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| Positive Responses Bravo! I hereby want to say that I have a spare room (with attached ensuite) that I'm willing to to provide for an individual or a family of people who are seeking asylum while their applications are processed. I found your site from an article in Margo Kingston's Web diary and was pleased to see that some Australians were organising against our Government's current policies. I am a small business owner who would normally be seen as a natural constituent of the Liberal Party and yet have been thoroughly disgusted with our treatment of refugees both on boats and in detention centres. I would be interested in information on joining your group and ways that I can help. Congratulations on your important work against racism. If our government will not assume its rightful responsibility on this issue, it is up to us the citizens to do whatever is necessary to get back our tolerant society. I am not prepared to let it slip away. We really have to work hard at this and I think people who care can drop any other political affiliation because this is a clear question of right and wrong and the type of society we want to be. I love the ad as proposed because it so clearly highlights that all we ask is a continuation of so much which has made our country great. To be racist or anti immigrant is turning on OURSELVES! You're the heros and no matter how tough it gets never be discouraged. I live in Switzerland so it is a bit hard to ever be directly involved but I will do anything I can from over here if you think I can be of assistance. Wishing you all the best of luck with this and keep it going strong Thank you for your initiative. It's been totally sickening seeing desperate people being used as political pawns and herded around like diseased cattle while the government misleads us and cloaks the facts in secrecy. Please add my name to any mailing list you may have. congratulations on the initiative you have taken. We are diminished indeed as a people if we accept the path both major parties are on. Lack of moral leadership is distressing. On behalf of the refugees whose lives are at stake and the rest of Australia whose consciences are at stake we thank you and salute you for being a stand for a transformed world. I got your email about the refugee advertisement. I too am very distressed about Australia's refusal to allow more refugees into the country – it makes me ashamed to be Australian. Why do we spend so much on arms to kill people and yet are unwilling to spend anything on helping them???? What a fuck-up. I want to wish you all the very best for this important project. Every might when I watch the news I am staggered at how inhumane, selfish and greedy our culture is becoming. When you think a poor country like Pakistan has now taken a million Afghani refugees, and we prefer to leave a couple of hundred to drown on our shores, it is a national disgrace: but where are the politicians with the moral leadership to speak of matters of moral conviction, compassion etc? It's a great idea and it's empowering for us all to think we can contribute in some small way to try and stop the insanity of the present policies of the major Australian political parties. Thank you for your efforts on behalf of the refugees. As one who has documented the same story for Jewish refugees before 1939 and survivors after 1945 I know the story only too well. The hysteria against Jewish refugees in that period also kept most out and there was also a bipartisan policy even though it was the ALP in power after 1945. Nothing has changed.… voices against the government are needed more so now. Interesting times head as the gov cannt sustain the policy and cost of using the navy to transport asylum seekers to poorer islander nations- how will they get out of this one? Thank you for your email. I heard that many Muslim women are afraid to go out to shop and some Australian women help them out by doing their shopping for them. I myself was once with a group from China that was ordering a special truck for air-spraying equipment and after dinner in the street, a group of Australians hid around the corner and shouted - Get back to where you belong you bastards! I shouted back to them, 'Come here, we can talk!' but they ran away. Sadly there is so much mis-information, and a friend of mine told me that she thought immigration should go through all the Muslim communities in Australia and check on them, in order to weed out terrorists. A doctor friend of mine emailed me saying - we can't have these refugees from Afghanistan, who knows they may be terrorists waiting to build up cells! Frankly ordinary Australians are afraid of the Muslims and their extremists and simply don't want them here. But if we don't accept them into our community as human beings, we only continue to drive them to extremes. It goes both ways. So I feel we should shock people. There are Australians who go around bashing up 'foreigners' and Aborigines and abusing them. So they abuse back. And there are Australians who sit down and discuss problems with these communities and make sure multi-culturalism works. But the mis-information is bad And it is no easy task to counter it. Soory but I cannot contribute financially to the commercial … But I could resist to comment on commercial I would like to see on TV on a Christmas Day: A Middle Eastern family (step-father, mother and male