Foxy,

The children have nothing to do with the actions of their parents. Visas are nothing more than a way to control people and their movement and are on those grounds morally reprehensible.

Visas are also a double standard!

As Yuyutsu has pointed out Captain Cook (if he is a Captain, as some question that), came without a visa and people like yourself and myself benefited from our relatives coming to Australia from elsewhere without visas.

Visa applications give Governments a chance to assess a range of things about people's lives (really an invasion of privacy), deny entry and control lives. Why? There are people who live in Australia who have killed people, use illicit drugs, are alcoholics, commit violence towards others and so forth.

What about these people? Are we sending them to the US or NZ?

The Biloela family (to my knowledge) have done none of this type of activity. They've worked hard in regional Australia, paid taxes and contributed to society. Yet we have a Federal Government that wants the family treated like a second class and kept in detention. I thought this government was all about rewarding those who worked hard and contribute to society?

The Government doesn't detain those on welfare payments in Australia now do they? Let this family work and contribute to Australia and leave them alone!

Labor and the greens in their infinite kindness managed to kill 1200 illegals by drowning.

shonkyminister, how does that compare to the millions killed by the Liberals in Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan.

Dear ShadowMinister,

«Labor and the greens in their infinite kindness managed to kill 1200 illegals by drowning.»

First, there is nothing illegal about taking a boat, seaworthy or otherwise, to sail on the high seas. What more, 1000's of kilometers away from Australian shores (but Australians too ought to be able to do the same).

Those people died by the forces of nature, or possibly at their own hands. Be they idiots or be they martyrs, their choices ought to be respected - we all need to die one day anyway.

Kindness would be to allow them to exercise their free will and die if that's what it meant - not to act like the last pirate on the shores of Ethiopia, hijacking people and keeping them locked up for years. Alternately, if you really wanted to be kind and those people asked for help then you could restock them with water, food and fuel, repair their leaks and allow them to continue on their journey.

Dear Nathan,

The children are the result of the actions of their
parents. And they are being used by their parents
to be able to stay in this country. They could have
been deported and then applied to come here legally
as others have done and continue to do.

"First, there is nothing illegal about taking a boat, seaworthy or otherwise, to sail on the high seas"

What a draft thing to say. These people were not going for a jolly old sail; they were intending to enter Australia with no documentation. That is illegal under Australian law.