On 26/09/2011 11:39 AM, Russell Coker wrote:
On Mon, 26 Sep 2011, Mike Mitchell<m.mitch@exemail.com.au> wrote: Not a screw-up, just a politician lying.
I suspect the Admiral lied.
I would have thought they could still be treated humanely and processed overseas. Then those that meet the requirements could be found suitable places elsewhere to act as a deterrent. With all due respect to Malaysia I don't agree with the Gillard solution.
The problem is that the only reason for processing them overseas is to permit treating them worse than could be done in Australia.
The reason, as I said, is as a deterrent.
I can only point to my reply to Tim: "It will appear far more clear when you look, as I mentioned, at it from the other way around. Imagine it was you looking for refuge overseas. Perhaps after the Bob Brown strategy for dealing with "an economic depression and enemy bombers are attacking". There is no guarantee you will be accepted by any other nation in your time of refuge just a vague hope."
Sure there are other countries acting in an inhumane manner, that is no excuse for Australia to do the same.
That is NOT the point I made. Refuge is a privilege not a right.
There are problems with inequality in Australia and many Australian citizens are not being treated well. That is a problem that needs to be fixed not an excuse for treating immigrants badly.
Again, NOT the point!! We need an holistic answer.
His election as VP after Black South Africans were allowed to vote indicates that the majority of the ZA population were happy with what he did. But that doesn't mean he had an electoral mandate.
On what planet?
Having a representative Democracy and allowing politicians some freedom to vote with their conscience after elected has real benefits.
As a rule I would agree. I think most have values similar to the rest of us. With the exception of Julia's knowledge of economics. Which is surpassed by the average Second Form Economics student.
If politicians were to act on the basis of any sane economical analysis we would have a lot of renewable energy already and no uranium mines.
This only represents YOUR view of _sane_. This nation has higher levels of tolerance than that. Cheers, Mike