rehctub,

Why would you say "my beloved Rudd"?

I've been just as robust in criticising him on this issue as I have Abbott.

You say you quite like him....except that he is a puppet of the party.

That's kinda strange, since he roared back and turned the "party" upside down, knocked all the collective heads together, etc to give them a fighting chance at the election...

I'd say the party is a puppet of him....but a willing one at the moment.

Shadow Minister,

I do note that that media release by the ADA is no longer up on the site.

Notwithstanding, the "first" thing General Hurley did was release this:

http://news.defence.gov.au/2013/07/25/a-statement-from-the-chief-of-the-defence-force-2/

Frankly, if the rate of refugees emanating from that region remains the same as it is at present, I think that both schemes are going to be ineffectual.

I note in the wake of Rudd's announcement, the boats haven't stopped yet.

Doog I welcome your contributions, as can be expected from a Labor owned bloke like me.
But gee hope you like a laugh.
You will note the near verbal snearing about Rudd.
But under a post of yours above a snear-er seems up set, that you dislike Abbott good stuff!
And we are about to see just how close this race is and wait for it!

That removing their leader, just as Labor did, could tilt the scales.
Hopefully after we smack them.

And we are about to see just how close this race is and wait for it!
Belly,
If they had an election in a lunatic asylum would you expect the 5 bureaucrat managers getting voted in by the 3 wardens or would the leader of the 150 lunatics get more votes ?

You want to know how much the PNG solution(?) is going to cost? heaps, and my guess is it won't work anyway.
http://rightnow.org.au/topics/asylum-seekers/the-economic-cost-of-our-asylum-seeker-policy/

To summarize the situation, it is costing Australia about $120,000 per asylum seeker per year, under the current detention arrangements, and the so called PNG solution would be even more expensive.

At this point in time people are prepared to risk their lives to get here, and so it should be obvious that none of the proposed measures, that either the labour, or liberals have come up with is going to stop asylum seekers from trying to reach Australia. If it is indeed the view of the majority that we should put a stop to this mode of travel, then as far as I can see there is only one way this can be achieved, and that is to simply put them straight back on a plane to their point of departure. That would then mean we would have to withdraw our support for the UN refugee convention, which at this point in time we are probably not complying with anyway.

It would be practical to say to Indonesia we will take all the take all the refugees and asylum seekers you currently have in the country (about 10,000) and then no more, after that we will simply fly them back to you. It would also be sensible to bring all those people in our various offshore detention camps to Australia, where after suitable security checks, we would allow residency. In addition it would improve our standing in the world if we also increased Australia's total refugee intake.

Much as I would like to see Australia accept all refugees and asylum seekers I believe it is simply not practical to do so.

....Abbott would have done better to join forces with the govt; rather than come up with something that is hypothetical.

doog, the same could be said about Rudd, whereby he would have done better to leave a working system alone. He just couldn't resist could he, now we are all paying the price, oh, not him though I might add.

Thanks for that warmair, or should I say thanks, but I wish you didn't.

So, hands up who thinks Rudd deserves another shot a this, because after all, he did cause this mess.

At this point in time people are prepared to risk their lives to get here,
warmair,
That does sound dramatic & many actually do pay the ultimate price. They calculate that risk & they take their chances based on the average outcome that is reaching Australia. I guarantee that if the failure rate was as high as it would be if they weren't saved they would not take that risk.
Those who send them are of course not too perturbed as long as the numbers are building up here as this is the main aim.
Ask around & see if Australians would be more willing to take in refugees if they weren't fanatic religious agenda based. You'd be surprised how many wouldn't object.