I think that's the point of difference though Neddy? These people aren't immigrants. They're assylum seekers, running from terror and rape and certain death. Often these people have watched family members die, children are thrown on boats,in the hope that their lives are saved. Woman and their babies, are sent without their husbands, because their husbands and sons are fighting.....
And these poor people are put into detention centre's and left there for years and years and years. And don't kid yourselves, our prisons,for murderers, rapists and paedophiles are nicer than these detention centre's!
It's an abomination the government,
all previous and present Australian governments, should be absolutely ashamed of.
Can you imagine, how utterly desperate you would have to be, to jump on a shitty boat that looks like it might fall apart, to escape?
Because that's what we're talking about here.
Immigration is a seperate matter.
The people who breach the immigration legislation are the Irish/English and Scottish backpackers who stay here beyond their visa requirements and try to live here. Or the men and women who come here and marry Australians, just to gain residency.
They're wroughters of the immigration system.
In Western society, Australia, Canada, US, UK there are provisions within our legislation, that we allow a certain number of refugee's within our borders each year. The number differs from country to country of course, but the provision is there, to assist in global humanity.
The problem is that Australia is an ageing population, we no longer have the workforce to support our growing pensioners, they keep pushing the age of retirement up, to milk a few more tax dollars out of people, in the hopes of sustaining our way of life for the coming generations.
The number of refugees and assylum seekers, is actually quite insignificant, in relation to our population growth through skilled workers and spousal immigrants. It's less than 1%. The reason it's so often in the media is because A) We treat them and house them, in worse conditions than criminals in our own country. B) No formal agreement or long term commitment by any government has ever been enforced.
There are actually not that many more boats coming into the country now, as there were back in John Howards day. The difference is that we're trying to accomodate them
on shore now, instead of sending them off shore as was the
Pacific Solution incepted by the Howard government.
So the media never created a shit storm. Because these boats were incepted way before they ever hit our shores and sent to islands off Australia, to wait out for years and years in detention camps, before being sent home, let into Australia, or sent to another country to immigrate.
The Pacific Solution, implemented by John Howard, cost this country a bloody fortune. We had to reach agreements and pay off the islands in question, build detention facilities (which are worse than prisons!), create a government department and pay a bunch of public servants to scratch their arses all day. Re-write legislation 5000 times before government and opposition came to any kind of agreement and then implement the Pacific Solution, which meant posting Australian workers abroad and paying them extraordinary amounts of money, to run detention camps. Not to mention engaging the Defence Force to incept the ships and deport the refugees to assylum off shore.
Not a solution and not even close to being a remotely humane plan of action.
That's why Kevin Rudd scrapped it immediately. The problem is, no other solution was ever really reached? These people aren't criminals. They're terrified foreigners, seeking freedom in another country. They deserve respect while they're being assessed, especially given that over 70% of them actually are bonafide
refugees.
As per below :
The
Pacific Solution was the name given to the
Australian government policy (2001–2007) of transporting
asylum seekers to detention centres on small island nations in the
Pacific Ocean, rather than allowing them to land on the
Australian mainland. It had bipartisan support from both the Liberal-National government and Labor opposition at the time. The Pacific Solution consisted of three central strategies. Firstly, thousands of islands were excised from
Australia’s migration zone or Australian territory. Secondly, the
Australian Defence Force commenced
Operation Relex to interdict vessels carrying asylum seekers. Finally, these asylum seekers were removed to third countries in order to determine their refugee status. There were a number of pieces of legislation supporting this policy. The policy was developed by the
Howard government in response to the 2001
Tampa affair and was implemented by then Australian Immigration Minister
Philip Ruddock.
Asylum seekers were intercepted at sea while sailing from
Indonesia and moved using Australian naval vessels. Detention centres were set up on
Christmas Island,
Manus Island in
Papua New Guinea, and on the tiny island nation of
Nauru. Some were also accepted for processing by
New Zealand. Most of the asylum seekers came from
Afghanistan (largely of the
Hazara ethnic group),
Iraq,
Iran,
China, and
Vietnam. The last asylum seekers to be detained on Nauru before the end of the policy had come from
Sri Lanka and
Myanmar.
[1]
Under the Pacific solution, 30 percent were sent home, 43 per cent of asylum seekers resettled from Nauru and Manus Island ended up in Australia. The remaining were settled in other countries.
[2]
longest post in the fucking world. I know I know 
