Poirot, what do you advocate to stop boat deaths, unfettered arrival by air? Think this through to its obvious conclusion and stop feeling guilty on behalf of our country that ranks third in the world after USA and Canada for the number of refugees it resettles per capita.

I would like us simply to be number one, but that isn't that enough for the Greens.

Hi Poirot,

There are some 20 million refugees in the world and another 26 million displaced persons. One camp in Kenya houses 300,000 people in tents on a barren plain.

So, after you've given your hanky to SHY, a couple of questions fo you:

* do you or do you not believe in a policy of unrestricted entry, of anybody who comes, no matter how, no matter what Australia's official annual refugee quota might be ?

YES/NO

and

* since you may ha e some modicum of wits, and can understand that we can't take all 46 million, not all in one go anyway, then what is, to you, an acceptable annual quota ? Will people coming without the usual exit and entry papers by boat be counted in that quota and push others further back down the queue ?

Sorry, THREE questions.

So what is your personal preference - open slather, or some definite annual figure ? And what ? 100,000 per year ? More ? Less ?

If you want to climb into the ring, Poirot, be prepared to take a few swings, and to cop a few back :)

Love,

Joe

Luciferase,

No matter how you spin it:

"This reminds us that the number of refugees and asylum-seekers in Australia remains relatively small by global standards,'' said Richard Towle, the UNHCR Regional Representative for Australia, New Zealand, PNG and the Pacific."

http://www.theguardian.com.au/story/1583210/refugee-figures-a-reality-check-for-australia/

And taking advantage of our poor neighbours to satisfy politically motivated shenanigans isn't going to address the challenges.

Refugees fleeing by boat are driven by the sheer exodus taking place right now. That's what's happening.

Manus will be a disaster....at least by the standards we'd employ for Australians.

Apparently we're happy with the aim of dumping men, women and children in tents in a tropical, malarial environment is fine by us.

We can't take everyone.

But we can stop demonising people (as jihadists, fanatics etc.) and using this to play domestic politics. It must be extremely depressing to flee jihardists and fanatics only to find that you are labelled as one yourself.

Then we might contribute to a rationale, humane program to resolve the problem world-wide.

We provide resettlement with all the entitlement that comes with it, not just hosting a la Pakistan that simply offers waiting room while the UN covers the cost (to which we contribute and should contribute more).

Secondly, 23000 more fleeing their homes every day says the problem is growing way too big for us to impact much upon. Responding by offering residency to more of those who can make their way here is unfair to those that can't and makes little impact on the problem even if we could somehow comfortably assimilate quintuple our intake.

Finally, I ask you again, how will you stop boat drownings without opening our borders to an influx of refugees, genuine and not, that swamps us? You refuse to address this and demonizing PNG won't do as your answer. If you have no solution other than "let it all hang out" just say so and be honest about where you stand.

No one is demonising PNG.

PNG is not the villain here.

PNG is the exploited party.

Manus is a disaster - not a solution.

Get a load of this:

http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/story/about/id/601700/n/Manus-Whistleblower

We're in no danger of being "swamped".....although it's the first thing suggested by those who resent Middle-Easterners seeking asylum here.

Australia setting up a hell hole to dump its asylum seekers is obscene.

Do we still claim superiority as an enlightened culture....because it doesn't appear to be the case judging from the account of our immigration bureaucrats in the above story.

..........

Joe,

If you can't address me without your ridiculous and sarcastic "love Joe" at the conclusion....

Then don't expect to receive a reply.