Quoting "Michael Scott" <luv@inoz.net>

I couldn't agree more that neither party has done the right thing by asylum seekers. I also agree that the right place to start is humanity. The current state of play, where asylum seekers are detained indefinitely just isn't good enough.

Unfortunately the laws related to refugees and asylum seekers in general are created by politicians, and politicians legislate based on populism.

There is a clear base for our obligations, the Refugee Convention 1951. http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49da0e466.html Hitler was an elected politician too. If I follow through this argumentation all Germans did the right thing, just Goebbels and Hitler were to blame. Why is it so popular to kick refugees? A Member of Parliament during her election campaign: ''[Asylum seekers are] a hot topic here because our traffic is overcrowded,.. Go sit on the M4, people see 50,000 people come in by boat - that's more than twice the population of [western Sydney suburb] Glenmore Park,'' Yep, under Hitler it were the Jews and the cyclists. I wonder why Scott Morrison became on a sudden Minister for Border Protection. Shouldn't he be Minister for Transport? Under Hitler it could cost your life to criticise the government. Here you can speak up. Why is it still that quiet?

I'd err on the humanitarian side, but how far?

I would not call that erring. Outside this country the most people consider it as an inhuman way of avoiding legal obligations systematically. In other words: The Australians are leading the way of eroding the value of the Refugee Convention. A proud role when you consider a country with a meagre intake of few thousand refugees per year. This story is not new, it is 12 years after Tampa.. Did it solve our "problems"? Did we stop the boats? No. But it certainly made this country a darker place. There are many other things that go wrong at the moment (to name a few: Where is our Federal Minister for Science, when did we decide we don't need Diplomats to run Foreign Affairs? Who is the government serving when they weaken anti-gambling laws, and, if the Federal Government does not invest in Metropolitian railway lines, and the State does not either - who will it be?) but the asylum seeker issue is a long-lasting disease in the Australian public. Occasionally I enjoy not to live in Sydney, at least we have a musician who is donning a "Asylum seeker" T-shirt when singing at the Grand Final. (Mark Seymour) We all should be louder! Regards Peter