Tasmania will have to thank Abbott for inventing a whole new industry which will provide thousands of jobs.
With his "buy up the boats" plan, Tasmania the home of timber boat building and quality trees, can now swing into action and turn out Indonesian style boats for export to Indonesia when their supply runs out. This could be an open ended industry with demand increasing as the world situation worsens.
Sri Lanka, Viet Nam, and all of the Pacific island nations would be customers for Tasmanian boats if Abbott extends the scheme to them.
The UTAS could take over the wooden boat building school and teach Australians instead of importing foreign students.

I would be up for a Tassie built timber fishing boat.
If I could place an order and collect it at Coral Bay WA via Indonesia, at a marked down price of course, it would have to be a good thing for all concerned.
I really do wonder about the pollies that currently haunt the halls of Parliament House.
The local Scout troop, CWA, Quilters or fishing club could come up with better policies than those being presented by our supposed leaders.
For the first time ever I have no idea who to vote for.
SD

Robert Le Page,

Yup...the stupidest Coalition policy in the history of stupid Coalition policies.

Poirot,

I'll supply the lump of wood, if you can tell me what's wrong with simply flying people back to Indonesia ? If they have let it without valid exit documents, technically they are still there: they haven't left to go somewhere else. Officially, they would still be in Indonesia. Use that lump of wood to correct me if I'm wrong.

There are 46-47 million refugees and displaced persons around the world: many have found out how easy it is (or they thought it was) to get into Australia, and have flown to Indonesia on the off-chance. Many others have put their names down, filled out all the right forms and waited. In a queue. They are not visible to Sarah Hanson-Young, but the people on the boats are, hence the bitter tears.

So:

1. raise the quota to 30,000 per year, and provide more staff in Indonesia to process the increase in valid forms;

2. Gather 'boat-people' at Christmas island, make sure they are okay and well-fed, and fly them back to Indonesia, by Garuda Airlines, top-dollar, paid for by Australia.

3. Indonesia should be compensated per capita for the inconvenience.

4. The people who are flown back should be assisted to fill out all the proper forms as quickly as possible, and encouraged to get to the back of the queue, and to wait their turn.

Which they could have done much more conveniently from the camps to which they have presumably fled from the oppressive regimes of their homelands, rather than gathered up all the scarce resources of their relations to fly to Indonesia and get on a leaky boat, and thence to Christmas Island and back to Indonesia again.

Am I just too simple to understand what's wrong with this idea ? Poirot, please put me out of my misery.

Cheers :)

Joe
www.firstsources.info

I think it's a great idea, as long as he follows through.

A few hundred of these boats could be used for target practice. After a few weeks practice our navy should have learnt what to do with any boat entering our national waters, without the correct paperwork.

Currently all they know to do with them is lasso them. Once they have learnt what that big thing on the foredeck is for, ate boat problem will stop quick time.

Yep a brilliant plan, once the second half is added.

I was of the understanding that the boats used for people smuggling were old, un unsed fishing boats.

Hi Hasbwen,

Indonesia is made up of thousands of islands, and tens of millions of people who make their living from fishing, with a bit of people-smuggling on the side, using perhaps a million boats.

Is it the intention to pay cash for those boats ? At half-a million or more each ? WIf you were an Indonesian fisherman, what would you do with that half-million - order two boats to be built, knowing you can pay them both off in a short time ?

What if the boat-owners refuse to sell, and demand an inflated price ? i.e. the Australian government creates a bull-market for fishing boats ?

So let's see - if Mr Morrison buys, let's say, merely ten thousand boats, at half-a-million dollars each - that's five billion dollars.

Five billion would build a lot of new boats. Thank you, Mr Morrison !

Should I go on ?

Joe

It's such a shame that all he is trying to do is fix a problem he did not cause.

It's hard not to think where we would be with this mess, had K Rudd not tried to change our world.

Rehctub,

I am not a Rudd supporter but the boat people pressure is now coming from many different sources and in some cases for different reasons than it was a few years ago.
Rudd and coy have not helped but I feel the situation and resolutions are beyond the capabilities of our Canberra based dreamers.
There will never be a satisfactory solution whilst politics, politicians and egos are part of the mix.

SD

The boats the smugglers are buying are the cheapest available.
They are clapped out hulls after a hard life of fishing and
would be worth next to nothing.

There may be some tricky plan to get rid of the hulks and force
the price so high that the illegals cannot afford the fare.

Anyway, thats the only way I can see it work.

I hear you SD, but shawly a working system would have been easier to tweet, than throwing a working system out and starting again, effectively opening the flood gates.

I personally don't think much of the boat buy back scheme, but it may have some limited value in conjunction with other measures.

The present situation has come about because of Rudd. Typical Labor to implement something without proper consideration. Now it will take harsher measures to stop the illegals from wanting to come here.

OK, lets make it tough. No processing without valid papers, no permanent residence ever, no family reunion ever, set up detention centre on Macquarie Island. No phone or Pc while in detention, reduce quality of food while in detention. No Halal food and introduce pork in meals.

