"AN OVERCROWDED boat suspected to be heading to Australia and carrying hundreds of asylum-seekers has sunk off Indonesia's main island of Java.

Reports have put the number of asylum-seekers on the boat at between 250 and 380, but only up to 76 had been rescued, Indonesian emergency chief Sahrul Arifin has been quoted as saying. Earlier reports said 33 had been rescued.

One survivor said the boat had been headed for Christmas Island."

While Labor will point its fingers at the people smugglers, the reality is that more asylum seekers have perished at sea in the last couple of years, than had come to Australia in the last 6 years of the pacific solution.

Will Labor swallow its pride and accept the off shore processing that the coalition has offered?

Dear Shadow Minister,

I read the same article in The Australian - and you
again choose the relevant bits that suits your
political affiliations and agenda - which is to continue
to point the finger at Labor.

According to the article in The Australian newspaper -
Indonesia has more than 18,000 islands and thousands of
kilometres of unpatroled coastline, making it an ideal
transit point for smuggling migrants.

In this recent tragedy -
tropical storms are sweeping the region producing extreme
weather conditions. The boat was overloaded carrying twice
it's capacity making the vessel unstable. That combined with
the tropical storms caused the vessel to sink off Indonesia's
main island of Java.

Most of the passengers were from Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan.

Susan Metcalfe (The Pacific Solution) reminds us:

"While Opposition leader Tony Abbott likes to cry havoc each
time the government twitches - let's not forget that detention
centre riots, self-harm, and tabloid sensationalism were just
as prevalent during the Coalition's last spell in government."

"As boats keep coming and battle lines blur in the fog of
political war, the time is ripe to sort through the past
decade's irrational policymaking and offer a more logical
set of policies, driven by the needs of human beings rather
than politics..."

People smugglers and assylum seekers now know that whether they are to be "processed" (hate that word) on mainland Australia (Green's preference) or Nauru (Noalition's preference) all they have to do is pay the money, hop on a boat and head for Christmas Island, and pray.

The Malaysian "solution" (hate that word too) worked for the brief time it was being proffered. It stopped the boats.

Tony Abbott's NO-machine knew it was working but couldn't be seen to have lost momentum. SM is trying to maintain that momentum - that is all.

Using text out straight out of Abbott's sparse and vacuous handbook of opposition vocabulary - 'NO" (Shadow) Minister.

Deaths on the seas since both Abbott's and Brown's mobs squashed the Malaysian option can be directly laid at their feet.

What would be amusing, if it wasn't so tragic, is that you are the first out of the blocks ... in trying to worm and squirm out of the responsibilty for the most tragic events that your mob has been so complicit in.

Of course, you and all of your fellow travellers will deny this.
Nonetheless, what has happened was predicted by the Australian Government months ago, ever since Abbott and Brown said 'NO'.

Don't take this personally SM but your ravings make me puke.

Dear Lexi, while I don't blame labor for this latest tragedy, nobody can deny the fact that their inability to resolve this issue, that's after scrapping the Howard solution, that did work. Has most certainly lead to the imcrese in numbers.

The numbers are something like, 300 in the last four years of Howard, as opposed to 14,000, that's fourteen thousand in the past four years.

Irronicly, madam pm is now trying her very best to blame Tony Abbott for her I'll concieved Malisian plan. Tony opposes it because of the way they treat their people, but has made the same suggestion since day one.

Buy she has bigger problems looming in the way of one Krudd. He simply won't go away.

The part the amuses me is that there we have these three independents, sitting there knowing full well this government is totally dysfunctional.

They to are a disgrace to both the people and thier respective electorates and they are also fish out of water because of their betrail.

They have cooked their own goose.

Ever heard the saying, enough rope!

If we weren't illegally invading and bombing their countries most of these boat people would be content to stay at home.

Labor is not to blame.
People smugglers, their rickety boats, and asylum seekers themselves are to blame.

They all either saw or heard about the terrible loss of life on the reefs at Christmas Island. They all understand the risk they are taking by travelling to Australia in this way.

The adult asylum seekers are all responsible for their own decisions.
It's the children I feel most upset about.