infant) escaping from the Middle Eastern country to the neighbouring state on a donkey ... ending up in a detention center in Nauru. Merry Christmas and happy New Year 2001 was the first time I have ever voted for a party other than Labour because I was so unhappy about the issue of the refugees. I kept thinking that if 4 or 5 families were sponsored by every community there would be no problem.I expect that we all need to face up to the fact that idyllic life in Australia and in fact the whole of the priveleged western world. is over. People are in flight all over the world and we have to take responsiblity. I am so pleased to be taking part in this ... I have been thinking about becoming an immigrant myself on account of the whole depressing situation here in Australia, but now I see that there are more and more people out there doing things, and writing and writing and talking, and it makes me feel a bit better. Well done!! The website is great and the commercial is wonderful - simple and moving - even to an old campaigner like me! Very impressed ... … Over the past week, I've been reading with great distress, about the children currently incarcerated in detention centres. It's way past time to get some changes happening in peoples' thinking ... so that the political leaders might be motivated to change their current rigid stance on the issue of asylum seekers and their treatment. My son is the same age as these boys, and I just can't bear it. God, its bad enough to be a teenager, but trying to form a sense of self under those circumstances must be just soul destroying. I'm going to the Chilout meeting on monday to see what I can do, and hopefully, I'll be able to get at least one of those kids out, set him up in a job and get as much publicity for it as possible to prove that white middle aged women don't all wear bobs and sensible shoes and play 'ladies who lunch' and vote Liberal. I'm also going to approach my son's school to see if they would take a boy on. They go on and on about community - I'm eager to see if they'll be able to get their heads around this one! I've also sent a very calm but demanding letter to the minister and the PM. I am … a local doctor in Brisbane. The convenor of the Amnesty Refugee Network and the newly formed and rapidly growing Brisbane Refugee Health Network. I am very excited about your project, it sounds wonderful, we need to be able to change mainstream thought and dissociate their increasingly real fears about loss of jobs, the increasing gap between the rich and the poor and decreasing services for the poor from anything to do with refugees … In 1997 when DIMA or the Government brought in the changes that began TPV's they also largely withdrew the Asylum Seekers Assistance Scheme and withdrew work rights from most Asylum seekers that were in the community on valid visas. They also introduced the 45 day rule. This group that makes up the largest group of Asylum Seekers in Australia (about 8,000 per year) generally flees here on valid Tourist, Student or work visas. They generally hope that things will improve whilst they are away from their country. Many have been tortured, imprisoned or witnessed family members being killed. Until 1997 they either gained work rights whilst they waited in the community for their asylum claims to be heard or were placed on the same sort of benefit as the current TPV's get called the Asylum Seekers Assistance Scheme. About 30-40% of cases were successful. Now we have the 45 Day Rule which basically means that if they do not claim within 45 days of entering the country their claims will be heard but they will get no work rights, no medicare rights ( hospitals now often send out debt collectors for even emergency care), no welfare rights, no rights to education for their children, even primary school age children must pay thousands of dollars each term to attend school. Many of these people do not initially come here to claim asylum, hoping that things might change at home in the meantime. These claims now take 3-4 years and sometimes even more ... There are no random checks made to see if we are refouling asylum seekers, except when people like Brian Harradine (the Chinese woman that was deported at 8 months gestation, and was forced to undergo a termination at this stage on return to China) find out about the occasional one that has been followed up. We and all groups around Australia that deal with Asylum Seekers know of many who have suffered terribly on return or have disappeared, or are suspected to be continuing on the terrible round of trying to seek Asylum somewhere. There is no International court to try countries or ministers for crimes against humanity if they refoul asylum seekers or for asylum seekers to appeal to. This group live in dire poverty in the community here in Australia supported in all our capital cities by Church Groups mainly with a strong sense of social justice. In Brisbane we see many of them once they are in dire straits at the Refugee Claimants Support Centre, in Sydney at the Asylum Seekers Centre in Melbourne at the Hotham Mission etc. Many are entitled to absolutely nothing and no right to work, so that they cannot even pay for anything themselves, voluntary work is also banned and can be a cause for deportation. They come here from Chile, Colombia, Somalia, Sri Lanka, China, Congo, Russia, Iran, Zambia etc. countries with terrible Human Rights records. Some of their stories can be