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Poll Poll
Question: Gillard to blame for boat deaths?

Yes, her weak policies made this possible    
  5 (55.6%)
No    
  4 (44.4%)
Unsure    
  0 (0.0%)




Total votes: 9
« Created by: mellie on: Dec 16th, 2010 at 2:15pm »

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Gillard to blame for boat deaths? (Read 2586 times)
mellie
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Gillard to blame for boat deaths?
Dec 16th, 2010 at 2:15pm
 
Gillard to blame for deaths

THE disaster at Christmas Island yesterday when a refugee boat crashed into rocks, killing dozens of asylum seekers, can only be seen as an indictment of the Gillard Government's lax border protection policies.

It was the dismantling of the Howard era's hard-fought policies in the guise of compassion by the Rudd government in 2008 that led to the influx of boats, and the added risk to the desperate souls on board.

And it is disingenuous of Twitter compassionistas to demand the tragedy not be politicised. You cannot remove politics from the people-smuggling business.

The Howard government's initial crackdown on the boats after 2001 may have seemed severe at the time. But it worked -- people smugglers got the message and the boats stopped coming -- from 43 in 2001 to an average of three a year.


http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ipad-application/gillard-to-blame-for-deaths/story-f...
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darkhall67
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Re: Gillard to blame for boat deaths?
Reply #1 - Dec 16th, 2010 at 2:23pm
 
[url]http://blogs.news.com.au/jackmarxlive/index.php/news/comments/showboat/[url]



There are few postures quite as serpentine as that of the bully who disguises his cruelty as some kind of love. Sadistic teachers of old were fond of it - the furrowed brow and fraudulent look of regret as they caned you “for your own good” - and the history of xenophobia is rich with creeps who dolled up their barbarism as a humane sympathy for the very people they sought to oppress. The asylum seekers who drowned off Christmas Island last night had barely taken their last breaths when such ghouls began riding their waterlogged bones, boastfully declaring the tragedy a vindication of their own contemptuous beliefs, their allergy to foreigners camouflaged behind a sick exhibition of concern for the very lives they couldn’t give two $#@&s about.  
The argument - which you’ll find all over this very news portal - is that our Government today has the blood of the dead on its hands, Australia’s relaxation of its policy towards asylum seekers having lured such wretches here in the first place. The more “compassionate” policy, they say - one that would allegedly have prevented this tragedy - would be to make life more difficult for such unfortunates, to turn their boats around while at sea, to harass and intimidate them with such rigor as to make traveling to Australia by boat an entirely unattractive proposal.

This argument is lanced by the very incident such frauds are opportunistically using to mount it, for there is no greater deterrent to illegal immigration than death at sea. If deterring asylum seekers is what it’s all about, then last night’s sinking - engineered, apparently, by our Government’s soft hand - will be a far more foreboding advertisement than the prospect of simply having one’s time and money wasted by being turned around. Those who believe in tough love should be applauding the tragedy, if they can work out how to clap with iron fists in velvet gloves.

But the truth is that there’s no love in those voices at all. It’s a pretense. They speak of “deterrent” as some sort of insecticide, the creatures it’s made for mere flies and roaches that scurry about with no more determination than vermin. As if anyone who makes a journey such as this is no more desperate and intelligently resolved than a pigeon looking for somewhere to crap. Put up a scarecrow and they’ll go somewhere else. What despicably ignorant and lordly thinking.

They make a lofty distinction between “genuine asylum seekers” and those who apparently embark on treacherous one-way journeys around the world for fun, or whose efforts to enter our country are fueled by the same base desires as those who attempt to jump the queue at the supermarket. As if the responses to poverty and oppression have ever had anything to do with greed. And as if those who trumpet for the protection of “our way of life” are driven by anything more noble than small-minded avarice and jealous self regard.

The issue of immigration routinely becomes perverted by fanciers of political statistics - whether Australia is taking its “share” of asylum seekers, or at what point Australia’s population becomes “unsustainable”. The heart of the matter has nothing to do with these things. It’s a moral question about whether we have the right to declare a piece of earth our own to the exclusion of all humanity but those we deem “appropriate”. Anyone with a brain capable of a fleeting moment’s existential thought knows that we cannot possibly have that right. Whittled down to the bone, it’s a question of how many - and how much - Australians can’t tolerate wogs. The answer is evidently not a pretty one.

