Sorry, to clarify, there is a post in Russell's link referring to "Goodwin".
I'm not sure what the right answer is to Australia's "asylum seeker" situation, but I'm pretty sure the current policy isn't it. The current policy suits the current populism, on both sides of politics.... It may have started under Howard but it continued and was revised to something similar under Rudd/Gillard...and is being continued under Abbott. The only difference I can see is that Abbott is trying to make it less visible.
This isn't party political, so stop trying to make it look that way. Stop trying to blame the coalition/ALP.
This is an issue which is beyond politics and requires our social and personal attention.