I have serious doubts that this plan will stop the boats from coming.

Thanks to Rudd and Gillard, the illegals now think we are so stupid and a soft touch that they will not believe they will be in detention for long and thenwill get permanent residence.

It will now take tougher measures than Howard's to deter the illegals.

Better to implement sufficient deterants right from the start.

I do not think it will stop them, we need to reintroduce TPV and stop the FREE everything even the free lawyers to contest any adverse decisions.
Also much more strict procedures to prove who they actually are, that includes people actually going to the country and specific location to check that person lived there and was of good character. We really do not do enough to check there claims.
Also why are 95% on most of these boats men when other trouble areas the majority of refugees are women and children?

It has been reported that as many as 85% of them are on welfare our welfare, provided for our people.

Is it little wonder they come in droves, a free lunch all round.

What a joke this government is, they should never be forgiven for this mess THEY created.

Banjo I just watched an interview with Scott Morrison (Shadow Minister for immigration) on the 7.30 Report and I agree with him totally – The concessions made by the Labor government are not going to cut it. They need to adopt the full policy platform of the Libs, including TPVs.

While Labor has amazingly shifted ground, they are still only going a small distance, Morrison says about a third of the way, to where they should be going if they really wanted to decisively stop the boats.

Dunno Banjo, it seems that spending an undetermined amount of time on a desolate island did the trick before. These people are economic refugees for the most part. They had not been sitting in a wretched UN camp for years before their illegal migration, these people were sitting at home, well fed, clothed and warm.

They obviously were not prepared to endure the relative hardship previously if the outcome was up in the air, they just went in another direction, they have the funds, a passport and a choice of host nations.

But if no honest adjudication of their bona fides is carried out and they are just in a holding pattern then they will probably keep coming, so nothing except a cynical political platitude is being paid to the citizens of this nation who just want to know the true identity and background of those entering our country.

Geoffrey Blainey once wrote that those with pro-open borders views tended to see Australia as "simply a vast piece of good fortune that should increasingly be shared with the world."

He was right. Our pro-immigration ruling class really seem to have the attitude that Australia is not a real country with its own legitimate national interests but, merely, a human dumping ground for the excess populations of failed, Third World countries. They believe that Australia should be accepting an ever-increasing number of immigrants and refugees, regardless of the substantial economic and social costs to our country. This is certainly the view of Gillard’s "expert" panel which has just recommended that we increase our refugee intake to 20,000 - by far the highest per capita intake in the world.

There was a time when immigration was touted as a benefit for Australia and Australians. Now it appears the unspoken belief of the elite is that this country is too rich and too successful, and we therefore must welcome the poorest, most unproductive, most culturally inappropriate foreigners possible as part of our penance for economic and societal success.

Turning the boats back will be the biggest deterrent.
When they turn up back at the hotel, guest house, where they were
staying before boarding the boat and tell their story to everyone there
that will go around the illegals very quickly.

I still believe that Indonesia is required to accept them back.
They were passengers on an Indonesia vessel, crewed by Indonesians,
and in Indonesian waters. Dump them on the wharf, or if towing cut them
loose at the harbour entrance.

The Houston Report recommends increasing our refugee intake to 20 000 and then to 27 000 within five years.

I wouldn’t have a problem with this, if it went with the provisos of:

A complete stop to onshore asylum seeking and fly-in asylum seeking and visa-overstaying

and

A stepped down immigration intake to reach net zero within five years.

We would then have an immigration program in which the biggest category would be refugees.

Australia CAN be a very humanitarian country, have hard-headed policies that protect our borders and uphold our laws, and achieve a stable-population-based sustainable society all at the same time.

THIS is exactly what we should be aiming for.

“We recommend a policy approach that is hard-headed, but not hard-hearted, that is realistic not idealistic, that is driven by a sense of humanity as well as fairness," Houston said.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2012/08/20128135818383819.html

Naru will open the door to Malaysia.

I still think the measures are not strong enough. The illegals are shonks that take advantage of our generousity.

Why not implement No docs-no processing, No family reunion ever, No appeals, No legal aid, No free smokes, No phones and no PCs. Word would soon get round that getting here is not worth it. The boats would stop quick.

We lock them up because they have broken our laws.i.e. entered Aus illegally. why make it a holiday camp? Must be a non-tropical island around Aus, why not Macquarie island?

Ludwig, I agree with you about refugees and immigration numbers. Any increase in refugees must mean a reduction in other immigration, back to net zero. Our decendants will not thank us for increasing human conjestion, more traffic, longer queues, higher house prices and less jobs. Which is what higher population means

Business only promotes high immigration because it means higher sales for them, They care not for what benefits Aus.

After 4 years and more than 1000 dead boat people due to Labor's arrogance, at least Labor is finally implementing most of the Pacific solution.

