I was at ANZ Stadium the other night watching a rugby match
(a colleague has access to a corporate suite ),when a few hundred poor buggers scaled the fence.
You should have heard the uproar from the rednecks in the crowd.
“Kick the bastards out!” yelled one.
“Turns those blokes around!” mumbled another, beer marinated moron.
Security ,pandering to the mobs hysteria , monstered the wall-scalers , frog-marching them off, doubtlessly, to some inhumane-dungeonous-detention-centre.

“Where’s the Ozzie sense of fair go ?” I bemoaned, as we looked down on the scene.“Surely, those bogans in the stand should have just squeezed together and made room for the new comers?”

“Such fear and paranoia… over, so few!”

My colleague and I uncorked another chilled chardonnay to salve our frayed sensibilities.

“Why all the fuss?” I continued “It’s NOT ILLEGAL to want to watch a match!”

“They must be enterprising and enthusiastic to have gotten over that fence . The type of fans we need -–& god knows, the Wallabies could do with a major dose of it !”

“Let them in and we could process them inside , take their IOU’s ...I’m sure they wouldn’t renege.”

“Instead, we waste millions trying to keep people out ; three metre high fences; security lighting ; 24/7 patrols.
It must cost tens of millions pa! billions over a life time !”

“How many schools , hospitals– not to mention multicultural festivals– could that fund!”

By the end of the bottle, we had concurred that the mob in the stands deserved nothing less than our contempt. My colleague quietly confided, he stopped revealing his grounds attendance to jurist peers; it be misconstrued as him having unhealthy sympathies, and could adversely impacting his dinner invitations. And by the end of the game ,we’d decided,as protest, next time we’d bring our own chardonnay, rather than patronise the members bar.

Look at it realistically:ANZ stadium hosts about three rugby matches a year, if a few hundred scale the wall each match– it would take 200 years to fill the stadium!

Riiight. Comparing illegal immigration and asylum seeking to people jumping over a fence at the footy. IS that what we're doing?.

Footy is a product. People jumping the fence is in essence, theft. So if you owned a shop and 200 people each week stole something, you would be okay with that?.

Anyhoo, I appreciate that isn't your really your point.

Asylum seekers deserve respect and needed to be treated with respect. Illegal immigrants need to be treated in the way our law dictates such a crime. It IS a crime after all. Neither can be identified as either illegal or asylum at a glance however, and the problem is where to put them while they figure out if they're illegal or genuine asylum cases.

Wouldn't it be easy just to look around the globe at effective examples of how to tackle the issue and adopt what works?.

I immigrated legally. I have no sympathy for those people who ARE queue jumping. I have all the time in the world who NEED asylum from war torn devastation and/or persecution.

If a footy match were free, (and everyone agreed on it that it should be), then you would indeed save a huge amount of financial and material expenses- though there would be even less comfortable inside than it already is- (especially when the number of people outnumber the seats, as even if there is room to spare, the added pressures of giving up your seat to take a leak or grab a bite might be a negative prospect for many).
Of course, many might rather actually pay the price for the increased comfort, security and personal space with their name on it.

Pretty much a summary of the trade-off in a footy match or a broader spectrum.

Hazza,

NRL games pack 14000 people into a 100000 capacity stadium.

Beldisloe Cup Rugby matches get $50000 or so.

I think there's more than enough room to drop the price and still make more money. It might take a few games and some marketing to get people to realise it's actually worth the money again, but the extra fans might even enhance the atmosphere for the more lucrative TV audience.

This would indeed be the perspective of the organizers and televisors;
-although I imagine if the customers/fans got a say in the matter, they would either want free entry (unlimited or limited) or otherwise, a spot of their own and intruders kicked out *guaranteed* in exchange for a fee.

You'd have to ask them.
(same for the electorate).