Irrelevant Piorot, we have to cut back on food production, Julia says so.

Bazz,re "Why can't they fix their own problems, everyone else does."

Do they? Do they all fix their own problems, if so, why does a large part of our population have to blame the government for their own short comings? So many people do so many stupid things, and then use the (what I call the "stupidity catch cry"), turn round and cry that the Gov. do something about it.
Sorry my friend, people do not fix their own problems. Are you wearing rose coloured glasses or what?
NSB

Not at all. We are not more smart than anybody else.
We fixed our political and economic problems up till now.
Nothing is perfect but it is tolerable.
We only argue in places like this and we don't go around shooting each other.

Is there something odd about other peoples that they cannot sort out
their problems ? Do we have to do it for them ?

R0bert,

"I suspect that the bulk of rural Australian's would be somewhat appalled at the idea that they might need to start fortifying their homes, vehicles etc"

Almost anyone would - but do they need to?

If an Australian person was living rough in the outback and stole a chicken, they would at most get a fine or a community-service order; or if it was a tourist they may be deported, but if a human-animal was stealing a chicken, then himself and his whole tribe would be shot dead without trial (isn't that what you do with foxes?).

I thought that for human-animals this was a powerful deterrent from even dreaming of stealing a chicken, yet you do not consider it strong enough. You also seem to expect the worst-case-scenario from immigrants, but not from Australians or tourists. As most Australians, you would likely be generous towards poor Australians and happy to share with them old clothes and food that you don't need. In fact even with stray dogs and cats - but not with those human-animals. Why?

Safety is relative - the only absolute safety is in the grave, so I seriously ask you, what further guarantees would you need, once human-animals are allowed into the continent of Australia, in order to feel the same level of safety as you now get with the current mix of Australian (including migrants) and tourist population?

Contracts are only contracts if they were entered into freely. There are people, believe it or not, who are not after your wealth, resources or favours, who despite all nationalistic and/or humanistic/socialist propaganda, have never entered into a so-called "social contract", neither in their country of origin nor in Australia (some of them were actually born in Australia) - and most of those are honest and innocent, victims of persecution by regimes which cover the whole earth leaving no spot free on this planet (in fact not even on the moon).

There must be a way, some way, for innocent people to live and die freely on the face of the earth.

All of this talk about the boat people needing to be turned around and sent back is very odd. By law, if people (no matter how they arrive on our shores)are seeking asylum, we have no choice but to process them, only then, can we expel those who do not meet the criteria of asylum seekers. Once the boats are in our territory we are obliged to process them. We don't own this Country, we have the privilege of living here,other cultures have been welcome and still are, why not the asylum seekers fleeing a land in which it is not safe to live anymore? Do we still live by the "I am alright Jack....to hell with anyone else" attitude?,very un-australian I reckon.
NSB

NSB,
Unfortunately we are talking about people, not cattle. If they were cattle I would have far more confidence in their honesty and integrity than I do of these people. Cattle are honest about their intentions.

These illegal boat people know it is illegal to enter Aus without a valid visa and they are prepared to pay far more than the air fare to enter via the back door. They have the money to come here legally but choose not to, they are coached in what lies to tell our authorities and destroy any identifacation papers so it is almost impossible for us to deport them.

These are the reasons most Aussies have little sympathy for the illegals and would far perfer to take in bona fide refugees from other places.

Haven't you noticed that nobody likes to be conned and gate crashed.

You do know that if they came in legally and applied for asylum they would be let into the community while their claims processed.