It's a pity so many people had to die before Labor could backflip.

Very simply, as long as conflict continues in the
Middle East and the Asian region, people will continue
to be displaced and will seek asylum at the nearest
safe heaven which for many happens to be
Australia. No matter what supposed "deterents" politicians
will impose the problem will not diminish until there is
a lull in conflict globally - which did occur during the
Howard era.

No matter what future governments will come up with -
the problems will continue as long as the given circumstances
exist. We don't have to look at our immediate period we can
go back to biblical times when conflicts displaced masses of
people seeking refugee.

The current government is merely trying to work within the
political restraints created by the current political system.

If the boats keep coming after refugees are sent to Nauru and New Guinea we need to take it further until the boats stop:

1) Stop all rescues in Indonesian or international waters. Rushing to a sinking boat outside Australian waters is stupid and boat people are already capitalising on this ridiculous policy.

2) When boat people deliberately sabotage boats they are listed as undesirable aliens and returned to their country of birth.

3) Getting a child into Australia should not entitle family members to enter Australia under a family reunion arrangement. The child must forfeit residence and be returned to the country of his birth when application is made for his family to join him.

Lexi - A lot are seeking a better country to support them the refugees from Syria going to Jordon are mostly women and children yet most of the boats we get are filled with 95% men. Even the African refugees from conflict are women and children or whole families, yet again we get 95% men to me this proves something is wrong and we are a country Governed by morons who can't see this or do not want to.

Only Tony can stop the boats.

STOP THE BOATS!

I love Mr Rabbit.

SILLER - You are right about the rescues our navy goes nearly 370Km into Indonesian zone to get them when they are only 48Km from Indonesian land The Indonesian could not find them.
1) the Indonesian Navy was estimated at 74,000 personal in 2008 and more than 150 ships. THEY would have a lot more by now.
2) In 2011 Australia had 14,215 permanent personnel, 2,150 Active Reserve personnel and 54 commissioned vessels (a number are rather defective)
3) Indonesia had a surplus of $ 5,704,000,000 in 2011
4) Australia is BILLIONS in debt yet we give them more etc.

It must be really humiliating for Juliar, who personally put together the failed Labor on shore processing policy. At least Labor has done the right thing for the country and admitted its failure, and that the Pacific solution worked.

The next good thing it could do for the country would be to admit that the carbon tax and IR policies are hurting Australia, and ditch the carbon tax and stop punishing small business employers.

Dear Phillip,

Historically men are prepared to take the risks to find
a suitable "haven" to establish themselves and bring
their families later on to join them. This happened
post World War I and II, and other recent conflicts.

That is why the current report recommended by the expert
panel deleted family re-unions from the agenda to discourage
men making the trip.

Lexi - this may be so in the past but present conflict zones the greater proportion of refugees are women and children or whole families, BUT with these Iranian, Afghans and other resent arrivals this is not the case 95% men on most of the boats.
The Government rejected the TPV it may have helped. If the new law is to come in in 1 months time I foresee LOTS of boats arriving via the Australian navy taxi service.
Misc - The refugees call the navy when there is no problem how many will be charged by the police NOT ONE.
But "Tasmanian man who made hoax mayday calls has been ordered to pay the Australian Maritime Safety Authority $30,000 for sparking a major air and sea search and to do 140 hours of community service and set a good behavior period of 18 months..

If you take away the carrot, accommodation, money, vouchers, meals ect, you will deter them from coming.

Give them somewhere to live, very basic, very basic food, water, but defnately no money. None what so ever.

In Africa the UN give them a tent and some food and water end of story. That will stop them.

Many immigrants worked for a couple of years on the Snowy project, before moving into civilisation, & they had come by invitation.

I can see no reason why these gate crashers should not be required to do a couple of years useful work, before being given access to our towns. There is much northern national park disappearing under rubber vine, & prickly acacia. A couple of years in work camps, [like the snowy], clearing this stuff by hand would be a suitable contribution to the society they wish to have foster them.

The fact that this is hard hot work would be a good filter, to find those worth having. Bludgers would be unlikely to come once the entry qualifying period became common knowledge.

Agreed Hasbeen. Some sort of work-for-the-benefits that they receive once having been found to be refugees should be in order.

Misc note - It was said that 90% of the refugees are found to be genuine. BUT Cap't emad was classed as a genuine refugee Now that was a laugh. So it shows the process to classify them as genuine is flawed meaning that 90% genuine could mean some of the 90% fooled the bureaucrats or they were to lazy to do there jobs properly or even the politicians told them what to do.

Good point Hasbeen

BUT

NOW we have DISCRIMINATION laws and EQUAL rights commissions which would make it all ILLEGAL

Phillip S, I have also been told that our officials are not permitted to perform a bone marrow density test, which could accurately determine their ages.