The illegals have to not want to come.

Saw some pics the other day of our customs processing illegals that were musle bound and wearing designer clothes and sunnies, with manicured nails and so on. Didn't look like hardship to me.

Banjo,
Whilst we are a civilised country and signature to various agreements to do with refugees, real or imagined, our hands are tied to a fair degree as to how we handle them.
The millions currently on the move in the Middle East are causing problems for many nations apart from ourselves. It is a world wide problem.
The validity of claims will always be open to question and assumptions made from a distance will invariably be inaccurate as expected.
We do have a problem as do many nations and only a world wide response will provide a lasting solution.
Simplistic solutions will always be short term when it comes to results.
Politicians of both sides are not the people to solve the problem as their decision making is purely political and not practical. Wiser heads than theirs, mine and I dare say yours are needed to find some lasting resolution.
Take it easy.

SD

Shaggy Dog,
Your response is typical, you excuse labor from stuffing it up and claim our problem is world wide. It is not, our problem is with the current government not taking appropriate action to stop the illegals from wanting to come here.

The illegals that are coming here are not destitute refugees, they are opportunistic shonks that lie to our officials and take advantage of our good nature.

It is simply a matter of not giving them what they seek. They will not continue to come if they don't get what they want.

Don't make a simple matter complicated. We just make it tough for them. This government does not know what tough is.

I suppose I should not be surprised by the collection of half wits from the left that create straw man arguments.

The coalition is not looking at buying new boats, only old boats that are no longer fit for service that the smugglers buy, and the prices paid for these boats rescued from scrap is unlikely to stimulate the buying of new boats.

These fishing vessels are used commercially to provide and income for the owners, and typically last 20-40 years. With the loss of some boats along the way this would reduce the number coming on this market to about 20 000 p.a. Buying all these boats for about $10 000 each would cost $200m p.a. or only a tiny fraction of the about $3bn p.a. that Dudd is paying for internment or water taxi services for the human traffickers.

While this would automatically drive up the price of scrap boats, it would provide a vast source of intelligence to highlight the purchases the smugglers do make, and combined with a bounty on information, this will make it easier to stop the boats leaving. It is not a magic bullet, but yet another tactic that will trip up smugglers and cause them and their passengers to lose money, and make the trip more costly and less likely to result in Australian residence.

The alternative is the do nothing approach of Labor and the thousands dying at sea.

Banjo,

No I am not a supporter of the left or Mr Rudd. He is a good example of politicians at play.
Despite Mr Rudd decisions back a bit the situation world wide has changed and worsened and even the previous Government would now be finding things more difficult. What appeared to work back then would in all probability be as much a shambles right now.
Refugees do not necessarily have to be poor, a relatively wealthy person can lose their home, livelihood and security when civil strife takes over. The fact they may have some dollars to buy their way out to save their family and themselves does not diminish their refugee status. To stay and die along with your family is something few of us would do. Would you?
It is complex is all I am saying, and it needs wise heads to find an ongoing solution. The situation is constantly changing and no rigid doctrine will ever last.
Sensible people, not politicians and politics is what we need.

Take it easy.

SD

First of all, what garbage Shaggy Dog.

All we have to do with genuine refugees is give them shelter, nothing else.

We are not required to let them settle here, or facilitate their settlement elsewhere.

If we continue to do the UNs job for them, we most definitely should bill the UN for the costs, & stop all payments of any kind to the UN until they take over the settlement of these people.

If as is often the case, these "refugees" go back home, to get a wife or to visit, they should immediately have any citizenship or residency revoked, as they obviously were not in danger.

The onus of proof should be transferred to these people whom we know are mostly gate crashers.

Banjo that Macquarie Island idea has real merit. Should make all facilities except staff quarters from simple materials, perhaps tents, to minimize losses in a riot, & avoid making the camp a desirable holiday destination for conmen.

Hasbeen,
I agree entirely with your comments, there is such a variety of people claiming to be refugees, some are definitely not, some are but I am in no position to judge who is and who isn't. You may have the qualifications to judge but I have to leave that assessment to others neither having the wherewithal or access to that information.
We have as a country signed up to various agreements, we can withdraw but until we do so there are obligations to be met as much as many do not like to do so.
I do not argue for any particular case or position, only that we approach the situation of refugees from a professional level, not from a political or emotive level which is where it has been at from far too long.
I have no doubt it can be solved to the satisfaction of most but it will require far more finesse than one liners from our politicians and immediate vote winning statements.
Take it easy.

SD

So Banyo, perhaps we could look into establishing a pork export facility on these islands, abbetors, processig plants, storage, even piggeries.

Hadn't thought of that until I read your post.

Food for thought, as that would most definitely deter many.

Banjo, I saw those photos also.
Some of them had to me the appearence of soldiers.
A letter from a country paper reader said the people being housed in a
hotel in his town did not look too much in need of anything while they
were eating in the restruant.

The UNHCR has become obsolete.
It was never meant to cater for what is happening now, let alone when
40 million Egyptians get on the move.