovered from the water? Because he maintained that the children were thrown overboard into January of 2002!

Incidentally, how does the Tampa crisis differ from Rudd’s directives to the Tamils Sri Lankans he is trying to offload into Indonesia? The Australian Govt. took the 450 Afghan SUNCs from the Tampa and took them on board the troop ship, HMAS Manoora. That was quite an episode because the 450 Afghans outnumbered small crew of the HMAS Manoora and the sailors were in fear of their lives, having to put up with the filthy and degrading actions of the SUNCs.

Geoffrey Kelley

geoffreykelley, you have my thanks. Your persistent and unrelenting misrepresentation of the facts, and of any and all arguments against you, is very much like an 'own goal'; in favour of the side of the compassionate.
Having you on one's side is rather like being offering a humanitarian prize by the likes of Pol Pot. Even the links you yourself offer demonstrate nothing so much as your own one eyed blindness.
Let me quote myself, on the off chance you might actually read and understand me the second time.
"The fact these parents didn't actually do it, simply indicates they didn't trust the Australian Navy AS MUCH AS I WOULD.
And apparently, with good reason.
(I mean NO OFFENSE to the Naval personel, just a recognition that they are under orders to demonstrably unscrupulous political masters).

An interesting article in THE AUSTRALIAN today paints the leader of the 250 Asylum seekers as a criminal gang member who used to live in Canada and took his ethnic problems to that country. He was deported from Canada due to criminal activity and now looks like due to all the Lefties he will be accepted into Australia.
looks liek all these people will be fine citizens.