viewed at the "Scattered People" icon on the website for Brisbane City Council's "Brisbane Stories": www.brisbane-stories.webcentral.com.au As a health network in Brisbane we lobby on behalf of this group and the TPV group that comes here from Woomera, Port Hedland and Curtin. I will circulate your details around our network and the Amnesty Network. Keep up the great work. Good luck with your programme. I completely agree that the treatment of the refugees is abysmal and when you read the second verse of our Australian Anthem it is hard to believe that Australian people have been convinced to take this point of view. Our political leaders have failed us for political reasons, ignoring the need to place before the public the reason why we should be thinking as generous humanitarians and not as selfish isolationists. Thank you for your efforts in helping refugees, in educating Australian's on their heritage and in helping Austalian's feel better about themselves. I listened to Mariana talking with John Faine on ABC Radio 774 this morning and was so pleased to hear that there was a group that had the guts to maintain some rage about the federal government's attitude to asylum seekers. My own situation demonstrates a sad lack of ticker. For almost ten years and over 100 articles I have written a monthly column … My September 2001 story … dealt sympathetically with asylum seekers. Soon after that I was villified on an international newsgroup by three Australian women who told me to 'go back where I came from,' and that I was 'unAustralian.' At the age of 71 and having been here in Australia since 1974 I felt hurt and demoralised by this attack. My best male friend also took an opposing line. Surrounded by what I saw as the massive approval of the Australian people for the government's line of demonising and villifying asylum seekers, I decided that I just couldn't write any more in public. I felt defeated. So it's good to hear of people who are still prepared to stand up for what they believe in, despite the current mood of conformism. You have my support. wonderful and thank you for doing this . I feel humbled by your efforts. I am so deeply ashamed as well as scared bu what is happenning in this country. How can i become involved in 2002 I don't know how many times I've sat down with family, friends and associates since the Tampa 'incident' and expressed my outrage at how the assylum seekers have been treated. Actually it started a lot earlier with the treatment of people within the detention centres. I have been shocked and disappointed in the 'majority view' of Australians who believe the government is doing the right thing in taking the hard line aginst 'illegal immigration'. In fact I have found the older generation, including my mother-in-law and my mother (a migrant herself) do support this view. However, I am yet to find a friend or colleague who isn't strongly opposed to the treatment of the assylum seekers and other migrants within our society. More than one other person has agreed with my desire to DO SOMETHING! In fact, I discussed with a friend in NSW … how we could get/smuggle assylum seekers to our properties and protect them from the authorities who were determined to dispose of them. Or, at the very least, to provide them with food and shelter and show them that the official line isn't how the average Australian would like to treat them. It's been a disaster, what has happened. And it seems to me that this war over Osamer Bin Laden is only going to make things worse for everyone; the Refugees, American and Australian people and the soldiers in Kabul and Kandahar. Imagine how the Refugees feel. It is said to me that all they are doing is sitting there and making it hard for Australians. I think not. If this is what you readers out there think, then you're wrong. It's not that the Refugees won't do anything about it, they can't do anything about it because they're locked up simply for being Refugees. All Mr Howard and President Bush can do is show off with their guns and weapons, and until they get their pride and glory, they won't stop. They will keep going, even if it takes a lifetime. It's all they will do. An alternative to this could be to understand why the terrorist attack happened in the first place. Something we should do is let the Refugees out of captivity and show them our way of living, like schools and government. This world was not created to have people locked up and have no contact to anyone except their roommates. Not even their family. All you people out there that agree with what we're saying, don't just stand there, do something about it! Don't just sit there and watch, make a difference! Do we want Australia to be ashamed? Do we want to look back to now in five years and be ashamed? Because if this keeps going, not only will we be terribly disappointed, but we will be ashamed for the rest of our lives. [author aged 12). This is a worthwhile campaign and I wish you all the best. We all need to do all we can to oppose ignorance, racism and a "Not in my back yard" approach to humanity. I am a 17 year old male currently studying year 12 ... I am a strong believer in what u say and even more so i am a believer against the way asylum seekers are treeted in Australia . I would be happy to help in any way possible and also could u please send me as meny facts on asylum seekers in Australia as possible, Congratulations on taking a proactive and vocal stance