Belly, Nairbe,

While I have made no secret of my liberal preferences, as Belly has made no secret of his labor preferences, the issues on the table are simple:

1 - Are the boats safe, - Answer No
2 - Is there a clear link between the number of boats and Labor's immigration policy - Answer Yes.
3 - Has Julia Gillard acknowledged that this dangerous and needs to be addressed - Answer Yes
4 - Is there a proven policy that will stop the number of boats - Yes
5 - Has Julia Gillard done anything to address the issue in the 3 months since making the promise - Answer No.
6 - Why Not? - Answer: she relies on the greens and Willie
7 - What is more important to Labor, clinging to power or saving lives: - Power obviously.

The suggestion that these cashed up refugees would get in via an Indonesian processing center over those more in need is a furfy, as there are hundreds of thousands more deserving.

The simple logic:

Boats kill people,
Labor's policy encourages the boats,
Therefore Labor is responsible for the deaths.

nairbe

you write
'Runner,
A tragedy like this is no reason to run scared back to a racist hateful policy. it is a reason to move further to a compassionate one. Your lack of true christian disposition never ceases to amaze me.'

your deliberate blindness on this issue never ceases to amaze me. How anyone could not hold the Government accountable for such foolish policies in encouraging people to risk their lives is astounding. And to think the supporters of this suicidal policy claim to be the compassionate ones is even more astounding.

The basic cause of this problem is that those looking for another
country are not prepared to accept NO for an answer.
In other words Australia has said this number this year.
They are not prepared to accept that they are not on the list.

I see that the kids overboard has come up again.
Well what do expect when a boat is scuttled, you end up overboard.

Shadow minister.
1 - Are the boats safe, -
A complete no brainer, no one ever said they were. Does this not indicate the desperation of the occupants to you?

2 - Is there a clear link between the number of boats and Labor's immigration policy -

That is a point of great question. It would be fair to draw a line and say that by removing the off shore detention and denying them the right to our court system we have again made it simpler for them to have their asylum claims processed. But we have other points to consider. the former policy had not been tested as in the cycle had not played out. since the policy changed we now know that almost all of the Nauru detainee's were accepted and the rest have won a legal battle to have their appeals heard by the courts. This would logically bring us to understand that the trade would have resumed anyhow just a couple of years latter than it did.

3 - Has Julia Gillard acknowledged that this dangerous and needs to be addressed -
And?

4 - Is there a proven policy that will stop the number of boats - Yes
No there is not. The previous policy has now been shown to not have made any difference as to ones final outcome so logic tells us the status quo would have resumed.

5 - Has Julia Gillard done anything to address the issue in the 3 months since making the promise -
Julia has begun to discover just how dysfunctional our relationship with Indo was left by the Howard Government. The real answers to this problem lie in co operative measures with our neighbours and harsh penalties for those who smuggle. Not punishing those who are already suffering.

6 - Why Not? - Answer: she relies on the greens and Willie
Now you are getting into bias irrational rubbish.

7 - What is more important to Labor, clinging to power or saving lives: -
Well really what is more important to all political parties? Be honest now.

Shadow Minister:

The question that needs to be asked is - why did this happen? Our border security people have radar and are trained (and equipped) to act in all sorts of weather conditions - so why was this boat not intercepted earlier? Surely it would have been detected via radar?
What the government needs to do now is have a full inquiry into this tragedy and ensure that the competent border-security staff can all learn from this incident of why it occurred and see to it that it doesn't happen again. Playing politics and the blame game achieves nothing constructive - finding answers as to why just may prevent such tragedies in the future.

Nairbe,

Before the policy change we had 4 boats per year and about 160 people. This year we have more than 130 boats and nearly 7000 people. The flood of boats started almost immediately after the policy change, and was predicted by the dept of immigration.

So whilst there may have been other push factors, the policy change was responsible for most of the new boats, and while you might be able to convince yourself that it wasn't the normal logic inherent to most of us leaves only one conclusion.

Lexi,

Why did it happen?

You keep children from being killed on the road by keeping them off the road, not by having crossing guards every 50m.

If the navy boat had stopped them in high seas, they might have hurt someone trying transfer them, trying to apply 20/20 hindsight does not detract from the simple rational that if the boat hadn't of sailed, the people would not have died.

Finally,

There are an estimated 150 000 "refugees" in Indonesia, how many should we grant asylum to, and if we do, how many more will come?