Julia Gillard's solution to people smuggling.

Ok, so it seems to be the most pressing issue at the moment with valid arguments both for and against that I just had to write about it...

Australia’s so called ‘agreement’ to send the next 800 asylum seekers to Malaysia in return for resettling 4000 refugees from Malaysia over the next four years, will occur regardless of whether or not Australia sends those asylum seekers or accepts them within Australia.  This coming as a result of the mistreatment of 90,000 refugees in Malaysia according to a recent assessment by the UN stating that refugees in Malaysia were vulnerable to prosecution, deportation, whipping and detention – so why would we be simultaneously sending refugees to the same country that openly engage in the further mistreatment of asylum seekers?  How can Australia promote such mistreatment being a country of migrants itself? Isn't that just as 'un-Australian'?

At a time when war is escelating globally, and considering the proportion of the developing world and developed countries that now face poverty, should Australia be protecting its own borders as opposed to increasing business for people smugglers?

Another interesting argument put forward was surrounding the legitimacy of the refugees themselves. are they genuine refugees or are they rich and elite people in the war torn countries or in the refugee camps, exploiting the sympathy of the world to the refugees to advance their immigration plan by flying to Indonesia for a boat trip to Australia? only the poor are the ones who suffer in a war and have no means to escape it. The rich, the elite and the educated are the ones who are able to use their advantage to get out of the countries, legally or illegally. This leads to the question about the "compassion" that the refugee advocates always pride themselves about. Ha, we have the ideologically driven activists who are using their resources, energy, intelligence to advocate the elite and rich at the expense of the poor and under-privileged and are boasting about their "compassion". To the lawyers who are the activists, any boat people that you have helped, if it turns out that they are immigration opportunists in reality but somehow succeed in deceiving the system with your help, means that you are taking away the precious limited places for the genuine poor refugees in the camps.

So I'm done with my usual socialist rant and I welcome any further views put forward by fellow readers.