Of course warmair. Illegals only want to get into Italy so they can move on to the UK or Germany. None of them are silly enough to actually want to live in the deep south of Europe. They are only transiting Italy, & probably even pay their way.

Here they come to stay & rip us off. They are not likely to move on to New Zealand, now are they?

Luciferase,
Who cares about people drowning whilst trying to breach our sovereign borders. Only the 'treehuggers and greenies and the left wing laborites who can see advantage in vote building.
I believe the parents of any kids that survive should be charged with child abuse but that's another story.
Get real mate most of Australia just wants the boats stopped and they really don't care how.

Dear Chris,

I think the issue is not as simple as that.
I think that most thinking people realise
that refugees are a regional if not a global
problem, and that realistically we're not going
to be able to stop desperate people from coming
here no matter what the politicians try to tell us.
People will continue to come. The best that can be done
is regional co-operation to try to stop people from
drowning at sea.

The media and politicians need to stop politicising
this issue and spreading the myths and fears concerning
asylum seekers into our communities. Mr Abbott
is learning to tone down his language, hopefully the outcome
will produce good results for us all.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/pms-boats-compromise-offers-a-way-to-ditch-towback-policy-20131001-2uqs1.html

The deaths at sea lie solely with the idiots that got on the boats no one held a gun at there head.

The only thing held at there head was "WELFARE FOR LIFE" and an easier life than they had, bypassing safe countries to get here.

With a lot poverty and no real future in there country of origin is the problem.

WHY should there problem become our problem?

What are you advocates going to do when 50,000 turn up or the next 50,000 there HAS to be a point when ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

When 85% were still on some form of welfare after being here more than 5 years is ENOUGH to stop them.

No Foxy, in this one you are completely wrong.

Most people think the illegal gate crashers are their own problem, & the only way to stop them is to stop the boats. Nothing but their elimination is acceptable around here.

You won't find one in ten who think they are refugees or desperate. At least not desperate other than to get their bit of the good life on our welfare. Start putting them in tents in the sticks, with no welfare, & just watch them stop.

You are kidding yourself about regional cooperation. There can be none, when too many powerful Indonesians are getting a large kick back from the trade. Abbott may have been soft & conciliatory in public, but I'll bet there were some very harsh words spoken in private, & I'll bet there is a dramatic drop in boats over the next month.

People around here all work damn hard in private enterprise. Few have the fat pay checks & security of the bureaucrat, & many are struggling. Even hard hearted old me has been a bit surprised at how many, when told another boat went down, respond, "good that's a few less we have to keep".

Who can forget the admission on Insight (SBS) that it is the neon light of "Wonderful Centrelink" that draws economic migrants like moths to the flame?

Jenny Brockie rushed to move on without acknowledgement of course. The taxpayer-funded public broadcaster relies on multiculturalism and their claimed ethnic discrimination/victim status for the continuation of its funding by Parliament.

No-one is arguing against genuine asylum seekers. However, taxpayers (and genuine asylum seekers no doubt) are exasperated by the opportunism of economic migrants who along with the criminal gangs they support and the horde of professional advocates who suck their greedy shares of that $8 billion annual spend on illegal migrants (evidence on $$spend provided by Foxy earlier), are adept at manipulating the media.