Susie,
You said. "Oh yes Banjo, I agree we should cut down on immigration"

I certainly agree and drastically too. Don't you think that 'net zero' would be a good objective. Just think that all the saved money could go toward paying off the huge debt the previous government left us with. We never do get figures on how much the current immigration levels cost us, in fact we are never asked what we think the immigration levels should be.

It has been known for years that the beneficaries of immigration are developers, big business and the immigrants themselves. Still the first two aforementioned contribute greatly to the coffers of the major parties so I suppose they should get consideration. To hell with the rest of the citizenry.

Charming , Banjo. What if it was Australians who were in a bad way and the rest of the world felt like you do?
We are citizens of the world too Banjo.

Never mind the money wasted by the previous Government, what about the millions wasted by the present Government, housing refugees and asylum seekers on someone else's Island and paying them truckloads for the privilege?

We should just bite the bullet, allow all those people to live in the community, and at least some of them could work for their keep, and we wouldn't be paying millions on the mental and physical problems caused by being in long term detention.

As Abbott and his crowd of merry men have "stopped the boats" we shouldn't have any need for expensive Island detention centres etc....

Banjo, why do assign such a high priority to paying off thhe government debt? Doing so means the government will have to take more money out of the economy than it puts in, which st this stage of the economic cycle will result in higher unemployment even with no immigration at all.

Oh comon Susie, get off your ideological high horse and face reality.

Of the 200,000 entrants only 18000 are genuine refugees who endured any hardship, the rest are coming here for their own benefit. In fact the muslim element see themselves as pioneers for Islam. Immigrants do not come with a grand idea of building Australia. They benefit from our generosity. Aside from the welfare given to the 18000 refugees, we provide the housing and infrastructure to accommodate the migrants. Each plane load means less jobs, house prices rise, it takes longer to get to work, queues are longer and costs rise. Giving makes one feel good when you can afford it. The Middle East has stuffed their own place up, despite swimming in oil.

All other countries look after their own first and it is now time our politicians did the same and stopped being so generous with our money.

The only migrants that should be allowed are those with the skills we need so we can get some benefit from allowing them to be part of our community. Even then we should be training our own.

Our forebears built this country, it did not happen by accident, it was hard work and we should not just give it away to anyone that wants to come

"The only legitimate reason allowing a government to determine who may enter, is to protect its citizens from harm. This includes ascertaining their character (that they are not criminals) and their health (that they do not carry dangerous contagious diseases)."

I would add, ascertaining their political ideology, followers of the Koran and its prophet would be barred.

Dear Is Mise,

<<I would add, ascertaining their political ideology, followers of the Koran and its prophet would be barred.>>

Perhaps so, but one cannot simultaneously follow both the Koran and its prophet, reason being that Muhammad the Prophet, peace be upon him, did not write the Koran, nor would he ever endorsed the crap that was written there, at least 150 years after his death.

Yes, it is legitimate to bar people of a violent ideology who intend to enforce their ways over the population, but the mentioned prophet was not like that, nor should we fall into this trap of agreeing with the said ideology as if he was.