<< [He was] being equally offensive to all parties by
pointing out the vanity and hypocrisy of
all our leaders, bureaucrats, journalists, and
party hacks on this issue>>

All, you say!

Hmmm...funny, I don't seem to recall where he point-out/ hinted/ implied or anything else that the "asylum seekers" might be shonks/ frauds --I'll have to go back and look for that part.

As with most examples of the genre it seems everyone & everything is fair or unfair game except those poor dears the "asylum seekers".

The subtext being: It's all our fault--we should just grow-up and open up our borders to one an all!

The asylum seeker problem could easily be solved if the boat people had to go through all the bureaucratic nonsense as genuine visitors.

Individual,
The Asylum Seeker problem could most easily be solved by withdrawing from the U.N convention on refugees, the government has to give 12 months notice of their intention to quit and in the meantime they could suspend processing.
The Europeans and the UK already have contingency plans to close borders in the event of a crisis:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2168367/Eurozone-crisis-UKs-borders-closed-refugees-Greece-countries-eurozone-collapses.html

Are we naive enough to believe that "Refugees from Greece" means real Greeks as opposed to the 3 million Pakistanis, Afghans, Turks, Africans and other non Europeans who reside in that country and who would be hardest hit by a financial crisis?

Jay of Melbourne,
Pointless dragging up the UN. If the UN did it's work there wouldn't be anymore refugees after so many years of UN.
The world really doesn't need a whole organisation just to close the gates after the horses have bolted. Beside the huge, immeasurable expense, effort & bad situations being fostered.

On Insiders this morning David Marr emphatically repeated several
times that Indonesia would simply refuse to accept any boats turned back.

I believe this is nonsense as the vessels are Indonesian and the crew
is Indonesian. The nationality of the passengers is irrelevant.

Anyone know if maritime law is different to that ?

If the Opposition is so concerned about asylum
seeker's "humanitarian rights," and that was the
reason they said they did not support the compromise
solution on offer in Parliament. They would only
support a deal where off-shore processing was done
in places that had signed the Refugee Convention.
Then how come Mr Abbott and his colleagues are quite
happy to tow the boats back to Indonesia which is
not a signatory to the Refugee Convention?

All this looks like a bit of a furphy. A political
ploy to win the next election - at any cost.

Also, Indonesia - will not accept the boats being
towed back - they've made that crystal clear.
Again - more furphy. Is Mr Abbott really wanting to
start an international incident with Indonesia.
And instead of having good neighbours - he wants to
create an enemy on our door-step. Good thinking on
the part of the Libs.