Dear Joe (Loudmouth),

So glad to see that you avoid sarcasm and don't
insist on the last word. ;-)

Dear Lexi,

So that would be around about your tipping point, an annual intake of 100,000 'regular' refugees, who have done all the right things, ticking all the right boxes, waiting their turn year after year, and another 30,000 people paying to come 'irregularly', mainly by boat ? A total of 130,000 per year ?

Or do you think that figure is too low ? It should be 150,000 ? 200,000 ? 300,000 ? Stop me when you like. 400,000 ? 500,000 ? Per year ?

There's tens of millions in those camps, Lexi :)

Choice - it's a real b@stard, isn't it ?

Love,

Joe

Dear Joe (Loudmouth),

I don't deal in numbers.
I prefer people.
And I believe that to compensate for the
arrangement with PNG, the Prime Minister
has increased the intake by 7 to 8 thousand
per year

Dearest Lexi,

But over a year, or five years, or ten years, people ARE numbers - as well as being living, breathing, hurting people.

So what would be your maximum acceptable number each year ? 200,000 ? A half a million a year ? A million ?

There are forty-odd million refugees out there, Lexi.

Two million a year ? Three million ? Stop me when you think I'm being silly.

Four million ? Five million ?

Love,

Joe

[Now that we are talking numbers, those seven or eight thousand would be of refugees who have done all the right things, ticked all the right boxes, is that right ?]

Lexi,

The refugee numbers were increased by Juliar not Rudd.

This cartoon nails it.

http://resources3.news.com.au/images/2013/07/19/1226682/163743-130720-bill-leak-gallery.jpg

Dear Joe (Loudmouth),

A nation of 22 million people can produce only a
certain amount of revenue and employment, also
infrastructure, housing, food, et cetera
has to be created. This will determine the number
of people that can be added to the national growth.

Experts in the past have estimated that Australia
with its water shortages, food production and
sustainability, can reach a maximum of 20 million
people. Already we have reached 22 million.
So what the future holds - will be determined by
wiser experts than myself.

SM,

Blaming is easy - and as we know anybody can do it.
Let's instead look towards finding solutions that work
in solving problems not just rhetoric that sound good.
The PM has taken a step in the right direction.