I was under the distinct impression that Rudd thought the Christmas Island detention centre was a white elephant. What is it now then?
KEVIN Rudd is preparing to double the size of Australia’s Christmas Island detention centre in a stark confirmation that his government expects a continuing flood of asylum-seekers from Sri Lanka.
The multi-million-dollar upgrade, sparked by a sharp increase in boatpeople arrivals in the past month, is expected to lift the facility’s capacity to as much as 2300.
Jill Singer, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Bob Brown, Penny Wong, John Pilger, Ross Gittins, Quentin Bryce, Kerry O’brien, Tim Flannery, Robyn Williams, Christine Nixon, Nicola Roxin, Peter Singer, etc…
…the story will be inspired by global warming doom-mongering:
Thirty years on and Mad Max 4: Fury Road is about to restart the local movie industry, being filmed entirely in Sydney and Outback NSW.
So Rudd has already gotten Japan offside, more recently China,ignored India, while the USA basically ignores him, but at least he still has Gordon Brown as a ‘good socialist how to destroy a nation’ friend. Next stop of the world ‘how to lose friends’ tour, Indonesia. I can’t imagine that SBY is terribly pleased with Rudd. Certainly Howard never dumped his illegal immigration problem on Indonesia like Rudd has done.
Oh, and recall Wilson Tuckey’s comments about the possibility of terrorists being amongst the illegal immigrants? Of course there was the predictable Rudd inspired media outrage:
Yesterday, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith refused to say if he was aware of Canadian press reports that a suspected terrorist had been found among the 76 (Sri Lanka) boatpeople.
But Singapore-based terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna said Tamil Tiger ships formerly used to smuggle weapons to guerilla fighters in Sri Lanka are now operating out of Indonesia as people-smuggling vessels.
He said Australian authorities were on the alert for Tamil Tiger ships in the region, “because there’s a real threat that one of these ships may try to enter Australian waters”, carrying fugitive members of the rebel force….
The Indonesian and Australian authorities are understood to be co-operating in surveillance of several metal junk ships known to be owned and operated by members of the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, which were crushed by the Sri Lankan military forces last May.
Senior government sources have told The Weekend Australian that a number of the Tamils detained on Christmas Island are suspected of being former fighters, citing the presence of shrapnel wounds as possible indicators of Tiger membership.
So basically Smith has gone into denial mode, which will weaken our borders. Rudd is calling on Turnbull to get rid of Tuckey. Turnbull should hold the line and tell Rudd to go check his facts. I don’t think it is any coincidence that as soon as the Tamil Tigers were defeated, the civil war ended and violence dissipated, we find ourselves beset with a group of Tamil’s looking for asylum.
I picked this up at the Australian Conservative , regarding the ABC’s propaganda effort to encourage potential immigrants to engage in criminal practices in order to obtain permanent Australian residency. From the ABC’s blog Off Air, where ABC journalists drop any pretence to objectivity and let their left-wing fantasies run free.
The journalist is Chris Uhlmann, and we are treated to a predictable moralising diatribe about how Australia should have an open doors immigration policy to anyone rich enough to pay $20k to a people smuggler to get them into Australia. Such is the twisted moralising of the left these days. Always quick to claim good intentions but never willing to take responsibility for those intentions – like those 47 dead people who were trying to make their way to Australia, lured by Rudd’s promise of permanent residency.
Uhlmann is still living in an illusion that the immigrants have not been encouraged by Rudd’s visa changes, even though the AFP warned people smugglers would use it as a marketing ploy and an independent investigation from the Australian found that potential illegal immigrants in Indonesia had heard and were encouraged by the visa changes.
Off Air editors rarely allow comments for fear of dissent, aka People’s Republic of Canberra China. However, I was encouraged that comments were allowed by Uhlmann, but I could only spot one semi-dissenting opinion. All the rest were lock stock in tune with the article, almost as if ABC employees had taken to the site to put in bogus entries. Ah, it’s ‘your’ ABC so you better get used to it.
Well I never thought it would happen, but it looks like the ALP has said no to John Howard being the Chairman of the NRL Commission:
The Herald can reveal that Mr Albanese was instrumental behind the scenes in lobbying the NRL against giving the former prime minster a role on the code’s new independent commission…
The minister rang the NRL chief executive, David Gallop, as well as other league officials to tell them it was ”a stupid idea”. Mr Albanese also marshalled officials from the Rabbitohs, of which he was once a board member, to help kill off the idea.
”Nobody I spoke to thought it was a good idea,” Mr Albanese said.
We now know who really runs the NRL. Seems they can’t keep politics out of the sport. Well, Rugby League is a dieing sport, especially since the rugger buggers won themselves a place in the Olympics. I don’t see where the attraction for Rugby League will come in the future – maybe ex-convicts looking for a good time.
