“If they had a decent case they would come legally and not pay smugglers far more than the air fare. The boat people are shonksters.”

Why did they leave their homes if there was no need to?

Is Yabby about? Do we really have only have 3,047 km2 permanent crops here?

Emigration by Australian-born
“In 2009–10, 42 570 Australia-born people departed permanently. This figure includes the Australia-born children of former settlers.
Overwhelmingly, the Australia-born are emigrating to the United Kingdom, the United States or to New Zealand. In 2009–10, 46.3 per cent of Australian-born emigrants went to one of these three countries. The next most popular destinations were Singapore (9.1 per cent), the United Arab Emirates (6.3 per cent) and Hong Kong SAR (5.2 per cent).”
http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/05emigration.htm

Fact Sheet – Permanent Arrivals and Departures from Australia, 1979–80 to 2008–09
http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/05emigration_1.htm

Yep of course NZ does need a boot in the pants, most countries do. I hope the Aussies that have left here have found homes where people aren’t screaming for them to get out and stop ruining their way of life.

Belly babe:“What a great place the world could be, if humanity could be one without superstitions crafted to keep us apart and uninformed.”

For sure.

Hello Banjo and Belly

Thanks for thinking of me.

<< …he is not fond of me… >>

Belly! It is not true. You’ve said that before and I’ve said this before – I consider you to be a good OLO mate. I’ll go further – I really admire your passion for OLO and for getting involved in all manner of discussions, even when some respondents are pretty damn rude. Good on you. It is wonderful!

While it is really good to see this sort of subject discussed a lot on OLO, I do get awfully tired of it and of basically repeating myself all the time! (:>/

But now that you have my attention I will respond….. later.

Not that I would change it but we are in deed a weird mob us Aussies.
Some talk of the need to grow, industry/ workforce/ population
And hurl insults at me for asking that welfare reform put people in jobs, then say we need more 457 visas.
Now we do, but why not put ours to work too/first.
I live in a 1970,s then executive home fibro not brick,rebuilt tin roof and all, in 5 bedrooms 11 rooms in all.
Why? it was cheaper than the two bedroom new one, why do we build so big so close and so badly?
Greed has its way, population growth see,s more land developed more homes sold more cash but a far worse country.
My block, just a bit, not much ,bigger than a city one,is full of trees plants and jungle like ,because I like a garden/want to help the environment.
But if ten more family's came to my village sewage would flow in to our river.
Some see only their lifetime a matter to be concerned about, I planted one tree I will never see grow to its potential but know without an Axe or chain saw it will be home to birds in a century.
Plan for the planets future its rewarding.

Jewely,
You said "Why did they leave their homes if there was no need to?"

The illegal entrants leave their homes for the same reasons legitimate immigrants do. Economic benefit.

Once here with permanent residence status they can then bring the rest of family here by 747. It is no coincidence that the majority of 'illegals' are young men.

If the dangers are so great at home, why would one leave a wife and family there while you shoot through to safety

Hey there Banjo, what you doing with your weekend? I’m thinking about smacking Grim around for the Kiwi joke that turned up in my in-box from his site.

“The illegal entrants leave their homes for the same reasons legitimate immigrants do. Economic benefit.”

But if their own countries were trucking along okay they would prefer not to I guess.

“If the dangers are so great at home, why would one leave a wife and family there while you shoot through to safety”

Maybe wife and family weren’t targets or they would survive until they can be sent for. I dunno I bet there are 1000’s of different stories.

Illegal entrants sneak in and if not for good cause they get sent home if caught? Then we have the asylum seekers who again get sent back. Then there are immigrants who pay for themselves and are simply moving here.

Everyone seems to get thrown in the same basket.

Belly babe your village must have some resourceful people who can sort a sewage problem.

Belly, addressing your opening post:

<< Try to talk about these matters of concern without involving politics. >>

I don’t think that’s possible, because politics is largely responsible for our utterly insane continuous growth paradigm! While we may be able to achieve a large majority of support within the Australian populace for population stabilisation, much lower immigration and policies geared towards real sustainability, getting our government, or the opposition, or Greens, to act on that is another thing entirely.

So politics is intimately and vitally connected.

Of course it should be connected, as this really is just about the most important stuff of all when it comes to good governance and management of the country. But gravely, our political system and entrenched dinosaur parties, which are much more like two peas in a pod than opposition forces, act as huge encumbrances to the development of vital population stabilisation and sustainability policies.

<< I think migration should be on a needs basis >>

I’d say: needs and humanitarianism. Only essential needs, to the tune of no more than 5000 arrivals (skilled people and their families) per annum, and refugees to about twice the current intake, say about 25 000 per annum.

This would still give us a significant immigration program, about equal to emigration, which would supply the most neeeded skills, increase our humanitarian effort, and allow us to stabilise our population and achieve a sustainable society.

continued