Boat people drown
A DOZEN Sri Lankan asylum-seekers are feared dead after their vessel capsized in heavy seas as they sailed direct from Sri Lanka, apparently in an attempt to avoid the Rudd government’s “Indonesian solution”.
If Kevin Rudd isn’t rueing the day he changed Howard’s Pacific Solution he’s dumber than I thought but that is on the cards. Being the type of man he is he’s most probably cranky as all hell at the media for pointing out the problems and the public for questioning his wisdom and would not for a moment be introspective and ask of himself: could I have done it better?
In other news Tony Kevin is planning a book on the incident…not. Readers may remember Tony who brayed long and loud as he blamed the Howard government for a similar event. Being of the left I doubt you will hear one word from him such is the hypocracy of his kind. His book, A Certain Maritime Incident, flayed the then government and cast aspersions on the RAN and the only people who gave him any creditability were Phillip Adams Julian Burnside type tossers.
There still are people in the country who think the boat people are legitimate refugees deserving of sympathy rather than what they are – simply people taking advantage of circumstances to migrate to a rich country with the chance of getting their noses in the feeding trough of social security type money.
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Kev
As you know, Australia took 137,000 Vietnamese refugees between 1975 and 1990. In general, these people became productive members of the Australian community. Many of them of my acquaintance are willing to admit that they came here to make a better life for their children, and would be considered “economic refugees” by today’s definition.
What is the difference between this influx and the current one?
There is no basic difference. The hype that has become a feature of the national debate was initially created by John Howard’s cynical wedging of Labor in 2001. Because of the hysteria generated by this, people who attempt to get here by boat have been demonized ever since. Both Rudd and Howard have been guilty of the same tactic, (both claim to be tough and compassionate) and it is disgraceful.
The other issue that is completely ignored is that people who arrive here by air and overstay illegallly (over 50000 at last count) vastly outnumber those who get here by boat. Qantas is the biggest people-smuggler of all.
Australians are bigger than this crap. We need bi-partisanship – not dog-whistles.
I think the Viets were refugees from the tyrany of communism that wewere duty bound to resettle. Sri Lankans are neither refugees nor are we duty bound to resettle them.They can easily move elswhere in Sri Lanka or over the waters to safe haven at Tamil Nadur. Those who look for a better life do so within some structure – not catch a boat then threaten to committ suicide or whatever. That forces us to take them on their terms, not ours. Some have been living in Indonesia for years while they wait for the chance to get on our enormous (to them) social secuity handouts.
Soft border control has bought about this debate and we shouldn’t be having it. 40 boatloads this year alone and idiot Rudd says it’s push not pull. Bullshit – they read newspapers too. Send them all home and give them a business card with the address of the local Australian Embassy on it.
Oh, and Customs and Immigration need to latch onto visa overstays as well but then I bet funding has been taken from them and funnelled into buying votes elsewhere.
Kev
In the end, if you are fleeing a threat to your security – it makes no difference what political ideology is driving it. I believe we should treat people fleeing from Communism in exactly the same way we treat people fleeing from military dictatorships sponsored by the right.
We did this anyway (under a coalition government) with refugees from Pinochet’s Chile.
The official status of these Sri Linkans is that of refugees under terms we have signed up to through the appropriate UN convention. Again, this agreement was honoured by both sides of politics.
The structures aren’t working and in many cases haven’t been set up yet. For many of them there is simply no way to get out unless they’re prepared to live in camps for years on end with no certainty about an end point. There’s a lesson provided by the management of the Vietnamese boat people. The countries concerned worked together to develop a structure which eventually worked. Prior to this however, they were accepted when they arrived, without the hue and cry we hear now. It’s strange how the Vietnamese were never labelled “queue-jumpers” because the concept hadn’t been developed back then. The fact is – there ain’t no queues.
The terms “hard” and “soft” used to decribe border control again only came into use after Tampa. They are a nonsense when we are bound under international agreements.
Funding for Customs and Immigration has actually risen substantially in the last few years, mainly as a reaction to threats from Terrorism. It is bi-partisan and is directed at overstayers.
A quick examination of recent history (both here and in the UK) shows we face a greater threat from home-grown terror than from “border-jumpers”.
The Australian people are being hoodwinked through both Labor and Coalition using confected fear instead of leadership. It’s bloody disgraceful.
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“we face a greater threat from home-grown terror” Bullshit.
“Bullshit”
The London bomber, the Madrid bombers and the crew recently convicted down south were all home-grown. You’ll have to do better than that.
“crew recently convicted down south were all home-grown”
Um, lets see – crew down south?
Oh you mean Jack Roche, Faheem Lodhi, Belal Khazaal, Abdul Nacer Benbrika and Benbrika’s followers: Aimen Joud, Abdullah Merhi, Ahmed Raad, Fadal Sayadi, Amer Haddara, Ezzit
Raad, Izzydeen Atik and Shane Kent.
Let’s see, what do they all have in common?
1) Muslim, 2) eight of the 12 are second generation immigrants, 3) three of the twelve are recent immigrants 4) one is ‘home grown’.
You’ll have to do better than that – did I mention the one thing they all have in common?
Yup, they are Muslims….
As for the ‘Madrid bombers’ – you are way off mark – they were “young Muslim men from Morocco” – not even the slightest bit Spanish.
And the London murderers – yup, Muslim and the sons of immigrants from Pakistan.
So if want to prevent terrorism?
Stop all Muslim immigration and watch the ones here VERY closely.
The point I made was that none of these individuals arrived on boats – not to the UK, Spain or Australia. That’s fact – not bullshit. The focus on boats is hysteria.
“The focus on boats is hysteria.”
Then why are you so focussed on them?
Do you want people to come to Australia on dangerous boats hired by people smugglers?
Do you believe the actions of the Tamils on the Oceanic Viking were appropriate and that Rudd’s ‘special treatment’ of them is in Australia’s best interests?
“Then why are you so focussed on them?”
I’m not focused on the refugees, but on how the pollies and media are dealing with the issue.
“Do you want people to come to Australia on dangerous boats hired by people smugglers?”
No. But they will continue to do so because they’re refugees. (A person who flees for refuge or safety, esp. to a foreign country, as in time of political upheaval, war, etc).
“Do you believe the actions of the Tamils on the Oceanic Viking were appropriate and that Rudd’s ’special treatment’ of them is in Australia’s best interests?”
Appropriate? Strange word to use when your future is at stake. I’d have done the same if I were in their situation.
Rudd would have had the rednecks on his case if he had taken them to Christmas Island – he was on a hiding to nothing whichever way he handled it. His treatment of refugees reminds me very much of Howard’s (and Turnbull’s for that matter). All three have used it as an issue to gain/maintain power. As I said in my first post, Australians are bigger than this crap. We need bi-partisanship – not dog-whistles.
Howard invented paranoia of refugees as a wedge, and Rudd and Turnbull have refined it – not altogether successfully.
Like the people-smugglers, they’re using these vulnerable people towards their own grubby ends.
Bloody despicable.