From Alan Jones to Rudd – who won’t appear on his radio programme, and it soon becoomes clear why Ruddwon’t appear (I’ve paraphrased the questions):
Wasn’t there an AFP report warning that the your changes to visa arrangements would lead to an increase in illegal arrivals, and why won’t you release it?
Why won’t you encourage Indonesia to sign up to the UN refugee agreement?
Why should queue jumpers, who can afford to travel, be given preference over people that dwell in refugee camps that can’t afford to travel?
Why should people that sabotage or threaten to sabotage boats and who pay criminals be rewarded permanent residence in Australia?
Why do Afghan people who have been living in Pakistan and Iran in safety for years be given residency in Australia?
Why would you describe the detention centre on Christmas Island as a white elephant, yet now fill it to overflowing to such an extent that you now have to consider mainland options?
Why don’t you pick up the phone to encourage Sri Lanka to improve conditions for people seeking to leave?
…which is fairly typical of the international media. Let’s debunk each point in the article:
…John Howard launched a program to house the would-be Aussies on isolated Pacific islands. This time, there’s again a robust public debate developing, but no xenophobic strains present. This is progress.
The WSJ must have missed the part about Rudd forcing Indonesia to take illegals that were in Australian waters. The Pacfic Solution was far more humane than Rudd’s Indonesian solution, because Howard – taxpayers – took responsibility for the care, housing, education, food and processing of the immigrants and their applications. Howard did not just dump the problem on a third world country like Rudd has done. Howard’s solution also involved a large transfer of wealth to poor Pacific Islands. Rudd’s solution is not progress, but a big step backwards.
Australia has seen a huge uptick in asylum seekers this year…thanks in part to the Labor government’s friendlier stance toward desperate people seeking a better life Down Under. This makes sense, given Australia, like the United States, is an immigrant nation that depends on new arrivals to power population growth and do the kinds of jobs that Australians themselves would deign to do.
What jobs exactly do Australians not want to do? This is the type of argument used to support illegal Mexican immigration into the USA. It is a baseless claim. Current legal arrangements of immigrating into Australia are very generous, with nearly 1 million people taking advantage of work permit arrangements. Besides, the issue is not about employment but asylum. It is an irrelevant argument.
…railing against refugees and nonwhite immigrants still has some political pull in a country that only ditched the White Australia policy in the 1970s. That’s partially why the Liberal Party is now complaining about how Mr. Rudd’s policies are “pull factors” attracting illegals to Australian shores.
The USA was running their own whites only policy right up till the end of the 1960s when they relaxed English language requirements, roughly the same time Australia abandoned its own policy. To then claim that the Coalition opposition to the government is based on racism – which is the WSJ’s tacit claim – is without any basis in reality. The reality is that 47 people are now dead, people smugglers are making money, third world governments with limited resources are being imposed upon, the Navy is having its morale sapped and the refugees that don’t have a spare $20k stuck in refugee camps around the world, are seeing significant amounts of resources go to dealing with these middle class illegal entrants when those resources could be going to help them.
Mr. Rudd could avoid a lot of political heat later if he starts explaining now how immigrants and yes, even refugees, contributed to that success.
A strawman argument. No one is opposed to immigration or refugees or arguing about their contribution to the economy, it is the manner of arrival that is the issue.
When the ETS forces people onto the bread line, conservatives within the Coalition will be vindicated for their current stance on Turnbull’s carbon policy, from the UK:
The number of people falling behind with fuel bills soared by nearly 50pc during the past six months, a charity warned today.
Citizens Advice said it had seen a 46pc increase in the number of people contacting it during the six months to the end of September who had fuel debts, compared with the same period of the previous year.
It said the rise continued a trend seen in recent years, with the number of people who were in debt to their fuel supplier jumping by 82pc since 2005/2006.
Looks like Rudd has just tried to dump his ILLEGAL immigration problem on Indonesia.
On the dock itself, an immigration official named Arifin expressed disgust at the thought of having to admit yet another round of asylum-seekers into the already overloaded Indonesian system.
“We don’t even know what kind of people these are,” the official said. “You have to squeeze them out one by one to find out.”
Ah, it’s all about compassion. Looks like these middle class illegal immigrants have been playing havoc with the safety of themselves and naval personnel:
Sources said the boat had been deliberately disabled, by punching or drilling holes into the hull, effectively forcing the navy to take the passengers on board.
The revelation gives credence to claims by the opposition’s immigration spokeswoman, Sharman Stone, that asylum-seekers were manipulating Australian goodwill to ensure their passage to Australia, a suggestion angrily rejected by a succession of Rudd government ministers.
At least the Pacific Solution involved a transfer of a huge amount of wealth to the cash poor small islands of the Pacific, and the Australian government still retained responsibility for dealing with the illegal immigrants. Rudd is just trying to dump his political problem on Indonesia.