With this issue of the Boat-people / Asylum Seekers
ramping up and now leading virtually every news
report, it may be time for the remaining few sane
people to consider a real option to restrain this
emerging crisis.

Somebody somewhere in this political wilderness
should have the testacular fortitude to state the
bleeding obvious!.....Australia has signed the
United Nations Charter on Human Rights regarding
refugees (signed by members of a Government without
the issue ever being put to a Referendum, and
contrary to the wishes of many in the electorate),
however the Convention has been signed, and short of
unsigning (cancelling it), we have to accept the basic
aims of the Convention!

The methodology of the application of the Convention
should be changed from,... accepting every person who
considers themselves to be wronged, persecuted or
simply financial opportunists, who manage to "find"
the appropriate "fee" to illegally embark on a sea voyage
to our waters or shores, apparently expecting of course
upon arrival to be greeted with open arms, and then
allowed to take up residence and partake of the benefits
applicable to the average Tax-paying Australian,... to a more
realistic system of applying for "Refugee Status" in their
home country through the appropriate Embassy or Consulate,
and waiting their turn to be considered for acceptance.

Jumping onto a broken-down fishing boat to beat the queue
is NOT acceptable, and although sympathy should be given
to the plight of some of these people, we simply cannot
afford to give shelter and solace to each and every
down-trodden peasant and financial opportunist who considers
it his right to move a country more suitable to his desired
lifestyle.

The boats bringing these "illegals" into our waters should
be turned back and escorted out of our waters. If any attempt
to scuttle the subject boat is made, the survivors should be
charged and deported to their place of origin.

We cannot afford to keep accepting these people, whilst some
of our own are suffering from homelessness and the National indebtedness is soaring!

Charity begins at home!

How about we change Australia's name to...."Charitybeginsathome"

(That's sure to get the message across :)

Crackup,
It would be good if we could do what you say, but there is a problem!

If we cannot accurately identify the illegals, other countries won't take them back. Without proper identity we do not know where they originated.

So all we can do is discourage them from coming.

My suggestion is not to give them what they want and to make them wait 10 years, like in Africa, for processing. This means no permanent residence and no family reunion in Aus. They will stop trying.

The softer approach by this government has resulted in 5000 still in detention and about 200 deaths. Sometimes one has to be hard to be kind .

Hurrumph! Why oh why don't we use our useless subs to sink these boats before they get to our waters?

Bludgers! Trying to get to OUR nation.

WE were all born here, every one of us, and so deserve to live here.

It's not as if we'd made the treck and come from elsewhere, willy-nilly, is it?

NO, we belong here. It's OUR land, and to Hell with anyone else.

Hurrumph!

If Malaysia and Indonesia don't play ball with us with our reasonable demands, why, we've still got F111s in the hangars don't we?

Let's bomb these nations back to the stone age and take them over, filling them with boat people.

That's it! A regional solution, for US.

These Asian's on our door step came take them all.

Hurrumph!

Both Labor and Liberal parties have failed in asylum seeker policy, and both have pursued unsustainable and wreckless positions. The only way out of the current mess is to reinstate temporary protection visas, so that asylum seekers can be welcomed to Australia and offered temporary safe haven, then when it is safe to return to their homelands, they can return.

This position is the only principled position in this debate. It allows us to tackle the abuse of the concept of "asylum" by the left, who really mean permanent residence for anyone wanting to make their home in Australia. But it also allows to tackle the unprincipled xenophobia on the right, who have shown themselves willing to demonise vulnerable people in the quest for votes.

Asylum seekers are seeking asylum. They are not, ostensibly, seeking permanent residence. If they are found to be genuinely fleeing persectution, then they should be offered asylum until such time as it is safe to return home, then, they should return. A 2 year temporary protection visa, renewable for a further two years if conditions at home are not yet safe, is needed to restore some sanity into this issue.

Vern Hughes
Centre for Civil Society

Or we remedy the refugee convention to be able to more strongly deport anyone who poses a risk to us- regardless of their own refugee status- and then we impose some character tests to ensure we don't let in anyone who would cause problems.

That would solve all our problems.