against the sickening xenophobia that has been on display in parts of the Australian community over the last few months. Your efforts and achievements in such a short period of time are remarkable. Terrific stuff, just visited your web site. You speak for many I am appalled and embarrassed at the Australian Government's "tough stand" on refugees. I have so far been writing letters to Gov't ministers and newspapers and joining street protests, but I feel I need to do more. Much more. Let me know how I can help or who may need my help. At last some media attention on some positive aspects of other nationalities. We are not different races but all human beings. Let everyone share our wonderful country. Let’s not tolerate racism. I have just viewed the ad (channel 9, during "Frasier") and I want to say "thankyou" to this organisation and those of you with the courage, intelligence, and decency (not to mention the money) to put together something like this. I have been disturbed (increasingly so) for some long time now over this very issue and the overwhelming ignorance which is being displayed within all strata of the Australian community. I find it most disturbing that my neighbours, workmates, strangers can preach "goodwill to man" during this season and yet in the same breath utter the most ridiculous and racist comments on this subject. … I am also a member of the ALP and felt myself growing utterly ashamed of the position taken by Beasley and the Party in general. I have had my say at branch level since the election. I have no intention of doing anything drastic like resigning - I still believe in working within the system. I am sorry, however, that a position like one documented on your website was not and still is not evident within the ALP. I just your add on TV and I was encouraged by it. Though I am not referring to anything in particular, I have lived in this great country of ours with racism. My story in general will be a bit too long to write but in essence, I am a winner (so far) to en extent that I call myself a proud Australian. English is not my first language. I would like to help this call for anti-racism and cause in any way I can. Please let me know how I can help you and join the voices of many Australians on this issue. I just want to say that I saw your commercial about 10 minutes ago and it went a long way in restoring my faith in Australian people to know that there are people like you guys out there willing to fight for a just cause. I find it so frustrating these days with the amount of mis-information that is around in regards to asylum seekers and the media's complete disregard for the truth. Im in my mid-twenties and was born and bred in Australia and along with all my friends am appalled by what is happening in our great country at the moment. I voted for John Howard in the election before last but now just the sight of him makes me sick to my stomach. I really hope that your group spreads to Sydney because I know that I for one and many of my friends will do everything to support you. Thanks for your efforts regarding asylum seekers. The melbourne catholic Archdiocese peace and justice commission released a report on the issue this morning, strongly attacking the horrific way we are treating these people. I hope that more and more people will take up the cause. Thank you for giving some of the community hope that there are still some decent Australians I saw your ad and checked your website and I think it is great that you have started this initiative ... I feel it is important to be creative in developing ideas and a vision for the future that adresses everyones concerns, including the fears of people afflicted by racism. Australians are far too intelligent, good natured and well resourced to settle for such a tragic, irrational and ill-conceived "plan" to deal with refugees as it stands. I see it as being quite possible to successfully transform the refugee crisis into a hopeful and credible outcome. What a fabulous idea and thank you for speaking on behalf of all of the people that have been absolutely appalled at the way the government/s have and are handling refugees and racism in Australia. If there are ever any petitions, support, membership that exists I would be very interested. Keep up the great work. Congratulations to Australians Against Racism, It is good to see you taking up this important cause. We should not let our Government get away with inforcing inhumane policy against our asylum seekers and refugees. Not only that, but the immigration policy is becoming more and more cruel. We now only have a parental reunion intake of 500 people per year, down from around 8000 in the mid 1990s. The queue for people wanting to reunite families with their parents and grandparents has blown out to around 20 years. How absurd and disrespectful to Australia's large immigrant community. Ruddock and Howard keep saying they are sending the message that we are not a soft touch. Perhaps the message is we are a touch soft (in the head). The way we treat refugees and asylum seekers sends the message that we as a country are cruel, racist and selfish. Dear AAR: I am writing to commend you on your efforts to tap into the humane and decent side of the Australian community. Congratulations. I saw the commerical during Grumpy Old Men and I found it startling and haunting, esp. the last two faces shown. And the voice was HUMAN. I feel momentum gathering.. Ruddock is