http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/the-first-boatload-of-asylum-seekers-destined-for-malaysia-has-been-intercepted-off-scott-reef/story-fn59niix-1226105448356

With a boat arriving every week at present, the heat will be on Chris Bowen. The proof of the pudding will be:

1 Can they implement this option, and what resistance will they face from the refugees and the activists.
2 Once the asylum seekers are in Malaysia, if any of them are mistreated, the deal will look very shaky.
3 If the rate of arrivals is not significantly slowed, the 800 quota will be filled in 4 months, and then what?

As far as the coalition is concerned, this is an opportunity to keep beating labor, and at $1/2m per boat person, this could be the biggest white elephant after the school halls program.

With Malaysia being a hot-spot for extremism Australia is definitely inadvertently recruiting trouble. I would have thought that there was ample evidence that sending boat people to Malaysia is exactly what should not be done.

My honestly held opinion follows.
My post history clearly shows a willingness to kick my party, in fact gives evidence I do often.
In the matter of this plan I went of early, declaring my party mad, and this plan wrong.
I was,, yet again quite wrong.
This plan will not help Labor keep the lefts vote.
It will not help my country's international image.
It will stop the boats, maybe 4 or 5 more will come but in time watch NZ get them, not us.
Conservatives stopped them, won elections by doing it.
All very well to point to the inhumanity but lead/pushed by Abbott's dysfunctional win at any cost team and middle Australia Labor acted.
It is my view, Abbott too knows it will work, he is wringing his last drops of rage/vote swinging out of it.
His tool now? to highlight its inhumanity, and to hide his Shadow Ministers intentions to?
Send boat people to? IRAN!for processing.
Soon, driven by drought starvation millions of world wide refugees this plan, to not except gate way arrivals will in all probability be taken up all over the world.
Then? remember this is about politics not care for humanity on Conservative side.

Belly,

While I understand you views, the reality is that the liberal government had the identical problem of boat arrivals in 2000, and it took a lot of work to break the people smuggler's business model.

Secondly Julia Gillard and labor are responsible for the most breathtaking hypocrisy, and for this they deserve a spanking.

Juliar, being the shadow minister for immigration in 2001/2 drew up the changes to the immigration policy that Rudd implemented, and spared no opportunity to shrilly denounce the pacific solution as failed and inhumane, and that the boat arrivals were entirely due to the push factors, and nothing to do with the pull factors. Then at the last election, she pledged that she would not send refugees to a country that was not a signatory to the UNHCR convention.

What we have now is a policy that is founded on the concept of breaking the pull factors of the Gillard solution by sending asylum seekers to a country that is not a signatory to the UNHCR, where their conditions would be far worse than at Nauru, and where their personal protections have no concrete guarantees.

Secondly, the number of boat arrivals in the last 3 months was greater than the last 6 years under the pacific solution, so even if it has reduced the number of boats, it is still far far worse than under the liberal government.

Finally, even if the boat slow to half of the numbers in June/July, the 800 places of the 4 year agreement will be filled in 6 months.

This has all the hall marks of yet another labor stuff up.

I am quite happy to say I think it is going to work.
And in no more than 3 years much of the oppose for its own sake/manufacturing of issues will be understood by those being coned today.
Unfortunately that is the only real policy in Tony's bag at present.
Look deeper, understand the harm this issue and its hurt inflicted on Labor by it.
Yes greens and such will whimper and groan scream and shout, be of far more use to conservative politics than refugees, such is always the case.
But it will work.
To combat that? Abbott will back the same groups, him and his media mates will dig and mine for signs of cruelty in Malaysia, may even pay redirected refugees to whimper.
But the boats will stop.

SM,

"Breathtaking hypocrisy" for sure.....

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-01/gillard-asylum-seekers-malaysia/2819786