Since our colonial inception, Australia has been a home for the wretched, the unfortunate and the brave, those courageous enough - or stupid enough - to find themselves leaving it all behind in the pursuit of a life on the other side. That the sons and daughters of those very people are slamming the door on beggars is onerous enough. That they’re claiming to do it in the name of “compassion” - today, of all days - is a sick joke, and the sick jokers peddling it should never be taken seriously again.
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darkhall67
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Re: Gillard to blame for boat deaths?
Reply #2 - Dec 16th, 2010 at 2:24pm
 
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vegitamite
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Re: Gillard to blame for boat deaths?
Reply #3 - Dec 16th, 2010 at 2:27pm
 
Dont forget this snippett from the SMH also ;


'A cable obtained by WikiLeaks and provided exclusively to the Herald says an unnamed "key Liberal Party strategist'' told US diplomats in November last year that the issue of asylum seekers was ''fantastic'' for the Coalition and ''the more boats that come the better''

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vegitamite
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Re: Gillard to blame for boat deaths?
Reply #4 - Dec 16th, 2010 at 2:32pm
 
Quote:
Dont forget this snippett from the SMH also ;


'A cable obtained by WikiLeaks and provided exclusively to the Herald says an unnamed "key Liberal Party strategist'' told US diplomats in November last year that the issue of asylum seekers was ''fantastic'' for the Coalition and ''the more boats that come the better''




opps forgot to mention this snippett wasnt from  Miranda Devine like the Opening post !
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Sprintcyclist
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Re: Gillard to blame for boat deaths?
Reply #5 - Dec 16th, 2010 at 2:41pm
 

judas IS the PM, prior to that she was the 2IC.

She IS responsible for all their policies and implimentation thereof.

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mellie
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Re: Gillard to blame for boat deaths?
Reply #6 - Dec 16th, 2010 at 3:02pm
 
Sprintcyclist wrote on Dec 16th, 2010 at 2:41pm:
judas IS the PM, prior to that she was the 2IC.

She IS responsible for all their policies and implimentation thereof.




And lest we forget the implications....

It was only a matter of time before something terrible like this happened, I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. Roll Eyes
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mellie
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Re: Gillard to blame for boat deaths?
Reply #7 - Dec 16th, 2010 at 3:13pm
 
See by weakening boarder control, and making this avenue more appealing to those unprepared to follow standard/legal immigration protocol, she's effectively made a rod for hers and our backs.

She took the passive approach to boarder security, rendered it a free-for-all, and now as a result these people are dead.

Undecided Clearly it's unsafe to immigrate this way, so why haven't we taken steps to stop it?






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darkhall67
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Re: Gillard to blame for boat deaths?
Reply #8 - Dec 16th, 2010 at 3:22pm
 
darkhall67 wrote on Dec 16th, 2010 at 2:24pm:





The argument - which you’ll find all over this very news portal - is that our Government today has the blood of the dead on its hands, Australia’s relaxation of its policy towards asylum seekers having lured such wretches here in the first place. The more “compassionate” policy, they say - one that would allegedly have prevented this tragedy - would be to make life more difficult for such unfortunates, to turn their boats around while at sea, to harass and intimidate them with such rigor as to make traveling to Australia by boat an entirely unattractive proposal.

This argument is lanced by the very incident such frauds are opportunistically using to mount it, for there is no greater deterrent to illegal immigration than death at sea. If deterring asylum seekers is what it’s all about, then last night’s sinking - engineered, apparently, by our Government’s soft hand - will be a far more foreboding advertisement than the prospect of simply having one’s time and money wasted by being turned around. Those who believe in tough love should be applauding the tragedy, if they can work out how to clap with iron fists in velvet gloves.

But the truth is that there’s no love in those voices at all. It’s a pretense. They speak of “deterrent” as some sort of insecticide, the creatures it’s made for mere flies and roaches that scurry about with no more determination than vermin. As if anyone who makes a journey such as this is no more desperate and intelligently resolved than a pigeon looking for somewhere to crap. Put up a scarecrow and they’ll go somewhere else. What despicably ignorant and lordly thinking."
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Sprintcyclist
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Re: Gillard to blame for boat deaths?
Reply #9 - Dec 16th, 2010 at 3:30pm
 

she also promised then training, gave them acommodation, food, clothing, health care, net access ..........

may as well wave the "Come-on-over-we-are-tools" flag
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darkhall67
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Re: Gillard to blame for boat deaths?
Reply #10 - Dec 16th, 2010 at 3:37pm
 
Sprintcyclist wrote on Dec 16th, 2010 at 3:30pm:
she also promised then training, gave them acommodation, food, clothing, health care, net access ..........

may as well wave the "Come-on-over-we-are-tools" flag






That would have covered some australians at least.
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Mattyfisk
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Re: Gillard to blame for boat deaths?
Reply #11 - Dec 16th, 2010 at 3:44pm
 
High seas? Sharp rocks? Human error?