a walking exercise in denial. … sat glued to a commercial channel (unusual for an elitist) the ad was wonderful!!!!!!!! VERY WELL DONE I am a 50 year old businesswoman in Sydney and extremely passionate about your cause. I thought, during the election, that I was a lone voice with a couple of friends and relatives and I am thrilled to find more and more of us. My family migrated here after the war from Europe. They were fortunate enough to be highly educated with some financial means and with relatives here. I have been horrified at the attitudes of similar migrant families and indeed refugees towards this new wave of desparate people. I am a proud Australian, born and educated in Sydney, with a singular loyalty to Australia. Because my family is Jewish and a few survived the concentration camps of Europe I have a particular interest in Middle Eastern politics and am a believer in peace in the Middle East. I would like to offer my help to your organisation and your particular current emphasis on the asylum seekers in ANY way that I can - financial, personal etc. Please let me know what I can do!! Thanks for thinking about such a positive and healthy initiative, it adds a bit of balance to the negative messages sent by the polititians of the two mayor parties in the past few days. I never imagined that the leaders of today are willing to appeal to the dark fears fed by ignorance. I have been embarressed , dismayed and disgusted by our Governments ( and some australians) attitudesb and treatment of refugees. Yesterday, when I heard on 2BL that a doctor , a refugee in detention was not allowed 2 houurs leave to receive an award in a ceremony at Darling Harbour, I felt like screamimg! Enough rambling, as an individual am I able to make a small financial contribution to help you with your work. Let me know Brilliant, finally... The best thing that has been on television! Please add us to your address book. There are plenty of us out here that would like to help Congrats to all of you invovled in this project. It is fantastic to see something positive towards asylum seekers, and to the negative view that the two major parties expressed during the election. I'm a 17 year old Australian, but over the past few months I'm not a proud Australian because of a treatment towards this people. This is an issue that has been close to my heart for over 18 months now, and one I have kept informing others about. These people don't diserve jail, or abuse. They don't diserve to be sent back home. They diserve to be welcomed and become Australians. The public of Australia is one that is zenapheobic and too occupide with the idea of individualism. I hope and pray this ad will change many peoples view on the issue so that we do accept more asylum seekers into this country. Your work is brilliant and please keep me informed if I can help the cause in any way possible I've been thinking a lot recently about freedom of speeach, the right to speak out, the Phillip Adams affair, the secrecy increasingly surrounding important affairs of state, as well as seemingly innocuous things such as not being told where Australian troops are, and when we do find them, having their faces smudged over in photographs. Now, I don't think people bother about all that stuff. I really don't. It's too abstract for most people to get worked up about; very much the preserve of the elite, the chattering classes. How I hate those expressions. As if politicians were not. Anything i can contribute to the campaign, count me in. I'm so dismayed at the way the Howard government is taking things and it is not the sort of country I want my daughter growing up in. I now you and many others feel the same! I'm an artist currently involved in an exhibition called: 'We Are Australian' where 300 Australian artists have created images against racism in Australia. This exhibition has travelled to: Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart, Albury and Durban in South Africa where it was part of the recent conference against racism. it's final 'resting place' will be the National Museum in Canberra where the whole collection will be housed permanently. Love your add! If I can be of any help, please get in touch. Surely, if people are desperate enough to risk their lives getting here, there plight warrants a helping hand. I'm not proud of Australia's behaviour. Can the opinion polls indicating public support be accurate? … it is good to hear that the ad is getting a response. I hope that it will play a part in Australia changing its policy on temporary protection visa holders too - and before too long. We have met several Afghani people here on TPV's - via the horrors of Woomera - and it is heartbreaking to hear their stories and then to think that it will be many months or several years before they see their families again. |
