Saving Australia from Asylum seekers

Saving Australia from Asylum seekers
by GDL

In a previous post I wrote that if nothing drastic is done to stop the boats and send the asylum seekers back to where they come from, and if the business of people smugglers is not broken, Australia runs the risk of becoming a country of refugees. Australia's refugee intake is around 27,000 per year and now we have around 50,000 boat people in the country. At this rate in ten years' time the number will be nearly a million. This is unacceptable.

The polls show that "the boat people" issue ranks very high in voters' concern. It is a fact that there has been a considerable increase of boats arrivals since Labor took power in 2007. It was the main issue that Kevin Rudd's popularity was at its lowest and his eventual knifing and ousted from office..
Juila Gillard made " the boat people" one of her priorities and accused Kevin of' inability to handle the issue.  She might have thought she had the magic power to stop the boats, but unfortunately she failed abysmally. To compound her problem, her propositions were turned down by the opposition and the Greens. This was a rare agreement between an extreme left party and a right wing one.

When Kevin Rudd came back to power for the second time, the problem was worse than where he left it. There are now some 50,000 illegals, i.e.  those coming by boats, in Australia. Kevin Rudd in an attempt to stop the flow of illegals and queue jumpers was given a life bouy by the Prime Minister of PNG, to save him from oblivion. The PNG solution is still at its inception, it is yet to be tested by people smugglers but apparently, the message has reached those who were paying people smugglers. There is a slight decease of boats arrivals.
Transferring the boats people to  Manus Island and Nauru, is only part of  the solution. There is still the possibility looming that they might end up in Australia, as it was under John Howard. At the moment it is Australian taxpayers who are bearing the cost directly, or indirectly though overseas aid. The real solution is to break the people smugglers business model by tackling the problem at source. This can be done through intelligence cooperation with Indonesia. It is possible to spot those who are transiting through Indonesia and where they will take the boats from. It only demands a bit of goodwill from the Indonesian police but as it is known, they are corrupt and part of the mafia.
The other way to circumvent the issue is to send Australian intelligence to Indonesia to uncover the business and in a way prevent the boats from leaving Indonesia's shores. This is within the realm of possibility and reality.
To deter people smugglers from carry on their lucrative business at the expense of people's desperation, the United Nation should get the support of the international community and set  an International Court just like the one in La Hague for war criminals, to judge people smugglers..

Coming back to Australia the two major parties are in a race to show toughness towards asylum seekers. Labor will sent all the boat people to PNG with no hope of being resettled in Australia. For their part the Coalition goes further by not granting Permanent Protection Visa (PPV) to all those 30,000 or 50,000 who arrived by boats in the past years. On top of this the coalition will deprive the asylum seekers the right to appeal if found not to be a refugee. Those found not to be refugees will be sent back to where they come from. The other way to curb the problem of refugees is for Australia to walk out of the Geneva Convention which is outdated with new circumstances and realities of regional conflicts and civil wars e.g. Syria..

If the asylum seekers/ boat people is so high on the political agenda, it is because many Australians see the refugees as  the paria of our society. Refugees have never brought any good thing to our country. Most of them are on the social security benefits or are long term unemployed as many still cannot adapt to the western democratic values and rule of law of Australia. On the other hand refugees have brought us triads and drug smugglers as well  as a mentality of fraud and corruption.. Just attend a court session in Parramatta or elsewhere and you are sure of seeing some refugees facing justice for indictable offences .

Asylum seekers arriving by plane or those coming by boats boat  should be turned back to where they come from. The refugees are costing the country too much money and are  not helping to build a better Australia. Australia need an orderly immigration policy and skilled people who will be an asset to the country. In this period  where we face economic challenges. Australia cannot afford to be generous or compassionate at the cost of billions of dollars spent on asylum seekers, mainly if they are not genuine and coming by the back door.

The race is on...the bets are out,

Will Tony Abbott be the next PM of Australia ? by GDL

 

On Sunday 4 August, The Prime Minister of Australia announced to the nation that the general elections at federal level will be held on 7th September 2013.
It was a relief for the people as well as for businesses putting an end to a suspense and a period of uncertainty. Since the last elections in 2010, the government led by Julia Gillard government has been under pressure from inside and well as from outside. Many were asking whether her minority government would last. Her problem was complicated by her alliance with the Greens and being at the mercy of the Independents. Furthermore Julia Gillard's government made so many blunders and was not popular which favoured the rise and rise of the opposition.

Until one month or two months ago. according to the polls and according. to most analysts and journalists, Labor was facing oblivion and annihilation. Some pundits were predicting that labour will be wiped out and at most could elect 40 candidates. It would have been a walk over and Tony Abbott was sure to be our next Prime Minister/ All this would arrive  without the opposition spelling out their policies. It was a question of kicking Labor out and not voting the opposition in.

All was going well for the opposition and Tony Abbott had already written his victory speech. However only one big problem for the opposition, is that Tony Abbott, has never been popular among voters. For most of last year the unpopular Julia Gillard was the preferred PM. Tony Abbott approval ratings has never exceeded 50% even against Julia. Paul Murray and Peter Van Olsen on Fox were always highlighting Tony's big disapproval ratings. Nevertheless Australians were prepared to let him have a go a the primeministership and his party to govern Australia for the next three years.
Many people in Australia are quite sceptical about Tony Abbott. Some would say that he is not articulate, others find him too conservative while others are just sceptic about whether he can be a good Prime Minister. The misogyny speech of Julia Gillard has caused some damage to Tony Abbott as many still opine that he has a problem with women. That could be because he was first going to be a priest and then changed to politics. He is also a staunch monarchist which means that he does not like to see an Australian as head of the State. Is this also because he was born in England and still very much attached to his country of birth and his strong allegiance to the Queen? Tony Abbott is definitively a conservative and some think that he is the most right wing politician behind Pauline Hanson and Barnabe Joyce. He comes from the party of white Australia, a party that does not embrace or recognise multiculturalism and it is obvious that he is quite uncomfortable with
migrants. He also wants to destroy the unions and is the man who supported work choice, the nightmare of workers. There is no doubt that the Liberals campaign will be financed by big
business and the Murdoch press have already delivered battles against Kevin Rudd and Labor.  The scandals of phone tapping involving the Murdoch press in England are still fresh in the minds of Australians. Can they really trust the Murdoch press and in particular the Daily Telegraph ? Rupert Murdoch want to see Tony Abbott be the next prime minister so that he can have his way and his Foxtel business in Australia prosper still more. Greed has no limit.

On a personal level Tony Abbott has a big problem to make people like him even though they would accept him to some extent. On policy level he has also difficulty elaborating his economic plans for the future, his policies openly support big business. His policy is not to tax big business nor the big polluters. His paid parental leave of 26 weeks of maternity leave will also apply to women earning 200K or  1 million dollars there is no limit. Tony Abbott will reduce the company tax by 1.5% which means that big business will save some five billions dollars which would otherwise have gone in the government's coffin for the nation. Tony Abbott is also a climate change sceptic, i.e. he does not believe climate change is real. His will repeal the carbon tax which means that big polluters will continue to pollute as much as they want. He is also against any market live the Emission Trading Scheme and event the Carbon Production Reduction Scheme which will put a cap on carbon emission. His direct action plan instead will cost taxpayers some seven billions.
This is the man who, according to the polls, will be our Prime Minister in September.  In the 2010 elections, voters were prepared to roll Labor out but they stop short of voting Tony Abbott. Will it be different this time or will they give him the approval tick ? Time will tell and may God save Australia..