Paul,
To further illustrate the hypocricy of the greens, you do not mind at all if regulations and laws impede and frustrate bona fide actions of citizens, as I gave earlier. Try being a business person hoping to start a simple business, like opening a sand pit to supply the local building trade, and see the amount of hoops and hurdles by way of 'enviromental impacts' that has to be met, or a farmer endeavouring to run his farm and the regulation to be complied with. All these are either instigated by or supported by the greens and interfere with our freedoms.

Yet you are concerned by our government trying to stop illegal entry to our country and if police are given powers to curb the activities of criminal gangs. You see these as an attack on our freedoms and erosion of civil rights.

But apparently it is quite OK to impede and handicap citizens in pursuit of a livelihood or going about a normal life.

Banjo,

The developer and the exploiter, have had a very 'easy' time of it in Oz, since 1788. Successive conservative state and federal governments have repeatedly favored these people over the environment and the wishes of the ordinary people, often with disastrous results. That is not to say we Greens oppose good sustainable development,far from it, in fact, we support all good development and only oppose the nasty stuff. Its all about balance, and there should not be carte blanche approval of every development proposal put forward simply based on the economic benefit, that often seems to be the case.
As for you sand pit business, or that particular farmer you speak of, I'm not familiar with the details of those matters.

Then there is the Greens and fellow travelers interference in the collection of dead wood for heating and cooking.
One would think that they would support the gathering of wood for fuel as it is not only a renewable source of energy but its collection is often a bushfire hazard reduction.

Dear O Sung Wu,

Actually, the evidence points to the contrary of
what you're claiming. Why don't you Google Fact
Check for yourself and ask the question,
Are asylum seekers really economic migrants?
Undoubtedly, some may well be, however the majority
are found to be genuine. Even under the Pacific
Solution of John Howard - that cost this country a
fortune - most were found to be genuine. Economic
migrants have been found to be the visa overstayers
who come in by plane and the numbers that have overstayed
in this country are enough to fill large cities.
But again you can Google all this for yourself. The
information is available on the web.

People fleeing persecution usually don't worry about
documentation - they're simply in a hurry to save
themselves and their families.

But again - Google this for yourself.

Cheers.

People fleeing persecution usually don't worry about
documentation
Foxy,
If only the superstition they bring along could be left behind with the documents.

Just to reiterate inconvenient truths for Foxy and others:

- the fight is between Australia and criminal gangs smuggling people;

- the Abbott government was elected partly on its undertaking to break the criminal gangs' business model and stop the disgusting loss of life at sea that was a feature of the previous Labor/Greens government; and,

- the Australian people elected the incoming government to re-establish control of our borders. That had been lost by the previous Labor/Greens government, opening Australia to a host of most serious problems.

While it is a fact confirmed by senior ministers of the previous Labor/Greens government (and by no lesser authority than foreign minister Carr himself) that it is economic migrants and other unsavoury illegals who choose to pay very large sums to the criminal smugglers, they are almost ancillary to the war against the noxious criminal gangs.

It is ludicrous that some here have the gall to argue against the assessments and advice given by Carr for instance, when his department is the very one that is recognised by all governments past and present as the lead agency on such matters. Carr said so himself and so did ex-PMs Julia Whatshername and Rudd, although the last mentioned was a ruddy fool for his arrogance in never taking advice. Rudd trashed the Pacific Solution and gave the criminal gangs their business opportunity.