I think we should send the refugees to live with Kevin Rudd. He was the clown that removed the Pacific Solution that was working perfectly. Idealists and dreamers often do more harm than good especially when they have no practical understanding of what is happening.

Still waiting Paul1405 for you to put me straight on my supposed simplistic distortion of the 37 point Greens policy.

Stack it up against a Malaysian swap with UN blessing (and therefore the High Court's), which is what Labor would pursue but for Greens intransigence.

SILLER, the "Pacific solution", a euphemism for forcing boats away or removing passengers to an island, won't get up because the High Court won't let it

Luciferase,

I did say your line;
"no offshore processing and no limits on the number coming in just a welcome mat to anybody" was a simplistic distortion of Greens policy.
What you said is a half truth and simplistic. The half truth being "no offshore processing." The implication is this 'one liner' is a total summation of Greens policy on refugees. I said no, we have a complex and detailed 37 point policy, which does not imply a "welcome mat to anybody" I think later you changed your tack to say the 'welcome mat' was the inevitable conclusion of Greens policy.
The sticking point between the Greens and Labor on this issue is offshore processing. The claim the 'majority' support offshore processing is untested. There certainly are significant numbers who support both offshore and onshore processing.
I think Labor's Malaysian solution was hastily put together and ill conceived which was not in Australia's best interest. It did not comply with our humanitarian and legal obligations in regards to asylum seekers.
Abbotts opposition to Labors Malaysian solution was not based on any kind of morality as Abbott cynically made out. The offer of the pacific solution by the conservatives was simply a political ploy.

Not much of a defense there Paul1405.

Greens policy distils to laying out a welcome mat without sending an invitation, but that's the implicit message in the 37 points.

The message is, get here however you can and you will blended into the community on government assistance during the time it takes to process your asylum application based on zero documentation and a story, after which you are given the benefit of the doubt. Should by some misfortune you are denied then you begin the next stage of your stay with appeals then the court applications until granted residency.

There is no dissuasion from this path and there are no limits on the numbers who chose to take it. Yes, that's the UN position, but will the UN relieve Australia from the burden that is already developing due to the Greens policy being our current national de-facto policy?

Not a chance, we have to set our own limits, which is where the Greens position pivots.

We have to set our own limits and the blend (direct arrivals vs intake from worldwide camps). We don't get to set limits under the Greens policy as any mention of it blows their policy out of the water as something is required to be done about boat arrivals.

At the risk of starting another round of party political mantra, does no one have any USEFUL comments to make about the latest tragedy unfolding off Christmas Island today?

I find it incredible that while we bicker amongst ourselves about who has the best policy, nothing is being done to improve the situation.

God help those people, because we certainly haven't.

Scribbler,
The unfortunate part is if they are from the Middle East or
Afghanistan they may not have had any knowledge of the sea and could
not recognise the unseaworthiness of the vessel they were boading.

If they were from Sri Lanka there should have been someone there to
warn about the boat.