Foxy,

PH is inarticulate and has at best a feeble grasp of policy which probably puts in the same basket with the greens. Again, similar to the greens PH is appealing to her voters on an emotional level, not a logical or intellectual level, and the reaction of the greens, Labor and the Coalition is more likely to firm her support. Her stunt to wear a Burqa to Parliament, as Larissa Waters breastfeeding stunt, was to get attention, which she did in spades.

However, I find their rush to defend the pinnacle of misogyny in the full Burqa is misplaced. To quote Ayaan Hirsi Ali from Stanford:

"Pauline Hanson can and should be reprimanded for her unparliamentary behaviour. She did not need the fancy dress to make the point she wants to make, which is that burkas ought to be banned for security reasons. But for me, the issue is not security alone. It is the equality of women. Expecting half of humanity to go around covered in black sacks is just evil sexism. We should no more want to see it imported into Australia than we should want to see wife-beating legalised."

When it all boils down, Pauline Hanson is highly unlikely to give a stuff about what her detractors think of her or her policies. She has her supporters -growing numbers - and we had better get used to her. The real clowns at the moment are in government and opposition.

Dear ttbn,

Pauline Hanson should not have been allowed into
Parliament wearing the burqa. And yet she
unfortunately was. Which disproved the point that
she was trying to make. She did it simply as a
stunt. The woman is an opportunist - she will use
whatever is at hand. But be that as it may - she
is no longer just a private person airing her
opinion. She is a Senator and must take responsibility
for her actions. If she is so concerned about the
nation's security - why is she behaving in a manner
that is so divisive. We need to have the support
and co-operation of the Muslim Communities here in
this country to fight against terrorism. Her actions
only discourage their support. Not a wise move at all.
And works against us. If she doesn't have the
intelligence to realise the harm that she's doing -
Security guards in Parliament should have stopped her.
They carry some of the blame.

Double standards abound.
Where was the outrage in 1992 when a group of gays wore pink nuns habits into the NT parliament to protest gay rights? Did it even get a mention in mainstream news?
And for Penny Wong to stand up in the House and condemn Pauline for mocking religious beliefs when she totally supports the gay Mardi Gras that does exactly that, in the most obscene way possible, is breathtaking in its hypocrisy.

Regarding employment figures for refugees, a few years ago the government did a study called " Settlement Outcomes for New Arrivals". There are copies on line but it's a huge document, over 100 pages so takes a bit of reading.
Here is a very brief comment in an article relating to those figures.

"Using the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia, the Department’s research outlines the position of the three key groups of migrants five years after settlement: Skilled, Family and Humanitarian.

In keeping with the findings of previous research, it is absolutely clear that refugees do badly, even after all that time: there is an alarmingly high rate of welfare dependence and a low uptake of employment. The employment rate of those from Afghanistan looks like an unemployment rate: 9 per cent of humanitarian entrants from Afghanistan, five years after settlement, have jobs and 93.7 per cent of the households receive Centrelink payments.

Those from Iraq seem to do little better, with 11.8 per cent employed and 93.2 per cent of households in receipt of Centrelink payments. Interestingly, the groups that seem to do the best are from Other Central and West Africa and from Sierra Leone. Ethiopa is not too bad."

Big Nana,

Penny Wong may support whatever she likes in private,
however as a Senator she does not get dressed up in
Parliament and perform stunts as Ms Hanson did.
Neither do any of the other Senators. As Senator
Hinch pointed out what if they all came dressed as
circus clowns or played dress-ups in the Senate.
Would that be allowed? I doubt if the Security Guards
would allow it. There is such a thing as appropriate
behaviour that our Parliamentarians are supposed to
follow. Would a Senator who was blind-drunk still be
allowed into the Chambers? Perhaps in Queensland he
might be allowed in, but certainly not in Canberra.