While the government and opposition avoided criticism of each other's position on border security, others were not so circumspect. Prominent lawyer George Newhouse, who is representing survivors of last year's Christmas Island boat tragedy, said heavy penalties for people smuggling meant untrained "stooges" were in charge of vessels. "To make matters worse, the government's policy of confiscating boats means the vessels which are used to transport asylum seekers are often unseaworthy - with disastrous results," he said. Refugee Action Coalition coordinator Ian Rintoul agreed the decision to criminalise people smuggling had played a role in the latest tragedy. "If the government is worried about people losing their lives at sea, they should decriminalise people smuggling so that the voyages can be planned in open and seaworthy boats," he said. Mr Rintoul, anticipating expressions of sympathy from the government and the opposition, accused both sides of hypocrisy. He called on the government and opposition to back a massive increase to Australia's refugee intake, end mandatory detention, decriminalise people smuggling and drop offshore processing as a policy option. Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said the sinking was a terrible tragedy that was above politics. "Our focus today is on the search and rescue effort and our thoughts today are with the people who died and with the families of those still lost at sea," he told reporters in Sydney. Australian authorities in Jakarta were advised about the sinking late on Saturday night, and the information was transferred to Canberra early on Sunday morning. Australia has offered support, including an Orion aircraft, to the Indonesian search and rescue effort. Mr Clare said he always was concerned about the dangers boat people faced on the voyage to Australia, a position echoed by the opposition. "The report of this tragedy once again confirms our worst fears and the extremely dangerous nature of these journeys, especially at this time of year," immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said. The large number of people reported to have been on the vessel was especially concerning, he said. "It confirms the trend we have seen this year of the people smugglers putting more and more people onto every boat." Former Labor leader Mark Latham was scathing of "so-called compassionate people" who backed onshore processing of asylum seekers. Boats sinking and "families dying" were a direct consequence. "Onshore processing is a magnet for people to pay people-smugglers to get on boats that are unseaworthy," he told Sky News. Mr Latham took aim at the Australian Greens and Labor's Left faction for arguing the case against offshore processing. "You can't be compassionate and you can't have a good heart, you can't have a good soul, if you encourage people to get on boats that sink." Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said: "This is a humanitarian issue which today is about a humanitarian response, not one of border protection," she said, adding it was a time to mourn all those involved in the tragedy. http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-new...d-for-asylum-boat-sinking-20111218-1p0jq.html =============================================== Whatever it takes, the boat people must be stopped before any more tragedies like this occur. This problem has will spiral out of control if urgent, effective action isn`t taken immediately. Julia, stop playing politics and fix this mess, enough people have died already.
This is nonsense, they dont do their cause any favours by trumpeting this . The boats are crap and the crews untrained because this maximises profits for the organisors.
What do they expect us to do, rebuild the boats & give them back? Sarah Hanson - Young is the only one dumb enough to do that. Now is the time for action, not mourning. Write to your MP & tell them to stop the boats, NOW!
Yes - doing something that may stop people dying is dumb Yes. My local MP can solve the global refugee problem! Why didn't I think of that before!!
How does "stopping boats" address the issue of asylum seekers? Do asylum seekers just mysteriously disappear with the cessation of motion of marine craft? Or were you really saying "please stop showing these people on the news, or hide them somewhere in the central Pacific, so I can go back to pretending they don't exist".
How many unfortunates would you like to encourage to risk their lives trying to come here, two billion, three billion? You haven`t thought the issue through at all.
So - we could send nice safe big Australian boats to pick them up and bring them here safely. No risk to their lives at all. Not "stop boats." More boats. But you haven't answered the question: How does "stopping boats" address the issue of asylum seekers? Do asylum seekers just mysteriously disappear with the cessation of motion of marine craft? Or were you really saying "please stop showing these people on the news, or hide them somewhere in the central Pacific, so I can go back to pretending they don't exist".
No - the Howard Government did not "stop the boats". They stopped the boats from landing in Australia. The boats and the asylum seekers did not mysteriously disappear. They were still there. Boats still came. They were turned back, or they sank and people died (remember SEIV X?). This very much exposes the disgusting hypocrisy in your comment: You - and the other supporters of the racist policies of our previous government - don't care about he lives of asylum seekers. You want them turned back to drown or live in misery in a camp in Indonesia. You wan't to return to the good old days - when we pretended they didn't exist. Turn them back - that way we can pretend they are not there!! This racist hypocrisy really is truly sickening.
Bugs, your emotive divergence hasn`t addressed the obvious fact that Australia isn`t capable of taking a small fraction of the world`s underprivalaged and persecuted. You still haven`t justified your "open gate" "policy", by explaining to us how giving people false hope is anything more than a death trap. You still haven`t answered the basic question, "How many unfortunates would you like to encourage to risk their lives trying to come here, two billion, three billion? "
How is providing safe transport to people to come to Australia to be treated humanely a "death trap"?
Simple, this would only encourage a mass exodus to Australia which would ultimately have to be stopped somehow. This could not fail to trap a massive amount of people in transit, leaving them vulnerable to no end of exploitation.
I see. So your alternative solution is......? Let me guess--turning boats around and pretending they don't exist?
It would be preferable to destroying countless people`s lives. The short sighted denial of the obvious facts of this issue, has in recent years, been directly responsible for hundreds of deaths at sea. This type of decision shouldn`t be entrusted to weak, puppets Govts like the present rabble. You still haven`t answered my question : "How many unfortunates would you like to encourage to risk their lives trying to come here, two billion, three billion? "
