MT we all know majority of illegal arrivals that got sent to Nauru detention ended up receiving asylum here in Australia.
So the effect of it showing us to be tough that stopped people risking there lives in leaking boats worked.
How the left can claim it was barbaric when there policies couldn't even pass the high court is just hypocritical.
I would say the actual Left were against the "Malaysian solution" just as they were against the "Pacific solution". They are celebrating the High Court decision and would've been involved in setting up the High Court challenge in the first place.
Anyway as far as boat arrivals, there hasn't been a year since 1989 where there have been no boat arrivals at all. Ironically we didn't have mandatory detention in the 80s yet not one boat arrived for 7 straight years! Just shows overseas conflicts play the major role in the number of refugees rather than what pollies in Australia come up with.
http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/bn/sp/boatarrivals.htm#_Toc285178607See there are always people desperate enough to attempt the trip on a rickety old boat whatever policy is around. The numbers were slowly increasing again towards the end of Howard Government when you look at that table so so much for "stopping the boats"
. Even the current policy (which as I said I disagree with) has reduced the number of boat arrivals from last year yet it's called a failure by those crying "stop the boats". As I said all this fuss and money wasted over a small percentage of our total immigration intake is ridiculous but we all know it's purely about politics - to have the refugees publicly out of sight out of mind and sneak them in through the backdoor so the pollies don't upset anti-immigration losers looking for scapegoats. Yep the pollies really care for the refugees' welfare and safety
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In the late 70s we had the Vietnamese boat people arriving and there was all this similar hysteria from the same loser-types who needed scapegoats. I know a guy who escaped Vietnam as kid with his family from memory on a overturned bus to get to a boat. He's now a professor and works in the financial sector in Collins St. Damn send him back!
We are all either immigrants (5 million Australians) or descended from immigrants. People are a country's greatest asset but it seems we have forgotten that.
