Perhaps we could get back to the topic :)

There are more than forty million refugees across the world at the moment. A high proportion of them are fleeing civil wars in African countries, and are desperately destitute.

Perhaps a hundred thousand have put their names down for refuge in Australia. Since we are now taking in around twenty thousand a year, that necessarily means that people on the list may have to wait around five years. i.e. a queue.

Question: if 'boat-people' are to form part of the refugee intake, what happens to all of those poor buggers who have done the right thing, put their names forward, and waited ? There is a refugee camp in Kenya where 300,000 people are waiting.

The refugees on the boats may well be genuine refugees, but they are refugees who can afford - or their relatives can, between them, afford - to pay smugglers thousands to get on those boats. Can any of those 300,000 in that one camp in Kenya afford to do so ? Aren't they at least as deserving ? But we will never see them on the boats.

I'm not begrudging the desperate people who do scrape together all of their - and their relatives' - savings to get on a boat to Australia, but before we do a Sarah H-Y, and weep at the sight of the first refugee we see, let's not forget those poor fellow-human beings who are trapped in vast, ghastly, desert camps, with literally not even a pot to cook food in, people who have put their names down and are waiting their turn.

It's a b@stard of a world, but destitute and desperate people who have done the right thing should be attended to first, or at least, certainly shouldn't be shuffled to the back of the queue just because others jump in front of them.

Sonofgloin, obviously some commenters haven't picked up on the fact you were putting forward the facts with an attempt at humour. However, it can't be disputed that it is our money from our pockets the government uses to shower benevolence in all directions here and abroad, with obviously no regard for the consequences of the huge costs for us, as they use our money to do this. The State has NO money except what they glean from us through borrowing our savings or increased taxation - much of it in various hidden taxes. The overall picture of our finances and the profligate waste and mismanagement should have every person in this country scared - very scared! Tomorrow will come, and how will just the annual 7 billion interest on our present borrowing be funded? Simple and only answer has to be more taxes and cuts to essential services which we previously had, and it is our money which will be used to do it, because ours is the only money they have to play with. I stress - the State has no money except ours!
The Reserve Bank has lowered it's rates to 'emergency levels', and Wayne Swan had the effrontery to go on television and call lower interest rates a Xmas gift to families, while completely ignoring the reasons why the Reserve have lowered their rates to such drastic levels.
Voters who cannot see this true picture must be extremely naiive.
It would be a brave person who could argue that a $4 billion surplus inherited from the previous government and turned into a more than $140 billion deficit in just 4 years by this present government is a good thing for this country!

worldwatcher>> voters who cannot see this true picture must be extremely naiive<<

I just returned from a business trip to far western NSW. On Wednesday night I was sitting in the town’s only pub, and only traveler accommodation, when the nightly news had an item about the economic refugees and the cost to our taxpayers. The half a dozen blokes in the bar overwhelmingly voiced their disgust at the situation that brought about this illegal flow with words and sentiments not fit to print in this forum.

I added some factual costs to the argument that further shocked all the boys and generated more unprintable comments regarding the situation. I then commented that the change of government next year would start the slow crawl back to a logical solution with permanent protection visas and the curtailing of these illegal’s to access our court system free of charge.

Immediately the focus shifted from the illegal’s to Tony Abbott. “Can’t stand Abbott,” was the sentiment that a few of the boys expressed and no amount of logic could move them, they were voting for Gillard no matter how big a hole she was digging our nation into. I attempted to explain that I have a footy team that I follow, right or wrong, winning or losing, because I am a faithful supporter, but when it came to politics I vote on performance, and change teams based on that. They could not see it. They employed the same logic I apply to my footy team; they will stick with Labor because they always have. I gave up and then considered how on the face of it rational hard working Aussies could vote for such a dud bunch of self serving lying clowns.

Simpletons walk among us and their ranks are growing. Perhaps it has something to do with a generation of dills. This week’s release of global literacy results for primary students may have something to do with it. Australian kids are ranked LAST in literacy among all the English speaking nations of the globe. We tied with nations like Bulgaria.

Loudmouth, to rub salt in, they have already passed through two or more
countries of safety. It is that which converts them from refugees
into economic illegal migrants; if they were ever refugees.

Worldwatcher, well actually it is not our money, it is either the
proceeds of the sale of Aus Govt bonds or money borrowed from such as China.
Now the govt has signed up to pay "poor" countries for so called
damage from global warming. China is one of the countries to be paid !

So we borrow from one "poor" country to pay that "poor" country for the
damage that that "poor" country has caused more than anyone else !

I wonder what Alice would have made of it all.

Bazz,
As well as borrowing from China, government bonds are funded by us, the people. It is our money which enables the State to issue bonds. The State does not have any other source of money it can call on, and the State does not have any money unless it borrows it. As for Alice Bazz, we've joined her character in our own looking glass, and are just as befuddled that we [mostly] sane people have some real doozies running the show for us, and making crazy decisions that leave intelligent people wondering how long this nightmare is going to last, and what more damage they can do to our wonderful country and people.
Yes, there is suffering all around the world - always has been, but we have had our share of suffering here too. Our first priority should be those people who built this country through sheer hard work and who coped with adversities without government help. Mateship meant people who helped their peers through hard times, which is why - with such a widespread comparitively small population- we were admired for our attitude.
How can our just over 20 million people in this 90% desert country cope with over $140 billion debt, and take in even more people who don't have our values and work ethics, or even speak our language? What other country would allow this to happen?
Here's an interesting fact. Obama presides over 300 million people, yet he receives an annual salary which is less that our P.M.'s. Which leaves me to posit that he is either grossly underpaid, or our P.M. is grossly overpaid, especially as she is such a poor manager, and would not have lasted 5 minutes in the private sector for such poor performance. Of course, also in the private sector, the CEO's are promoted on past performances, not because they stabbed their boss in the back. Anyway,the true power in this country now is held by a couple of Greens who have a much smaller agenda they work towards.

Sonofgloin,
You don't surprise me. How people who can ignore logic that stares them in the face is beyond my comprehension. Maybe you're right, Aussie intelligence appears to have slipped considerably. Spin is winning out over commonsense. A vote should be based on performance [or lack of it] of governments. So the people with whom you spoke didn't like Tony Abbott. What a lame excuse for ignoring the fact that they should vote for which is the best party, and has the best record for fiscal management, and the only party which has delivered surpluses is Liberal.
Politics is not football where one team has always been your favorite, so you stick with it because you always have although maybe they're a poor performing team. A game only briefly touches their lives once a week. Poor politics affect the whole of our lives, which is happening to all of us right now. How does one educate such people
to understand this I wonder? Maybe to draw the analogy that whilst they may not like one football particular team member, it is the whole team they still choose to support. Wish I'd been there with you.