I agree with Andrew.

It is not about labor or liberal.
BOTH have/have had their share of primadonnas.

The crux of the problem is we should NOT be party to the harebrained refugee convention in the first place. It only serves as a magnet, for every Tom, Dick and Ali to kick down our door and cry poor. And an opportunity, for every Andrew (Bartlett), Petro (Georgiou) & Paul (Howe) to pirouette on a --more humane than thou --pedestal.

I would think that grass-root level supporters on both labor and liberal, as apposed to those who aspire to international stardom, have a common desire to keep strong border controls in place.

Andrew, I am calling you a liar. I know the children were thrown overboard because I have met the eyewitnesses, senior sailors who were there. And they told me the children were thrown overboard. Also I have the evidence of the four pages of signals sent by the HMAS Adelaide over a forty-eight hour period in which the eyewitnesses say they had to prevent parents from dropping their children into the RHIB alongside.

See the four pages starting with :

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/2002/overboard/cable1.htm

I think that you will find the captain of the HMAS Adelaide could not prove that the children were thrown overboard because the film of the incident did not show the kids going over the side. I believe the film used was infra-red film and when processed it was found that the camera was on the starboard of the SIEV IV and the RHIB was on the port side. The Senate committee forced the HMAS Adelaide captain to admit he did not have the photos that Reith said would prove the assertion. Howard always claimed that they were, “After all, in the water…….” We have the film showing brave Australian sailors in the water rescuing the children. How do you explain that footage? Stop playing with words!

Geoffrey Kelley

the sad part about Labour's gross hypocrisy and the lefts (we are compassionate and no one else is) is the number of grossly abused people waiting to come to Australia legally. From the outcasts in India to the Tamils in Sri Lanka or the white and coloured in South Africa. Many have waited and suffered for years. Labour's hypocrisy has led to more boats, more deaths, more danger and more manipulation from illegals. They have created a huge mess with their half baked pseudo compassion and now are the laughing stock of nations with rational policies. The atrocious left media have been extremely slow to pick up on their hero's hypocrisy. At least Howard was decisive whether you liked him or not.

Andrew Bartlett, you see, you still play with words. Cornelia Rau was not an Australian citizen. She was a permanent resident living here under a false name, false identity and a false passport. Why was she never charged with these offences? Why was a Quantas steward using a false name and passport and identity to cross our borders? She was and is German citizen, not an Australian citizen at the time. Why don’t you attack the German Govt for failing to identify her. Their excuse was that she was using a false identity and a forged passport.

She was found not to be psychotic by the Qld state health dept. When was she found psychotic? Please quote your evidence.

I take your word that you have no friends in the ALP, but your leader did defect to the party of her adulterous lover, the ALP, so some Democrats have friends in the ALP.

So, I made a mistake about your son, Was it your daughter that you appeared with outside your home after your drunken pilfering? I will change my words to “your infant child”. Nevertheless, you were widely condemned for using your infant child the next day when confronted by the media.

I reject the notion that I am spreading hate. I only want the truth to be known, If you tell a lie often enough it is eventually believed.

Geoffrey, it is sometimes the case, as you say, that "If you tell a lie often enough it is eventually believed." However, I honestly don't think it matters how often you keep repeating your assertions - the evidence to show you're wrong is just too overwhelming and widely available.

It is a reasonable assumption that someone who keeps repeating things that are completely wrong, and those falsehoods seek to portray someone in an extremely negative light, is someone who is trying to spread hate. But it is true that is just assumption of mine, albeit a reasonable one on the evidence. Perhaps you just have difficulty with basic comprehension.

As I said, the fact that Cornelia Rau was a German citizen is irrelevant - unless you think all Germans in Australia should be locked up. She was a lawful resident of Australia. It is also on the public record that she had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Perhaps you should read the Palmer Report
http://www.immi.gov.au/media/publications/pdf/palmer-report.pdf

or if that's too long, try this
http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/My-sister-lost-her-mind-Australia-lost-its-heart/2005/02/06/1107625064599.html
or this http://bit.ly/3Y0Rck

As for the children overboard fibs, the cables you linked to were presented, along with hundreds more pages of evidence, to the Senate Inquiry. The cables do not say any child was thrown overboard. Given how detailed they are, including mentioning adults diving into the water, it is unthinkable that any sailor who saw a child being thrown wouldn't have reported it.

As for the footage of sailors rescuing children from the water - used by Peter Reith to further perpetuate the lie - the children were in the water because the boat sank! A sinking boat tends to leave its occupants in the water.

I don't need to "play with words" Geoffrey - I'm just repeating well established facts. When I make a mistake, I acknowledge it and accept responsibility for it. I don't keep repeating it.

Andrew,

The way you cherry picked your through the question time, giving a pro labor party line commentaries shows the article as political punt rather than a serious opinion.

The reason Rudd is in trouble is that the relaxation of the laws dealing with the boat people lead to a massive >10x increase in boats. The push factor excuse Rudd uses is particularly weak considering that nearly all the boat people have been in Indonesia for several years.

Turnbull rightly accuses him of hypocrisy in arranging for their detention in Indonesia where their conditions are likely to be substantially worse than on Nauru or Xmas Island.

The Pacific solution was sufficient deterrent to smugglers that the boat people were almost a non issue.

This crisis is entirely self inflicted by Labor, and having painted a bulls eye on their back the opposition is gleefully firing shaft after shaft into it.

Unless Labor does something to change things, the beating will continue.