Labour stuffs up big time, the Liberals cop the blame while the true enemies of rational thinking the Greens go untouched by the left loving media. They are a disgrace as they place their ideology above human life.

Yes, very divided indeed.

Processing off shore is the solution.......and I'll tell you why.

Australia needs to watch its borders very closely, and remember, pathogens from these people can spread like wild fire, and your children will become the one,s that will be the casualties for our kindly softened approaches that will become our curse and down fall.

There are cells right here in the comfort zones with us all, and if one needs a revision on the Global status, its just not as safe as it used to be or once upon a time as it used to be.

See! the problem is,(just like the English speaking Germans) our guard whether its a pathogen or not, this is a risk to this wonderful diversity no matter how one looks at. We do live on the biggest island of isolated from "all" in-coming threats that in all definitions...."we are in the southern hemisphere all alone" and we are:)

I for one say, don't contaminate the only home we have, "process them off shore"....before something gets in we don't like.

CACTU

Runner!...are you up\set again at us environmentalists:)?....shame on you:)....we just want a smaller world to save us all.

We have given all religions a fair go.....mate..our numbers are at 7 billion sonny Jim:) and we are not against the killings of humans like you go on about, and I find that very offensive that you look at me/us in that context.

We just want to make the best commonsense idea's thats best for all.

I bet you love unclear reactor's as well.......look went your comings come....I'll all ears:)

Have a Merry Xmas all.

CACTUS

Woooops:) spelling typo...

Can you find it:)

CACTUS:)

<< Ludwig, how, exactly, are you going to close the borders to the largest Island on earth? Even when we had off-shore processing, some boats still came.>>

Suse, we can have pretty tight borders pretty easily, as Howard has proven. A very small number of arrivals, as we saw in the latter Howard years is not a concern. Our borders don’t have to be water-tight.

<< If asylum seekers are desperate enough, they are not going to care what sort of 'policy' we have. >>

It would appear that we are not so much dealing with desperate asylum seekers as with economic opportunists. By and large, the people arriving here are not the sort of desperate people that would have come anyway regardless of our border protection policies. It is pretty clear that they would not have come with the border protection regime that was in place before Rudd STUFFED it up.

<< Asking for asylum in another country is not a crime, therefore we should not be treating them as criminals and sending them to our third world neighbours for 'dealing with'. >>

It is the perception of some refugee advocates that if asylum seekers are not welcomed with open arms and accommodated in open society straight away that they are being treated as criminals. This is just silly.

We’ve got to make sure of two things – that applicants are genuine and that we implement a strong deterrence factor to make sure that the number of arrivals doesn’t get out of hand. The processing of applications while the applicants are in detention centres is thus perfectly fair and reasonable.

<< We need to stop the boats in order to save lives, but we have no right to refuse asylum to other people, no matter how they get here. >>

This is confusing Suse. We need to stop the boats, but we need to accommodate refugees, and very openly, with no offshore processing and indeed no detention at all? Is that what you are saying?

continued

You are neglecting to consider a few important points;

The scale of onshore asylum seeking, now and into the future. It could become enormous if we continue to be seen as a soft touch.

The cost to the taxpayer and all the other needy things that this enormous amount of money could be spent on.

The level of discontent in Australian society and the social and political ramifications.

The displacement of more needy refugees that would have been brought here through our formal immigration program.

The sovereign right for a people and their government to decide who will come to this country and to expect their borders to be tight.

If the whole business escalates, you can bet that a much tougher stance will be taken pretty soon, with many more people being caught in the middle.

Meanwhile, humanitarian people like you Suse should be lobbying for an increase in our offshore refugee intake and international aid expenditure on refugee issues. THIS is where we should be directing our efforts… while shutting down onshore asylum seeking.