No, blame the PM.
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skippy.
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Re: Gillard to blame for boat deaths?
Reply #12 - Dec 16th, 2010 at 3:50pm
 
But the truth is that there’s no love in those voices at all. It’s a pretense. They speak of “deterrent” as some sort of insecticide

Says it all, just look at the rightards posts today.
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mellie
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Re: Gillard to blame for boat deaths?
Reply #13 - Dec 16th, 2010 at 4:00pm
 
US critical of Rudd's handling of asylum seekers


SECRET US embassy cables have sharply criticised the handling of asylum seekers by former prime minister Kevin Rudd and accuse Labor and the Coalition of playing partisan politics with the issue.

The cables reveal that a close adviser to Mr Rudd failed in an attempt to persuade him to use the government's powers "to calmly and rationally put the issue in perspective" by acknowledging that only a small number of asylum seekers were arriving by boat compared with tens of thousands of visa over-stayers each year.

According to one cable obtained by WikiLeaks and provided exclusively to The Age, an unnamed "key Liberal Party strategist" told US diplomats in November 2009 that the issue of asylum seekers was "fantastic" for the Coalition and "the more boats that come the better".

US embassy reports through 2009 reflect growing Labor concern with the increasing number of boats carrying asylum seekers, with US diplomats identifying people-smuggling as a critical test for Mr Rudd.

The embassy stepped up its reporting after the explosion and fire that destroyed a vessel carrying asylum seekers off Ashmore Reef on April 16, 2009.

US diplomats noted the issue was "highly emotive" and reported that Labor insiders regarded it as "politically dangerous" for the party that had promised a more humane approach prior to the 2007 federal election. "The Labor Party — which was burnt by this issue at the 2001 election — is fearful of being viewed as 'soft' on border security," the embassy reported in mid-2009.

Labor sources were keen to explain the government's difficulties and their own recommendations for an appropriate response. "Rudd's former foreign policy/national security adviser in opposition, Peter Khalil (protect) confided to us that Labor Party MPs were very anxious about the asylum seeker issue due to the events of 2001," the embassy reported in October 2009.

"In opposition, he advised Rudd to attack the amount of money spent on the Pacific Solution, but this was vetoed by senior party figures. Khalil predicted Rudd will 'get hit' by the public on this issue because his actions would not be commensurate with his tough rhetoric; he contended internal politics made it virtually impossible for Rudd to significantly strengthen border protection laws."

Mr Khalil suggested a better approach was for Mr Rudd "to use the power of government to calmly and rationally put the issue in perspective", specifically that there were about 60,000 cases of visa over-stayers per year, while only 1000 asylum seekers entered Australian waters by boat by that stage in 2009.

US embassy officers agreed, noting that "in terms of overall migration, the surge in asylum seekers is a drop in the ocean". But they reported Mr Rudd was "not mentioning this, or lauding his government's more humane approach to asylum seekers".

Federal Labor MP Michael Danby candidly told embassy officers that Mr Rudd had "played the politics badly" and "completely misread" the issue.

Coalition strategists were reported as saying the issue was "significant because it was the first time Rudd had been exposed for a lack of leadership and for 'trying to be all things to all people' ".

The US embassy reported that in parliamentary debate, Mr Rudd had "returned to tedious spin and bureaucratic jargon, making him look evasive and out of his depth". Reporting on Mr Rudd's handling of the diplomatic standoff with Indonesia over asylum seekers aboard the Australian Customs vessel Oceanic Viking, the embassy observed that "the PM's heavy-handed and increasingly awkward spinmeistering has alienated a media corps that has previously given him the benefit of the doubt on most issues".

"While our contacts insist that the Australia-Indonesia relationship is strong enough to withstand such irritants, they appear genuinely concerned that this standoff driven largely by Australian domestic politics has cost goodwill with the Indonesians."

The US embassy's reports also reveal Australia has been relying on US assistance in efforts to combat people smuggling. One cable reports that a senior Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet executive, responsible for border security, expressed official gratitude for "intelligence assistance provided by the United States to track people smugglers". Immediately before he was deposed as prime minister, Mr Rudd warned Labor against a "lurch to the right" on asylum seekers. Shortly after her appointment as Prime Minister, Julia Gillard announced a "tough" new policy, including establishing an off-shore processing centre.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/us-critical-of-rudds-handling-of-asylum-seekers-2...

View wiki cables here

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/exclusive-the-wikileaks-aust...

The actual leak...

http://images.theage.com.au/file/2010/12/15/2096934/Cables.htm
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Miss Anne Dryst
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Re: Gillard to blame for boat deaths?
Reply #14 - Dec 16th, 2010 at 7:21pm
 
Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd's go soft policies have directly caused this latest incident of boat people dying whilst trying to get to Australia.
The death toll well over 200 in the last 3 years which is a massive difference to Howard's last 6 years under the Pacific Solution of zero.
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