You know Paul my late father co-founded a Greens branch and was a lifelong leftist so I was raised in that milieu and aside from their views on asylum seekers I have a lot of time for that party. I'd suggest that if they ditch support for immigration they'll have working class people flocking to the Greens in droves, otherwise it's going to remain an inner city, elitist party.
Immigration hurts people like me, economically and in terms of safety and well being and it actually does nothing for the inner city trendies either it's just that by virtue of their wealth they can avoid the negative consequences of multiculturalism playing out in the suburbs.
Dropping support for immigration would double or triple the Greens vote overnight and branch membership would surge as well because people like me who absolutely detest the major parties would become involved.
True Australian values are the values of the old Left, only a return to unionism, trade protection, immigration restriction and progressive social policies can save us now.

Dear Paul,

I'm glad that you read the article I cited from
"The Diplomat". "The diplomat" we're told:
"is a leading online
current affairs magazine for the Asia-Pacific
with analysis on politics, security, business,
technology, and life across the region. It has
an Asia Pacific regional outlook and a global
audience with a mix of on-the-ground reporting,
top analysis and opinion writing from world
renowned columnists." The Wall Street Journal
describes it as "one of the top 5 sites for
international news."

"It reaches a rapidly growing influential audience
of commentators, policy makers, and academics, with
its in-depth treatment of regional issues".

I've only recently discovered it - and found it to
be of a very high standard. It gives footnotes of
the sources on which its information is based -
which are most helpful.

I agree with you - our governments (past and present)
have a shameful official policy of deterring, detaining,
and deporting asylum seekers - and Canberra's 2013 policy
innovation of transferring maritime arrivals to remote
islands of neighbouring countries for offshore processing
is inhumane.

Surely there must be a better way of dealing with this
situation than having one of the strictest immigration
detention regimes in the world. Exposing people who
are fleeing from terror and persecution to conditions
that are so extremely harsh is a violation of human rights
and it is something for which we are being criticised
around the world. Where is our tolerance and
humanity for which we were known as a nation - when only
a relatively small fraction of the world's asylum seekers
seek refuge in Australia. (Only around 2 per cent of worldwide
claims) and a high percentage of these asylum seekers are
deemd to be refugees (88 percent).

It's something the government can no longer ignore. Doctors,
psychiatrists, even guards, have all spoken out about the
conditions in detention for both children and adults.
And the recent report by the Human Rights Commission has
further explained the severity of what goes on - blaming
both sides of politics.

This must no longer be swept under the rug.

Jay of course we can talk "Popularism", the be all and end all of politics is not just about winning votes, or being popular. In fact it is easy to achieve popular support in the short term at least, just tell the people what they want to hear. In my book what is more important is principles and what you stand for.
The Greens is a grass roots party and it is the membership which determines policy, not some pollster telling you what is now the flavor of the month.
I decry the Labor Party for its lost of Labor principles, I decry the Liberal party for its loss of liberalism. A party without real principles will soon lose direction and ultimately lose support.
I would much prefer to see our support grow by 1% per year through having a solid policy base, than by 10% per year with some short term popularism type policies.

Australia should have nothing to do with the refugees on Nauru or anywhere else for that matter. Refugees are a UN Problem not Australia's.

So just why doesn't the UN take over the Refugee Centres. It's because once they leave the UN Refugee Camps & go Country hunting for the best economic deal the UNCHR does not recognize them as being Refugees. They say so in their Rule book. I've provides that Article many, many times.

Now Indonesia is threatening to unleash 10000 of their unwanted moslem hordes guests on Australia.

The UN Human Rights committee is an ongoing joke.
The last time I remember them having a go at Australia guess who was chairman;
The Libyan Ambassador !
That same scene continues on. The next members are China Russia and some others.
It is a total insult !

Paul,
Politics is all about compromise, the Greens could be major players if they determined to represent a broader section of the community instead of restricting themselves to an inner urban elite.
Immigration, especially Third World immigration is deeply unpopular and widely resented in the community,it's a very real issue which is of great importance to voters. The way we're heading the formation of a hard right, populist party is inevitable simply because no other party will take the electorate seriously and a good many politicians seem to genuinely hate ordinary Australians.
So do you want the debate on immigration to be led by the Q Society and the Party For Freedom or by the party of social justice and equality?