Bob Carr in Indonesia has 'discovered' the obvious. Apologies are due due to all who were brave and told the truth for years, only to be trashed as 'racists' by government ministers. What about those carefully crafted but obviously misleading stories by the publicly funded national broadcasters. Will the publicly funded broadcasters ever be held to account for their own political spin?

<The Rudd government is about to rewrite Australia's refugee assessment process, making it more "hard-edged", says Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr, who believes the majority of people arriving by boat now are "economic migrants", not genuine refugees.

Speaking in Indonesia, where he is laying the groundwork for Kevin Rudd's first overseas trip since returning to the prime ministership, Senator Carr said the upshot would be significantly less discretion for courts and tribunals to rule that asylum seekers were genuine refugees.

Up to 90 per cent of people who arrive by boat are considered genuine refugees, but Senator Carr said his "impression" was that now, as arrivals spiked, most were economic migrants.

"They're people seeking an improvement in their economic circumstances, and therefore they've got to get into the regular migration stream," he said.
..

"There have been boats where 100 per cent of them have been people who are fleeing countries where they're the majority ethnic and religious group," he said.

"I think it's unarguable that if someone is leaving a country and they are part of the majority religious and ethnic group, then they're not being persecuted in the way that the Refugee Convention describes."

..
The United Nations' Refugee Convention describes persecution on the grounds of "race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion".

But Senator Carr said "no one on these boats in recent times has made the faintest reference to" political opinion or memberships of social group>

p://www.canberratimes.com.au/opinion/political-news/tougher-test-for-boat-people-vows-carr-in-jakarta-20130628-2p2xo.html#ixzz2XY8Br7pE

Onthebeach, I think bob Carr is spot on.

If Rudd is going to toughen the acceptance criteria, then good move. (Wow, it is hard to imagine Rudd actually doing something right!!)

Let’s not forget that it was he who opened up this enormous can of worms, and that everything he might do to stop the boats is directed towards unwinding the single worst political decision in the history of this country!

He really doesn’t deserve to be PM, let alone on the outside of a prison cell, for that piece of work! I mean, it was bleedingly obvious what a weakening of border-protection would lead to.

I started a general thread on this subject the day after the news of Rudd’s absurd dilution of Howard's border-protection policy broke, five years ago: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=2019#41740

Luddy old boy, you'll have the lexi, marilyn shepherd, paul 1405, etc ec ganging up on you, after all they've vehemently disputed what we have been saying for so long. They can't possibly agree with us now ?
Or is it perhaps different when an ALP mutt had a moment of sense.

The first thing he has to do is take away the visa of all the ECONOMIC INVADERS that the INCOMPETENT Government said were real refugees. 90% were found to be real refugees, that has to be the joke of the year.

One died the other day but when you read his story he went to the UK but was deported back to Afghanistan in 2009, apparently because his grounds for protection were deemed to be insufficient. Then he fled to Australia and arrived on Christmas Island in 2010, saying he had been beaten by the Taliban.

$10 says the refugee advocates told him to say that part about the Taliban.

It also has to be noted Carr must have known everything for years but has only woken up now and is trying to fix the mess they caused. Funny how he said nothing when Juliar was PM.

I have been saying for years Indonesia and Malaysia are the problem they let them in knowing full well they are not going to go back home.

Maybe now they will fix the visa loophole.

But Senator Carr said "no one on these boats in recent times has made the faintest reference to" political opinion or memberships of social group TROUBLE is now they will start to say it.

individual - You beat me to the comment re the local refugee advocates lexi and company. BUT they will still come here and spew out the bull about the lovely refugees.

Let the paranoia continue ....

PJack - Quote "Let the paranoia continue ...."

WHAT would you call an estimated 30,000 per year economic invaders on welfare, taking homes that could be used by the hundred thousand homeless Australians? committing crimes at a rate higher than the local average (contrary to what the Government said).

Please enlighten everyone with your wisdom.