Negative Responses The reason why detainees are locked up in detention centres is that they dont make themeselves available when their case is heard. When their application is unsuccessful they commit a crime so they can stay here while their case is heard. They are unable to accept the governments decision to send them back when their application is unsuccessful so they go on hunger strikes and causer riots in detention centres A large number of them deliberately come with no papers to try and lie about who they are & where they are from, They pay large sums of money to jump the queue by coming from indonesia on rickety boats, then they do insane things like toss their kids over board or set their boat on fire to claim human rights and get picked up. IF these asylum seekers wish to come to Australia their is an orderly, honest process to go through which doesn't involve issues I have already outlined I am sorry but I totally agree with what the government is doing. If these people have enough money to buy a passage to Australia in a leaky boat they have enough money to sit back make their application and wait their bloody turn. How angry are people who sat in a refugee camp for 5 years and did things by the proper channels when they see all these queue jumpers getting in. I totally disagree with what you are doing and so do 96% of Australians. hi, there's a feeling in america of betrayal right now. these terrorists lived and enjoyed life in america, and then screwed us and our hospitality. i m not feeling too charitable to middle eastern people right now, so you probably shouldn't expect a donation from me in the near future. You 'Do-Gooders' can do what you like but you will never succeed in changing our laws so why bother?, I am a staunch Liberal voter and the only comforting thing for me if Labor wins the election is that they as well will continue to enforce 'Howards Law'. These people are Illegals & Que Jumpers, the hyde of them to destroy Australian Navy boats. If I fled my country because it was so bad (After paying People Smugglers thousands of dollars) and I was picked up by the Australian Navy and taken to a Tropical Island on the South Pacific to live I would be over the moon and these Illegals refused to get off the boat and destroy the boat and assaulted the Navy officers. You are wasting your time. You are a ver small pathetic minority, I hope the Government spends millions of taxpayers to keep them away from our great country. Get a life. you disgust me, you are not in the majority, we DO NOT NEED these scum on our shores. stop the propaganda crap now! A pole was conducted and the Australian people supported Mr Howards. Race didn't get a mention, only if we should open Australia to a flood of refugees. So why do you not except what Australians want? What makes you right and every one else wrong in what they believe? I hope this never receives any government funding and I also hope some organised opposition groups form to support the opinions allready expressed by Australians. I have just observed your commercial aired prime time on the nine network, that must have cost a pretty penny. I wonder what self interest group put up the funding for that! I find it hypocritical that you socialists exist & often thrive in democracy's only to denounce the decisions made through this process. I pay significant taxes & whilst happy to support worthwhile national issues object to housing & financing some goat herder from the middle east, (who happened to have a lazy $20,000 lying around). These people will make no contribution either financially or culturally to our nation, a nation they most likely will not become citizens of. I find it ironic that people that share your view often are environmentalists & if so do you question natures laws in relation to survival of the fittest? If you are looking to help people look no further than our own community, the one you drive through to get to your chardonnay swilling parties. Yours In contempt I have seen the AAR television commercial, and I have visited the AAR website and studied your two articles. All you offer is opinion - there are no FACTS to support your arguments. Your statement "What a sad, under-educated and pathetic country we are, then." (Sallis, Eva To Lead or Follow? The Howard Government's Mandate to Mistreat Refugees 2001) is an insult to all Australians. It is an insult to great Australians too, such as Victor Chang and Fred Hollows, who have raised the profile of Australians as humanitarians internationally. Further, your arguments are definitely elitist, but not necessarily intellectual (Sallis, Eva Words can hurt, even kill you: A discussion of new synonyms for 'Refugee' 2001). Your view that democracies are OK until the view of the majority differs with your own opinion, is clear evidence that you are elitist. I would continue, however, you represent a MINORITY that will never achieve ascendancy in Australia, therefore I choose to ignore your views. I am from an ethnic background and very proud of it and my Australian heritage. Australia is a great place to live and I support any balanced immigration policy so long as those who want to come here do so within the guidelines. However I strongly disagree with organisations (such as yours) that are misleading the public by using "racism" as the excuse to promote the current wave of so called refugees from Indonesia. These so called refugees must go through the process to determine their eligibility before they arrive on our shores. This is not racism but sound policy. Organisations such as yours should "mind your own business" and "shut up". These so called refugees should be turned around (at gun point) if necessary and returned to the last country where they boarded the boats. There they can go through the due process. So please stop wasting your money on the television advertisements. The results of the last federal election should confirm that the average Australian does not support the current wave of "refugees". I agree with measures being taken, and they are far from racist. Read