Butch and susie,
You should blame Labor. They dismantled a process that was working and put in its place a carrot to entice these people to engage smugglers to ship them here.

Now, after billions of our dollars wasted, and some 400, or more, lives are lost, the government suddenly wants to talk about Nauru. Mind you they will not admitt their ideology was wrong and they stuffed up, again.

Still nothing about the illegals being denied Permanent residence and all the perks that go with that, and unless they do Nauru will fail as well, so the illegals problem will continue.

I wonder if we can endure another 2 years of this stupidity. Poor fella, my country.

R0bert wrote: "I don't get the emphasis put on either Nauru or Malaysia by the two major parties."

One is a stalking horse and one is a solution, R0bert.

From an earlier link "...senior Coalition sources said yesterday Mr Abbott should acknowledge Immigration Department advice that opposition policy for processing on Nauru alone would no longer act as a deterrent."

The Immigration Department obviously talks to refugees about their motivations. If their words aren't enough, their desperate fight in many SIEV episodes to be detained under Australian care, anywhere including Nauru, rather than be forced back to sea, by their actions tell the story.

Nauru is clearly a device, not a solution. Using asylum seekers worked a treat for Mr Howard and Mr Abbott reckons it'll work for him too. Thing is, John Howard had more ammo' left in his locker (including incumbancy) while Mr Abbott is all out, so things are really, really desperate. Boats = Votes.

Enough has been written here about the Malaysian swap arrangement to pick up the main points, R0bert. The general idea of a swap doesn't phase Scott Morrison, he just wants to change the swap region. Does that mean it has to be his region or no region?

Let the Coalition, when in power (OMG they are in power, sorry, I meant when in government), forge its own properly thought through and negotiated swap arrangements with other countries. Right now, however, why should nothing more than a geographical nuance within a bizarre thought bubble be an impediment to solving the immediate problem? (Of course, someone here will spout just how marvelous it is being an Afghan in Iran compared to Malaysia).

Firstly however, according to Mr Morrison we must re-implement a hardened up Pacific Solution, including restoring its only working element, the policy to turn boats back. Boat arrivals would stop right there, albeit inhumanely and against UN convention, no swap arrangement necessary.

Therefore, we are back to either the Malaysian or Pacific Solutions. Don't be side-tracked from this essential dichotomy

A difference between Iran and Malaysia

Iran is a party to relevant conventions regarding the status of Refugee's, Malaysia is not
http://www.unhcr.org/protect/PROTECTION/3b73b0d63.pdf

Country Convention Protocol
Iran, Islamic Republic of 28 Jul 1976 a 28 Jul 1976 a

I don't know in reality how much difference it makes to the treatment of refugee's within those countries.

On the face of it sending someone to a country that is a party to the convention's is easier to justify than sending them to a country that's not a party but reality does not always work that way.

Nauru is not on that list (but has now signed) and wasn't as I understand it a signatory when coalition government was sending people there.

R0bert

Dear RObert,

May I humbly suggest that Belly is absolutely right
in getting his "dander" up and it is you guys who
need to actually read the facts.

Had you bothered to read the full article of the link
I gave - you would have realised that Scott Morrison
spoke at the Lowy Institute and outlined the Coalition's
proposal for what they planned to do with asylum seekers.
Sending them back to Iran was definitely part of the plan.
This was also confirmed by Morrison to Ali Moore in his
interview on Lateline (21/06/2011).

It's very disappointing to say the least that you're buying
the spin that Shadow Minister continues to sell. I thought
you were better than that. Obviously I was wrong.

Lexi more to the point your obsessive hatred of the coalition is distorting your perspective very badly.

SM is far more biased than I prefer but that does not mean that he's always wrong. In the post I referred to he made some good points.

I don't much like either sides approach but the whole issue of dealing with refugee's seems like a no win scenario. We don't have the resources to solve the whole problem, showing compassion seems to encourage more to make the trip and I don't want our country to have to stoop to the depths that either Gillard or Abbott seem to want to take it to discourage the boat arrivals without offering better options.

Morrison's comments should be taken in context with the point about taking more from the first points of refuge, something the anti-coalition voices seem to have forgotten to mention. Maybe that does not play so well for the spin.

R0bert

Lexi,

If you had read the transcript of lateline interview:

"The proposal I made last November was not instead of reopening Nauru, it was not instead of reintroducing temporary protection visas. What I was advocating in that speech was effectively a mirroring of the arrangements put in place after the Indo-Chinese crisis in the 80s. I was advocating that the UNHCR should take a lead to put a framework in place in the Central Asian region in which Australia could take Parliament, as could the US, Canada, New Zealand, the UK. So what I was proposing was not an Australian bilateral deal with one country. What I was suggesting is what we want the UNHCR to do is to take a lead in the Central Asian region,"

Which is IF the UNHCR puts something in place that complies with the UNHCR charter Australia would participate, not a Australian only arrangement. Where if it was safe people could be returned to UNHCR administered refuges, and most organised a safe return to their own countries. Which is very different from the Malaysian solution.

This would not a replacement to the Pacific solution, rather