Yes Lexi, it's amazing just what happens when you replace meaningless WORDS with REAL actions.

You must remember it was Labor who caused this problem, they then spent the best part of five odd years talking about it, trying very hard not to step on Indo's dick.

Well, along came Tony Abbott and Co, with real action and apart from making headway on stopping the boats, he has also made Indo reveal that it does have navy patrol boats after all.

Surely you're not suggesting we just sit back and allow Indo to continue pulling the wool over our eyes, as they have been while the weaker government was in power.

Surely you too want a stop put to this fiasco, otherwise, provide us with suggestions as to how we can continue to accommodate these uninviteds, while catering for our own people as well.

Dear rehctub,

May I politely suggest that you re-read the Editorial
from The Age that I provided earlier. Is that what you
call "real action?" Where was your party when the
Malasian Solution was being offered?

Foxy: Where was your party when the Malaysian Solution was being offered?

Actually Foxy, the Malaysian Solution was stupid idea from the start. It was just a political diversion. I thought everyone knew that. I'm going to the Get Up Meeting on March 17. I'll have my say there.

Dear Banjo,

I did ask you asked and went to the DIAC website;

http://www.immi.gov.au/Pages/Welcome.aspx

I clicked on the Refugee and Humanitarian link at the bottom which landed me here;

http://www.immi.gov.au/visas/humanitarian/

Then on the link marked Illegal Maritime Arrivals: General information for people who arrived in Australia by boat without a visa.

This is what I found.

“Illegal maritime arrivals - More information and relevant links will be added to this webpage as it becomes available.”

and

“Temporary protection visas.

On Monday 2 December 2013 the Australian Senate disallowed the Regulations which reintroduced temporary protection visas. This means the immigration department has stopped granting temporary protection visas. The Minister for Immigration and Border Protection also announced on Wednesday 4 December 2013 that he has used his power, under the Migration Act, to place a cap on the number of protection visas to be granted this financial year. This means no more permanent protection visas can be granted in 2013–14. As a result no temporary or permanent protection visas will be granted to anyone until further notice.”

Nowhere on the site did I find anything fitting your description.

“Asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat are not acting illegally. The UN Refugee Convention (to which Australia is a signatory) recognises that refugees have a lawful right to enter a country for the purposes of seeking asylum, regardless of how they arrive or whether they hold valid travel or identity documents. The Convention stipulates that what would usually be considered as illegal actions (e.g. entering a country without a visa) should not be treated as illegal if a person is seeking asylum. In line with our obligations under the Convention, Australian law also permits unauthorised entry into Australia for the purposes of seeking asylum. Asylum seekers do not break any Australian laws simply by arriving on boats or without authorisation. This means that it is incorrect to refer to asylum seekers who arrive without authorisation as “illegal” entrants, as they in fact have a lawful right to enter Australia to seek asylum.”
http://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/f/as-boat.php

Perhaps I am looking in the wrong place.

Well diligent posters, I just had one of those Eureka! moments.
It turns out detailed demographic information is available on irregular maritime arrivals and it's as I thought and suggested in a post yesterday.
"Boat People" is a gendered isssue after all, 90% of IMR asylum seekers are men, the overwhelming majority of those men are aged between 18 and 40, as I said the people who are the primary victims in war, civil strife and state oppression.
So we have here a genuine men's rights issue and it's no wonder all the stakeholders, the political parties, the bleeding heart left and the bleeding heart right and the Quangos are reacting the ways they have been.
Do we think for one second that if these boats were 90% full of women and children that there'd be a second's debate about releasing them into the community?
We have Feminists on the Left and White Knights on the right and both are utterly insensitive to Men's human rights at the best of times and are hostile to Men and Boy's most of the time.
In order to tug at the heartstrings the Left focus on the tiny numbers of women and even tinier number of children arriving as IMR's and when you boil down their strategy the Right are using the tried and true "othering" techniques promote within the community a basic fear of sexual agreession from IMR's.
The Left use shaming tactics to pressure Australian Men, the right use fear tactics to pressure Australian Women.

I'll tell you what, there's no better feeling than having to change your mind after taking the time to study an issue, I guess it's because at that point one is thinking for himself.

Steelie, what part of the UNCHR Convention Article 31 don't you understand. Would you like me to Parse & Phrase it for you. I know they don't teach this in schools anymore as I asked my locale High School & the Head English didn't know what I was talking about. It was written in 1946/53.

The Sentence you refer to is qualified by the following Clauses, "coming (directly) from a territory where their life or freedom was threatened in the sense of Article 1,"

See, that clause makes a big difference in understanding the intent. I inserted the for emphases.

Also the UNCHR Convention is just that, A Convention. It is not a Law. Australia don't actually have to abide by anything in it we don't want too.

G. Asylum and the treatment of refugees

24. The Handbook does not deal with questions closely related to the determination of refugee status e.g. the granting of asylum to refugees or the legal treatment of refugees after they have been recognized as such.