*Of course I'm for on shore processing.
What sane person isn't?*

Err Lexi, most sane people arn't. That is exactly why politicians
are pragmatic about the topic. For they both know, they can't
win an election, if the Govt has no control of Austrlia's borders.

Unless of course both parties get real and change the terms by
which we abide by the Geneva 1951 Convention. ie. we will take
x thousand refugees a year.

Your open door policy, of the UNHCR controlling our borders, with
no upper limit, which you believe in, is not acceptable to most
sane Australians.

It is exactly to avoid problems as created in Europe, the USA and
elsewhere. Legislation needs to be in place before we have a problem,
not after the horse has bolted. Only a dreamer could believe
otherwise.

Q&A again:
There you all go again, govt this, opposition that, what none of you
noticed that when talking about the CO2 tax they all are ignorant
of the elephant in the corner.
Its not just that they ignore it, they do not even see it !

All waffling on about the economy and growth. None of them or the
audience had a clue about what is going on around them.
No one asked how the govt or opposition is going to handle a zero
growth economy, let alone a contracting economy.

What the hell do they think is going on in Europe and the US and to
some extent here. They were waffling on about manufacturing and
competition.
They don't even understand why countries are having trouble getting
growth restarted. They still think globalisation will save us.
God help us !

Either Tony Abbott is an intellectual giant of which I doubt or the Labour party are so pig headed that they refuse to listen to the vast majority of people when it comes to a carbon tax and border protection. The sad part is that they are listening to ideologist who claim to have the high moral ground. The vast majority (was it 59 41 today) have woken up to the spin doctors pushing their socialist agenda while claiming the scientific and moral backing. How far from the working people can you get. To think that these 'born to rule'mob have the audicity to criticize the oppositions 'born to rule mentality'. Sooner or later Labour might wake up to the fact that they are servants of Australians rather than slaves to personal UN aspirations and ideology. The insulant unionist on Q@A being cheered by rent a crowd and Getup shows how out of touch they are.

There is something very anal about the phrase 'control over our borders' when, in so many other areas, we have reduced or little control at all.

Is the 'border patrol' fascination the last of the Biggles adventures maybe?

We seem to have no control over where miners mine, within our borders, but no one cares about that, eh?

Our dollar has a mind of its own, and 'everyone' agrees we should make no attempt to control that, within or without our borders.

Companies who have for years bled the tax system dry, yet usefully employed people, can close down overnight without any expectation on them that they provide for those left behind, and we have no control over that.

Miners, through their greed, drive other firms to the wall, yet there is no call for control over that.

The ADF wastes billions every year, and Stephen Smith says they are 'out of control' but no one cares about that (maybe Smith might).

Our universities pass unpassable drongos and allow them to fill the employment market with 'qualified' people, that is out of control, but no one cares about that.

No, it's this last bastion of defiance, in this bastion of end-of-the-world charm, that feels, somehow, it is the only nation in the world who has a God given right to process refugees in someone else's country because, otherwise, our nation would be 'defenceless'.

pt 2 to follow

Dear Yabby,

I am a dreamer. And you're going to accuse
me of being "wishy washy" again - but I don't mind.
As I've said in the past - we need to dream.
Soaring imagination is the glue that keeps our soul
from shattering under the imnpact of a prosaic world.

We begin with dreams, but then we persevere and bring
them to fruition.

Lexi:>> That "Mirabella" creature kept on spouting<<

An apt descriptive my dear Lexi, Joe Hockey with two X chromosomes.