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.