up on racism before you start expounding righteousness. Saw your ad and wasn't impressed. I don't care about people who pay their way to simply jump the queue. Turn them back. Their country would do that to me - and probably far worse. I have absolutely no sympathy for those on the Tampa or at Nauru etc. I am in no doubt that you will have received a great deal of feedback already from your advertisement and web-page as it is quite a strong message that you are putting across. … I am not a racist, and don't agree with your argument in relation to the refugee's coming into this country. I whole heartedly agree the concept of refugees and am in absolutely no doubt that there are genuine ones trying to get to Australia for a better life. However, you have much information also floating around in our society with the amounts of money that these people have handed over to come into this country through illegal means. I would like to stress that word illegal. Australia has laws that govern the way we live and these laws contribute to the lifestyle that we share in this country. There is a process of applying to come to this country and if you meet the criteria you are welcomed with open arms. You need to speak English, you need to be able to contribute to society and not be a burden on society. If these people want to come on dodgey boats and risk their lives - how many deaths have resulted from the dodgey boats? - then the accommodation at the end of that journey would be better than the bottom of the sea. It is not Australia's fault that they have decided to break the law and try and come in illegally, it is not Australia's responsibility to provide them with anything more than basic necessities and food. The ONLY demand that should be coming from these boat people is "please help me" - nothing more. I cannot speak for other Australian's, I can only speak for myself. I am aware of the racist comments around, even going as far as reading someone suggesting to bring back the White Australia policy - which is ludicrous. Australia is a multi-cultural nation now - and it's better for it - I truly believe that. What people need to do though is to put Australia first, then their religion, and then their country of origin. "When in Rome" as they say, but also be prepared to teach and educate and be proud to share a culture you are bringing with you. I put it back onto you how you think you would go behaving the way some of these boat people are here, in their country, and see how far you get. We have to be tough in relation to this issue - we aren't being barbaric. If these people were so keen to leave their country of origin, then anywhere must be better than where they came from, and they should be thankful. We need to have secure measures in place to ensure the people that are coming into this country are not going to be detrimental to this country in anyway. Lastly, I don't believe that this boat people issue is a racial issue. You are not doing the issue any favours by saying that it is a racial issue … I once had some sympathy for the refugees. But not any more. As a taxpayer I will have to help foot the bill for the criminal activities of these people at Woomera over the past 24 hours. These incompatible misfits who were smuggled into Australia should all be kicked out of the country. Thank God for the Howard Government. Better you show some loyalty to fellow Australians instead of these illegal criminals, and that's what they are, pure and simple. What have you done to help the Aborigines and the Australians with a drug dependency problem? Take a closer look at your own motives. I have shown your email to a variety of people I have contact with including those with a government background, and a couple of different ethnic groups, including some Hindus, and they are as mystified as I am as to what your intentions could possibly be. … I personally am incredibly offended that you would link border control and security issues with 'racism'. Many good Australians put their live son the line for the East Timorese with the backing of the majority of Australians, and we've made many different nationalities welcome. It is incredibly weak to use the moral black mail of 'racism' to validate your position. Maybe see how you go arguing your point from the facts. Members of a generally liberal progressive society have every reason to be circumspect about the influx of people associated with a belief system that traditionally shows no tolerance of other religions, and comes with the baggage of endemic extremist violence, and a really appalling level of misogyny. It really is quite impossible to think of anotehr country where a large number of Muslims live peacefully alongside other religions. Indonesia? Nigeria? Philipines? Their record is terrible, and I'm sure if white religious absolutists were arriving by boat you'd have no problems screening them very thoroughly indeed. It certainly is incumbant upon us to protect the wider community, and to consider all groups involved. … I wonder what your agenda actually is? I'm aware that some right wing Jewish thinkers believe that the only way the West will ever really come down hard on the Arab world if if we face the kind of onslaught Israel faces on a daily basis. Or perhaps you harbour some kind of grudge against this country? I can't imagine. We will certainly keep an eye on your activities. |
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