CJ Morgan: "and indeed how insignificant is Australia's intake of refugees when compared with other developed countries"

Not according to the link you give, CJ. Eg:

- Current quota for refugees coming into Australia: 12,000
- Number of asylum applications registered in 2008 for industrialized countries according to the United Nations: 383,000

So we take around accept 3.1% of all applications, and I presume not all applications are accepted. A quick google says USA+Eurpoe's population is around 1 billion, so ours is 2% of the total, and that total doesn't include any Asian countries like Japan. We are punching well above our weight.

From the same figures - Number of requests for asylum received by Australia, New Zealand and Japan in the past two decades: 107,000. But we accept 12,000 year, or 240,000 over the same two decades. Not exactly a picture of a xenophobic country.

I agree that Howard put in place an obnoxious and hideously expensive process for handing the asylum applications for boat people. But even so the outcomes didn't change much - we accepted the vast majority of them. To me Howard's pacific solution looked to be little more than a $1 billion political stunt. He gets extra points for designing something so inhumane he sent a few immigrants mad. One hell of a cost for what essentially was a political ad.

But taking the 1000 ft view, over the past decade or we so processed 10's of thousands of asylum applications, accepted all who qualified, and sent 1/2 a dozen of them insane. Not wonderful, but not too bad either.

Fair points, rstuart. You're quite right, of course - despite the public rhetoric about 'boat people', Australia has quietly accepted a substantial number of legitimate refugees (including, ultimately, nearly all of the tiny minority of asylum seekers who arrive by boat)under both the Howard and Rudd governments.

I was referring to that minority of the Australian electorate who get hysterical about asylum seekers and who respond all too readily to the fanfare of dog-whistles that the Opposition has been broadcasting, courtesy of a mass-media that's milking the isssue for all it's worth.

Dear Leigh,

Thank you for your explanation.

I actually do not think of you as an "old fart."
In fact, if the truth be known - you've made me
tack stock of many a subject in the past.
That's actually one of the things that I like
about OLO - the variety of opinions.

I also defnitely do not see the world in terms
of just "black and white," for me there's always
been a wide spectrum of colours.

Quite frankly - if the two of us were to sit down
and have a conversation - we'd probably find that
we have quite a lot in common.

And, that's the point that I was trying to make,
but I guess I wasn't doing it very well.

Anyway, keep on posting, please.
As you pointed out - I've got a lot to learn.

Perhaps, though, we could both learn something
if we both opened our minds and hearts?

Ginx

By gosh Ginx what an intriguing post – but, what does it mean?

You’ve jived around like a blue ass fly on a six day old sav,
but gave us nothing of substance -- apart from a lot of fly specks (talk about frequent flyer points!)

Might we coax into an encore, without the “So You Think You Can Dance” routine…i.e. in 21st Century English… so us lesser beings can follow your higher reasoning .

Mind you there were a few points I gleaned , taxing though they were on my ‘little grey cells’(after scraping away the fly specks!)

1) You asked: ‘Who the hell are these upstarts( i.e. the illegal arrivals) …to have negative feelings about the west’
Holy fly swat!
Now you got that one wrong–sooo wrong!
You see, the illegals don’t have ‘negative feelings’ about the west– they love us tooo muuuch. We’d actually prefer them to love us less ---love someone else --- someone like , their earlier ports of call ---or at least share their love around.
The illegals love the west sooo muuuuch that they’ll leave their pooor old mum back, home alone, in the boondocks of Bagdad , while they’re sunning themselves in Lombok or Java, for years , on the off chance they might bum a ride on a passing boat to the west –- now, that’s REAL LOVE!

2) As for the ‘dangerous journey’ line you’ve swallowed (hook & sinker) I refer you to Hasbeens, beenthere donethat post – most enlightening, if not entirely PC .

*courtesy of a mass-media that's milking the isssue for all it's worth.*

Come on CJ, you are clearly smart enough and old enough to be
aware that the media will milk any issue for all that it is worth,
if they get mileage from the public. That is their job after all.

What surprises me is that a so called sensitive poodle such as
yourself, cannot see the injustice that is going on here.

Now lets say that you were in a refugee camp near the Burmese
border, having fled their oppression. You might be female, you
might have kids, you most certainly would not have 2c to rub
together.

So what are your chances of getting out of that misery and being
accepted by Australia? Virtually zilch, for Afghans and Iraqis,
where the Americans spend large amounts of money, dominate the
scene, by being able to buy their way to a ticket to the land
of milk and honey.

The reality is that the young bleeding hearts who influence
Australian politicians opinions, are so focussed on their tv
screens, that you are largely forgotten in this debate.

Now I can understand that perhaps Foxy is still young and silly
enough to fall for this, but I am surprised that you at your age,
can't see the big picture here, more clearly.

Dear Yabby,

You may find this informative:

http://www.abc.net.au/insiders/content/2009/s2546658.htm

The Minister for Immigration and the Government Leader
in the Senate, Senator Chris Evans discusses asylum
seekers with Barrie Cassidy.

At least read what he has to say, please.