Australians should have the right to say who comes to Australia
and in what numbers.

Do you as Australians believe a referendum should be called to ask the public what they consider important on issues of immigration and refugees?

Should these most important decisions be left to the Government, UN and social engineers to implement policies to the detriment of normal Australians?

A referendum on who comes here and in what capacity would lance a boil that must surely be getting ready to burst, think Cronulla.

However laudable, the practice is much more difficult. As with any referendum (think the Republic) questions can be loaded.

An interesting take would be leveraging the "GetUp" group to lobby. Or even a political system modelled on the framework of MyFootballClub.

Though, I've avoided the underlying issue ... what would be the criteria for selection? I don't want to jump to conclusions, but it would appear by your comments on Cronulla you're suggesting it may be race or religion. This is far too simplistic in my view.

How would we as Australians (and that's all the different cultures and nationalities that make up this country) feel if we were judged based on our current or former prime minister (white anglo saxon males - generally conservative). Or maybe judged by other Aussie icons such as Kylie Minogue or Neighbours.

How do you cut through the stereotypes of nations, cultures and religions? Especially considering most are not overly interested in truly understanding each of these factors, but then we provide them the power to state whether the next wave of immigrants are welcome?

I think it is a great idea, as long as...

i) it was agreed that the decision would be "final" - say, for a period of thirty years

ii) the referendum question stated clearly both the selection criteria and the numbers allowed

Bring it on.

I would estimate five years to get a question agreed (think of all those lovely "conventions of the people" we could hold along the way), another year to allow the ins and outs of it to be aired and debated, then a convincing defeat simply because the question wasn't simple enough.

Aaaah, bliss. Thirty years of peace and quiet. OLO would go out of business, but them's the breaks.

Face it, the chances of any quick agreement on the question are nil. The starting positions would range from "Keep 'em all out, 'specially the mozzies" - which I suspect would be SCOTTY's favourite - to "let 'em all come, the more the merrier"

Imagine reaching a consensus from there. You'ld actually end up somewhere around where we are now.

But even that would be defeated. 'Cos that's what happens in a referendum.

Pity. It would be fun.

>>A referendum on who comes here and in what capacity would lance a boil that must surely be getting ready to burst, think Cronulla<<

Incidentally, how long ago was Cronulla? I forget exactly how many were killed in those weeks of out-of-control rioting, but I'm sure it must have been a lot, given how many times it appears as an example of our violent racial history.

But now I think of it, I haven't actually noticed the streets running with blood, as many hoped... er, sorry, predicted.

The only death resulting from the Cronulla riots was that of innocence. And even with that blight on our record, I doubt there is a country in the world that deals with immigration and racial tensions more peacefully and successfully than Australia. I'm not sure what the SCOTTY's of the world expect - for us to all sit around singing kumbaya?

Perhaps he wants to see more of those ethnicy threaded friendship bracelets?

I believe that no government would allow a referendum on immigration

because the Australian public would give a resounding call of NO to more of what we have endured.

That being mass immigration from cultures that will never assimilate or those who want to subjugate our society to thier own peculiar brand of religion.

Not to mention the follow on effects of such immigration such as the dumbing down of our learning institutions, crime reticent to immigrants from low socio-economic countries and the massive welfare bill that comes out of our pocket to pay for people who will never pay thier way.

The academic bleeding heart do-gooder brigade would all have to emigrate themselves because they wouldnt beable to live in such a country as racist as Australia after a defeat of thier social engineering agenda and thier will to make us all into one happy melting pot of violence and chaos.

Wouldnt it be wonderful