The decision is in: The High Court has ruled against discrimination against refugees who come to Australia by boat. The government is now forced to go against its offshore processing idea and treat all refugees equally, and onshore.

People who come to Australia by plane, who get a tourist visa and then, once here, claim asylum, get to live in the community.

In 2008, 4700 people were "processed" in this way.

If you come by boat, of course, it's a different story. You get detained and have to wait for your claim to be processed. In many cases, this can take 5 years or more.

In 2008, 161 people were processed in this way.

85-90% of boat people are found to be genuine refugees. This compares with 40-60% of plane people. Australia has a two-tiered refugee intake system, and the High Court has now ruled against this.

The government could legislate to change the law, of course, but it would look bad - especially when the UN is already sniffing around and the Labor government has made it clear that it wants to differentiate itself from the Howard government by abiding by the UN Convention on Refugees.

The number of boat people arrivals this year (to September) is 4822.

The number of births in 2009 was 295700.

chicken_lipsforme wrote on Nov 12^th, 2010 at 9:37am:


Yes, but what about the airlines?

chicken_lipsforme wrote on Nov 12^th, 2010 at 10:49am:


So the airlines are in business, but the boats are smugglers.

What about the mothers? These women are notorious for popping out their tinted babies as soon as they get to shore.

Business or smuggling?

Chalk up 'nother failure for gillard

Sprintcyclist wrote on Nov 12^th, 2010 at 3:00pm:


Gillard? No one's putting her in detention.

they could put her in a male prison nobody would want to rape her

beer wrote on Nov 26^th, 2010 at 8:43pm:




There's a difference between refugees and boat people.

Do we really need any immigration policy/program?
And do we need any border protection?