jamdfingr said...
Yep, dump Christmas island, off shore processing in Naru!
When you look at the most recent boat sinkings, they are closer to Indonesia then to us. I am all for saving people on the ocean but where is the indo navy? Why do we steam all the way over there instead of indonesia who are so much closer and can render assistance quicker!
The politicisation of asylum seekers has made it near impossible to have a sensible policy debate, federal Labor frontbencher Penny Wong says.
The senate is debating laws that would allow the government to implement its people-swap deal with Malaysia and permit the reopening of a detention centre on Nauru.
However the bill, which cleared the lower house on Wednesday night, faces defeat in the Senate where the combined vote of the coalition and the Greens outnumber Labor.
During debate on Thursday, Finance Minister Penny Wong reflected on the historical context of the debate and her entry to parliament following the 2001 election when the asylum seeker issue dominated after the Tampa incident.
"It was an election that was a regrettable milestone in Australian politics," Senator Wong said.
The Malaysian-born Labor senator singled out then coalition prime minister John Howard.
"This same prime minister and ministers in his government engaged in the most brutal politicking of the asylum seeker issue in the lead-up to the election," she said.
Howard government ministers had called asylum seekers queue jumpers, a pipeline of terrorists and had refused to let children out of mandatory detention, she told the chamber.
"Politicisation of this area has made it near impossible to have a sensible policy debate... that has led to this gridlock," Senator Wong said.
She called for parliament to return to the "sensible centre" and step away from extreme views.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8491146
just sayin
