Refugees?

[ex-Cutie]

I was wondering what people here thought about how the gov. is handling all the refugees and all?

 

[mamaneenie]

This is a really tricky one. I think there needs to be more mercy, especially with the way the children are treated. On the other hand, I do not think people who have not gone through the right channels to get into Australia, should be let in. I would prefer they were sent home, but it is our Tax money that pays for that!

All I can say is that I am glad I am not in government, or in the position to make these decisions.

 

[middo]

I dont quite know where i stand on this. I do feel we could show them a bit more compassion in how we treat them, but we cant just let anyone in who isnt going by the legal means. having said that some of them must have suffered some pretty horific things to make it worth selling all they own to sail in a rickety stinky boat to a country most of them have only heard about. Its a real tough one IMO

 

[Buskanaka]

well theres this little thing called the Australian National Anthem that says: "For those who come across the sea, we've boundless plains to share". Just put yourselves in their shoes and ask yourself how you would feel if you were forced to flee from your homeland, from all your family and friends, to a new country because of war/persecution, and you put everything you have into getting your family there, to be turned away and locked up like a criminal when you get there.
personally i think the way the government is handling it is a disgrace and it makes me ashamed to be an Australian.

 

[-=Burnt Toast=-]

The government has it head stuck up its ****. Not to mention that we are violating human right agreements.... no-one deserves to be held like the refugees are

i am ashamed to be an australia citizen.

 

[middo]

i definately disagree with how we ARE handling them, its almost better for them to be where they come from being killed than being locked up (although some of what they get in these detention centres is a lot better than what some of us Australians get). We definately need to find a better way to handle them, but i dont think we can just open up Australia and let anyone in.

How would you feel if you had applied through all the right channels, had family in Aus, had sold everything you owned so as to afford a ticket to Aus and could not stay where you were and then be told you cant come, then hear a whole bunch of illegal immigrants had landed, and that some of these got in. Id be pretty annoyed. Having said that many of the refugees who do come are the people who had been knocked back so tried coming illegally.

There has to be a better way, we can fit more people in Aus but we definately cant just let every person who lands on our land to stay, if we did that we'd have thousands arriving in a few weeks and our economy/social security System couldnt handle it.

Shouldnt treat them how we are now though.

 

[Fiskare]

Our handling of asylum seekers is nothing short of criminal.

It's a human rights abuse. Simple.

 

[MorphRC]

In my current state of mind..they shouldnt be allowed in..for one reason there muslim..second they come here illegally. Something i dont agree with what the GOV is doin is keepin them here when they know they aint gonna stay..they should send them back straight away instead of keepin them locked up.

 

[ex-Cutie]

I don't entirely agree with the way the gov. is handling them, but i think they're doing better than what all the media shows the public wants. I agree with Middo and the others, we can't just let them in. I feel the gov. has the right idea, or principle, but can maybe improve on the accomodation and programs run for them. maybe getting them a little more involved with the community, while not giving them a too let's-get-used-to-this time.

 

[Buskanaka]

i cant remember who but i agree with the lady who said on the news that the australian people are getting sick of the hard line attitude and fear mongering by the government

 

[the brute]

G'day folks, I wrote this out on the weekend and read it out at church on Sunday, and anyone who commented agreed. So here it is.
In a democracy, you get the government you deserve.
Let’s keep this truism at the back of our minds as we think about the masterful handling of the arrival of fourteen Turkish Kurdish asylum seekers on Melville Island.

Firstly, they were sent packing.

Secondly, Melville Island was retrospectively excised from Australian territory for the purposes of immigration.

Finally, these fourteen did in fact ask for asylum, but this little factoid did not emerge till the poor buggers were out of sight and out of mind in Indonesia. In any case, the Prime Minister has declared any such request to be of no consequence, and its timing to be of less. The Opposition is accused of being soft on border protection – we are encouraged to read this as unpatriotic – and our Attorney General professes, in the Parliament, to be mystified by accusations that the government is employing wedge politics.

If you sense a certain pungent tang of the schoolyard in this whole episode, then I suspect that your instincts and your [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse] detector are in good working order. I’ve also been wondering what this makes us look like before the rest of the world, but the nations of the world are not the only witnesses to these sad, cynical events.

In a democracy, you get the government you deserve.

Five of the most senior members of our government are on record as card-carrying Christians. These are the Prime Minister his own self, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Attorney General, the Minister for Health and the Treasurer. This allows us to make certain inferences about them.

One is belief in an omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, personal Supreme Being.

Another is that this Supreme Being is interested in how people – especially people who profess belief in Him – conduct themselves.

Thirdly, there’s this Book...

It is not possible to read this Book without noticing that God is no detached, irony-loving postmodernist; He actively hates certain things.

One of these is a hard-hearted response to the plight of the unfortunate.

Another is dishonesty in such matters as weights, measures and boundary markers, and I’ve never read that retrospectivity makes any of it all right with Him. To do these things in a context of national self-congratulation is really mistaking napalm for play doh.

In a democracy, you get the government you deserve.

What sort of government do we deserve? Perhaps we deserve a government whose members have demonstrated, by their words and their silences, by their actions and their inaction, that they are content with the way things have been handled – that is, with a performance that would have embarrassed Dr. Goebbels. Is this fine with us, too?

Perhaps Christians need to get angry about these things, and to express this anger rightly and effectively, before God does this for us – unless of course the God of Howard, Anderson, Ruddock, Abbott and Costello is the real one, in which case we have nothing to worry about.

 

[Blessed-one]

thoughtful post, brute..

from the viewpoint of a christian, we should allow them in and assist them in whatever ways we can, but then not everyone is christian, and resources are limited. It's a dilemma i guess.. if you opened the gate wide, everyone'll start rushing to Australia. How do you balance that against the people applying through the right channels to be immigrants? (though in terms of need, i think the refugees stand at the top)

one number you can't control, because they just come whenever it's possible, while the other you can. Right, what about money? you know Australia isn't the best country in the world in terms of budgeting.. *check welfare*

um, it's a dilemma. We have the land, but not the planning and compassion. uh, i just remember, didn't Australia send this guy and his family to be reunited in New Zealand?! i mean, isn't that ridiculous?! that man is already settled, it's just going to be two more people living here, and they ship them to New Zealand. gee.. *shake head*

oh well, the government can't satisfy everyone.

 

[the brute]

The last thing (first thing?) I put up here went through a fair editing process, this will be more off the top of the head.
I agree that issues of national security are important, but I wasn't really trying to enter the debate at this level. What really makes me angry about this whole issue is the deception that's been practised on us. What worries me about it is that God is not neutral about this stuff. I think there might be consequences, especially in the context of the self-congratulation the government goes in for regarding our booming economy. I agree with you that the government can't satisfy everyone on this, but you could also argue that they won the last election by an appeal to the fear of enough Australians to get themselves over the line - by appealing to the less worthy side of our national charcter. Do you think a different policy might have worked if they'd appealed to our generosity of spirit, for example? It worked for Vietnamese boat people nearly thirty years ago, trashing the White Australia Policy in the process because, although not everyone was happy about it, it was done on bipartisan lines.
I've raved and snarled for long enough, that'll do for now.

 

[Blessed-one]

I agree with you that the government can't satisfy everyone on this, but you could also argue that they won the last election by an appeal to the fear of enough Australians to get themselves over the line - by appealing to the less worthy side of our national charcter. Do you think a different policy might have worked if they'd appealed to our generosity of spirit, for example?

well, that depends on how many generous Australians there are...

 

[the brute]

It seems to me to be an issue of political leadership; it really makes a difference.