So, given so many arrive without proof of age, they are either at least 40, or minors.

Yet another rediculus law that allows many to slide under the radar.

But the best deterrent in my view is still to remove what they come here for In the first place.

We must be the weakest country around when it comes to being forceful, unless of cause you are an Australian resident, as the rules for our own are in fact much stricter than those for boat arrivals.

Remember, not one of them is homeless, yet we have tens of thousands of our own who are.

I am sure they (our homeless) would feel a lot better if the knew there was a hostel waiting for them each night, with a warm bed, food and spending money.

It just makes you wonder how we will fare should we (god help us) ever be forcefully invaded, given that we will first have to consider the well being of this who are the aggressors.

I think the first step towards solving this problem is getting rid of this government, as not only have they caused this monumental mess, but they are also incapable of solving it, especially with the greens breathing down thier necks.

If I were either homeless, or living under the poverty line, I would be filthy about now, given the money this government throws at this and many other useless situations.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/gillard-deserves-credit-for-putting-the-saving-of-lives-ahead-of-politics-20120814-246uc.html

Just have a look at the above article, this is pure spin.

Gillard was the cause of the illegals problem, and this SMH commentater now praises her for 'problem solving'

After 5 years of doing nothing and nearly 1000 deaths this bloke praises the PM. If I had not read it I would not believe it.

Thanfully, Tim Blair put it all in proper perspective.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/gillard-deserves-credit-for-putting-the-saving-of-lives-ahead-of-politics-20120814-246uc.html

Juliar deserves some credit for putting peoples lives ahead of politics, the same way a recovering alcoholic deserves encouragement for not drinking.

Maybe over time Juliar and Labor will have recovered sufficiently to admit that the decision in 2008 was a stuff up, Thomson and Slipper are crooks, and that the Carbon tax is an expensive waste of time.

Now we are giving asylum to pirates !
I don't think that it has been realised by the numskulls running the
government that the normal penalty for piracy until recent times was
hanging. It is a very serious crime, only murder of the worse sort and
genocide are treated more severely.

The navy should have boarded the ship and if there was resistance shot
them immediately. Thats what happens off the Horn of Africa.

As far as considering them to be poor refugees fleeing oppression,
what a lot of rubbish. They are criminals and should receive at least
a 20 year hard labour (no pun intended) sentence.

KarlX>>NOW we have DISCRIMINATION laws and EQUAL rights commissions which would make it all ILLEGAL<<

Karl I keep bleating on about our loss of sovereignty to determine what is best for our nation. It is all due to UN protocols originating from Europe that BOTH sides of the fence sign off on without consulting the plebs.

The supposed Labor "backflip" is no cave-in but the honouring of a promise to implement whatever the Huston recommended to break the impasse whether agreeable ot Labor or not. Claims caved-in to "offshore processing" are stupid when for the last couple of years that's what it sought through the Malaysian swap. Also, the Huston report has a bob each way on the use of force. See Recommendation 19 at http://expertpanelonasylumseekers.dpmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/report/expert_panel_on_asylum_seekers_summary_of_recommendations.pdf. Whether the pre-conditions for the use of force can ever be met is a moot point and it is no barrier anyway when we see how maritime law is easily used to outflank and compromise our navy. Furthermore, simply guiding the boats in then transferring occupants offshore is more sensible and humane than forceful interdiction at sea.

Nauru and Manus (or Malaysia) themselves will do little until the point is enforced that a stay at these places will last as long as a stay in any other refugee camp around the world while awaiting resettlement. This is the next big fight as Sarah H-Y is now demonstrating in all her myopic glory. Can't wait for the Greens to be smashed by the electorate for sheer dumbness.

TPVs encourage family groups to make the journey. Allowing family reunion only through the same channels as regular immigrants, as Huston recommends, is the right step.

Good to see SM still on mantra. Bleat on.

LF,

"The supposed Labor "backflip" is no cave-in"

I believe that you believe it. I just can't find anyone personally or in the news that agrees with you.

The latest "Essential report" survey shows clearly that the voters overwhelmingly favour the coalition's policies in this area.

Ultimately a line will have to be drawn in the sand.
Let the Indonesions answer any sos calls. If the boat is seaworthy then
they can be prosecuted by Indonesia for false emergcy call. Here it is
something like 20 years. In Indonesia it might well be execution.

In any case when they arrive at Christmas Island refuse them a landing
and tell them, we are full up, go away.
That will stop the boats very quickly.

What is going to happen if it is full now ? Do they sleep on the beach ?

Banjo: "Gillard was the cause of the illegals problem, and this SMH commentater now praises her for 'problem solving'."

Probably one of the main reasons why Fairfax is failing - its Latte Left columnists and editors are completely out of step with reality. The Australian public have tuned out.