SM,

Your numbers don't include boats that were towed back under the Pacific Solution, or those boats that were lost at sea. Such figures are hard to come by, conveniently for the former Government. So to say there was a 97% decrease in boat arrivals is devious, the majority of boats that attempted the journey are not included in your figures.

I am accepting that the Pacific Solution acted as a deterrent and was effective in reducing boat arrivals to some degree. However, 'push' factors saw the sudden increase in boat arrivals from 1998 (an increase greater than the global trend), and the same factors decreased in 2002, with again the change of boat arrivals in Australia being greater than the global trend.

Considering boats were just turned back and the number of boats that were turned back is unknown, the effectiveneess of the Pacific Solution is clearly being overstated.

SM,

May I suggest that You walk in front of a full
length mirror. Stand there and talk to it.
You will find what you are seeking.
Someone who agrees with you entirely.

cont'd ...

BTW - Here's another source for you.
I wonder what you'll find wrong with
this one:

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/42486.html

As long as we have a namby pamby approach to illegal immigration we are going to grow the problem.

Our "processing" was/is never going to determine who is "genuine".
It amounts to little better than whomever has learnt their lines best gets rubber stamped "found to be genuine"

But now, even this feeblest of tests no longer applies.

"More than 40 per cent of asylum seekers who arrived by boat in the past year were Iranians and, of the ones assessed, about two-thirds have had their application for refugee status rejected"

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/more-than-a-thousand-iranians-risk-languishing-for-years-in-detention/story-e6freuy9-1226180501361

But,and here's the rub! Even these will get to stay because we are told their former country wont allow them back: "They're yours OZ", a gift from the Islamic Republic of Iran (and possibly the grand council of of Ayatollahs)

We are told that *our representatives* are still diligently working behind the scenes to move them off shore. But what is the betting that when it is opportune ( opportune being when media attention is elsewhere). All of these *failed* asylum seekers will also be released into the community.

And it can only give one message to the millions of opportunists looking or a bargain: "COME ON DOWN, HAVE WE GOT A DEAL FOR YOU!

Lexi,

I don't have to look in the mirror, about 80% of the people in Australia agree with me on border protection.

I see you quoted another refugee advocate. For Sue to admit that the pacfic solution worked is to admit that everything she has been advocating for a decade was rubbish.

While the sinking of the SievX and other factors may have contributed initially to the precipitous drop in boat arrivals, they certainly would not have kept them low for so long. The other nail in the coffin of the (pacific solution didn't work) argument, is that once the pacific solution was dismantled, the numbers quickly ramped up to pre solution figures.

I also gather from this argument that both of you are then in favour of sending women and children to a country where they receive no assistance and no legal guarantee of safety or humane treatment?

SM,

Keep talking to the mirror.