Ms Rau should never have got compensation in the first place. It was largely the Howard haters who achieved this stupidity. Now these haters have egg all over their face. Time to swallow a little pride. I won't be holding my breath.

The woman's mentally ill. As others have pointed out, her compensation was awarded because the ineptitude of government authorities failed to detect that, instead consigning her to the gulag of detention centres that were the hallmark of the appalling Howard regime.

I see the usual wingnut bastards want to put the boot into the poor woman.

Like any person with mental illnes, Cornelia Rau is deserving of sympathy, but not compensation. The Government should have appealed the case. She passed herself off, sucessfully, as an alien and was placed where aliens should be placed until her identity was established. Some seem to think that she should have been instantly identified when all the authorities had was what she was willing to tell them. It is odd that her family claimed to be appalled that she was placed in detention in Australia, but are now releived she is held in a Jordanian prisen. Must be five star!

Will the Jordan Government be sued for holding her? No their courts would tell her ambulance chasser lawyers where to go.

In my view she should only be entitled to the same as any other mental patient, a disability pension.

What pathetic, weak kneed Governments we elect! Which reminds me about that other parasitic bloke, a non-citizen, we brought back from Belgrade. Whats the betting that we are still keeping him as well, unless he is robbing some others to pay for his drug habit.

Banjo "What pathetic, weak kneed Governments we elect! Which reminds me about that other parasitic bloke, a non-citizen, we brought back from Belgrade. Whats the betting that we are still keeping him as well, unless he is robbing some others to pay for his drug habit."

Agree.. although my vote did not count toward the incumbent swill.

Rau was just an unworthy recipient of your and my taxes, supposedly too demented to tell anyone where she was from or who she was but smart enough to travel the world and maybe try it again in Jordan..

and the parasite from Yugoslavia should have been left to rot on the streets of Belgrade.

Rau's wrongful detainment led to many changes within Immigration including the establishment of a National Identity Verification and Advice Unit which was just one of the changes made in response to the Palmer Report.

Prison Guards at Baxter had reported Rau revealing her real identity a number of times, she displayed definite signs of mental illness/personality disorder and she spoke, as interviews of recordings revealed, in an Australian accent.

Surely enough here to warrant further investigation sooner rather than later. The Palmer report identified many areas of weakness in Immigration's processes and the department has made steps to overcome deficiencies.

I don't think we can, with any surety, make comments about Rau's intentions or motivations in this case because of her mental illness.

Had Howard been re-elected, the outcome would be no different based on the findings of the Palmer Report. The compensation claim was well into its journey by the time Rudd became Prime Minister.

Things are not always black and white.

Vanstone was responsible for the return of Jovicic (if that is who you mean) and while not a Vanstone supporter there was not much else she could do in the circumstances. This man had lived in Australia since he was two and had no ties with any other place, certainly not Belgrade. He was in effect stateless.

Trust me I have no sympathy for thieves even if it is to feed a heroin habit but I can understand why this case meant returning him to Australia. Apparently he has now kicked his drug habit and has a loving family to support him. Jovicic also has a mental illness but I can't comment whether this was bought on by his ordeal, heroin or unrelated.

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Deported_Australian_granted_visa_after_two_years_in_Serbian_limbo

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Jovicic-allowed-to-return-to-Australia/2006/03/02/1141191784460.html