Well well, we now have our first 'sustainable' boat-people policy, off to East Timor.

Now, of course, this is not Nauru, or Christmas Island, so it cannot be anything like the Pacific Solution or the excised Oz solution.

No, this is NEW and DIFFERENT, this is the sustainable reffo policy.

Just the other month Ramos Horta was moaning about foreign aid being no good from Oz, now he's got his Christmas (Island) wish come true, and all our foreign aid will be targetted in a brand new jail system:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/australian-aid-all-over-the-place-says-east-timor-president-jose-ramos-horta/story-e6frgczf-1225883177399

Who'd-a-thought Rudd was speaking the truth when he warned about 'going right' under Julia?

I never thought I'd say this but.. JULIA GILLARD IS BRILLIANT :)

I still won't vote for your *witchunt against the Churches* (UN)Equal opportunism Commissars but on the assylum seeker thing.. woopeee...

she done good!

BUT..there is a better and simpler and less costly solution....

NO.. don't turn the boats back...

//Turning the boats back, she says, is a shallow slogan that amounts to nonsense. And so it is. She makes no bones about Tony Abbott's claim that this is what he would do. The asylum seekers would simply sabotage their boats and Australian authorities would have to rescue them,//

err..sure..IF..they come.

ARREST AND INCARCERATE the crews and captains...PUBlicize it far and wide in Indonesia.. show photo's of depressed Indonesian crews languishing in our Jails (doing hard labor)

Let the left go crazy and propogandize about "INhuman treatment" which will save us the advertizing bill ourselves....

and watch the flow of boats dry up.... I'd give it 6 months at the outside.

Heck..I'll even translate it for them.

Untuk Perhatian Orang Indonesia.

JANGANLAH terdapat membawa pemohon2 keselamatan dari luar negri ke Australia..HARAM!. KeTahuilah ini, jika anda terdapat menolong atau memandu kapal yang membawa pemohon2 keselatamatan tersebut, anda akan DIPENJARA SELAMA SEPULOH TAHUN sekurangnya. Sebelum anda melibatkan diri dalam keharaman ini, ingatlah keluargra mu yang bergantung padamu.

Dear TBC,

I watched Julia Gillard on the news this evening
and I must admit, I was impressed.

She behaved like a Leader - and she made perfect
sense. A regional processing centre, developing
a regional protection framework. Telling us that
her government's policy goal was clear. "To wreck
the people smuggling trade by removing the
incentive for boats to leave their ports of origin
in the first place."

Telling us that "Labors policy was to remove
profitability of the trade and the danger of the
voyage..."

I know that it's only early days yet, and there is
much still to be done - but at last - there's
light at the end of the tunnel. And that's a fact
that should unite us all!

<< I never thought I'd say this but.. JULIA GILLARD IS BRILLIANT :) >>

I don’t know if I’d go quite that far ALGOREisBOAZ.

But yeah, she done good!

Foxy...I have no desire to carry the flag for the Abbott forces, but really, did you listen at all?

The speech is empty of anything beyond dogwhistles and rhetoric.

Why on Earth place something like that in East Timor, a dogeared nation trying to start life.

Besides, I've just listened to Lateline's interview with Ramos-Horta, and there is no 'agreement' at this stage whatsoever....and will not be before the election I'd imagine, with the pace of progress on such issues with so many to be consulted.

Gillard sounds like Howard, tempered only by PR people and some modest hint of hindsight, to avoid the mean excesses of Howard, and to keep appealing to those who are swayed by having a female PM, and being glad to see the backside of Rudd still.

Still, we can all see what we wish to, and if you see 'improvement', so be it.

I wonder if the supposed 50k of 'illegals' who fly in each year will be going to East Timor, or just the 'scary' ones who come in boats?

Meanwhile, look out for the next phase of settling refugees in RARA lands, with little or no English, poor job prospects, and no state support.... or was that the other half of the miners 'deal', to get them to take cheap refugee labour in exchange for a pushover negotiation on the tax?

<< I know that it's only early days yet, and there is much still to be done - but at last - there's light at the end of the tunnel. And that's a fact that should unite us all! >>

Agreed Foxy.

Isn’t it amazing how different a party’s policy positions can be with a new leader! There seems to be more difference already between the Rudd and Gillard governments than there has been between Labor and Liberal governments for many years!