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SydneyKate

Listed below are comments made by SydneyKate between Wednesday, 12th November 2008 and Saturday, 18th April 2009.

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Going soft on asylum? 04:17am on 18 Apr 2009 Budgiesmugger, you are an idiot. That's it. There is no other way to describe this. You appear to be literate but since you apparently can't read comment no.27 but can type a response this is the only answer I can come up with.
Wollemi, the number of refugees who are women and children is estimated at 75 to 80%. But yes it is disgustingly high. And yes all of these arrivals are male.
http://www.ivillage.co.uk/newspol/camp/refuge/articles/0,,186771_186926,00.html
Another point of note: They are also all Afghani. The average income in Afghanistan is put at $800 a year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/25/AR2009032502204.html
Now costing for transport probably via Iran and then Malaysia and/or Indonesia plus the people smuggler's fee plus a fake passport assuming you could not afford to purchase the expensive legitimate travel docs in Afghanistan........
How on earth would a regular refugee find that money? Someone who fears for their life, is persectuted and has lost everything? You're looking at 5 years salary minimum. Which you happen to have on hand almost 8 years after the situation first deteriorated.
That means they're either a)not Afghani (its happened before), b)involved in the opium trade (the only way to make decent cash in Afghanistan) or c) not the people in Afghanistan who really need assistance and safety. More often then not it's corrupt officials who find this avenue the easiest as they have the money to start with. Let's take them in and leave people like the Karen in Thailand languishing in their camps for another 20years. Camps they were forced into because of their ethnicity and camps they are not allowed to leave so yes they are de facto prisons. There are real refugees and there are economic refugees and there is a distinction.
Going soft on asylum? 09:32am on 17 Apr 2009 To move this conversation to the higher realms of international law rather than a mere he said, she said slanging match, this is the relevant UN article
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/o_c_ref.htm
Article 31. Refugees unlawfully in the country of refuge

1. The Contracting States shall not impose penalties, on account of their illegal entry or presence, on refugees who, coming directly from a territory where their life or freedom was threatened in the sense of article 1, enter or are present in their territory without authorization, provided they present themselves without delay to the authorities and show good cause for their illegal entry or presence.

Now if the asylum seekers can prove to the government that their lives were at risk in Indonesia, they have a valid claim. They will also need to back that up with intention of turning themselves in immediately upon arrival and a good reason they didn't contact the Australian embassy in Indonesia in the first place.
Before you get all uppity, my grandparents were illegal immigrants after the czech purges when the communists decided everyone in other political parties needed to die. They crossed into US controlled Germany illegally, with nothing, and showed the arrest warrant to the GIs to prove their valid claim of persecution. They worked their butts off, earned the right to come to Australia, where they were placed on an immigrant farm and worked their butts off some more.
I dislike these illegals because for every queue jumper who has thousands of dollars to pay a people smuggler, a real, political refugee rather than an economic one is denied the position and safety they require.
Do you think my grandparents wanted to make a claim in post-war destroyed West Germany? Of course not, but they used the system how it was designed to be used. That's all people should be required to do.
Going soft on asylum? 09:12am on 17 Apr 2009 Scrap-the-Jack,
Thecamo requested "a refugee or illegal migrant was the culprit", I merely provided the former as no there are no stats on crime committed by illegal immigrants. Why would there be? Once your asylum and residency is granted you have proven you are a refugee and are no longer illegal for the government's intents and purposes. My point was that his rant that a refugee would be grateful to the society that let them in and never commit a crime borders on the ridiculous. People are people.
Dungutti,
a) they are incidents not statistics. Hard to manipulate incidents.
b) what on earth do you think "I don't think this is indicative of a larger problem" means? Of course Australians commit these crimes too, that's what I was saying. This is not a refugee crime wave (even the statitics you don't trust put the crime rates at that of the general population), though it is a response to "Just one will do. In your own time." Arrogance deserves arrogance.
Going soft on asylum? 07:20am on 17 Apr 2009 Ask and ye shall recieve thecamo.
Here's 4 links.
Sudanese bash policemen, sudanese bash teenager, sudanese bash refugee advocates.... The 4th link contains murder, car crashes and allegations of favourable treatment.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22567071-661,00.html
http://iluvsa.blogspot.com/2009/02/africans-brutally-bash-white-kid-at.html
http://portmacquariepreservationists.blogspot.com/2008/12/gang-attacks-christmas-charity-workers.html
http://www.theage.com.au/national/plea-to-mentor-african-refugees-20081123-6etw.html
Now 2 of the sites are iffy but the news stories themselves are corroborated on credible sites or via video.
I don't think this is indicative of a larger problem but if you're going to be an idiot and treat any one group like saints without realising that um yes refugees do commit crimes too, you're an idiot and deserve to be shown up.
My issue with illegal immigrants is that they are illegal and not asylum seekers. International law is clear. You must apply for asylum in the first country you enter. These people came via several nations and definitely via Indonesia, that makes all of their claims void.
The arrivals who reached our shores in early April spent 3 months living in Indonesian hotels. Do they sound like desparate, persecuted people to you? Or perhaps like queue jumpers who take away places from people who do use the proper channels. And yes if someone has the resources and the money to find and pay a people smuggler, they also have the resources and money to find the correct channels and hire a lawyer.
Australia no longer needs you... 12:11pm on 17 Mar 2009 Ummm...... All of you are missing something.
Yes Rudd did decide to cut his immigration intake target by 14% - but he had already increased the target from the previous year by more than that.
2007-08:
Family – 49,870
Skilled – 108,540
Total – 158,630
2008-09 (as originally announced):
Family – 56,500
Skilled – 133,500
Total – 190,300
So basically losing the 14% from the skilled category still leaves us with an overall figure of *drum roll* 171,800 (not including refugees or New Zealanders) and that happens to be an increase of over 13,000 places from the last time. Talk about scare mongering.
Worst of days 09:17am on 09 Feb 2009 Ok much calmer now.
Paulcanning, the 1994 fires, they were certainly something. I remember the whole summer our car boot was packed with photos and emergency clothes just in case today was the day we had to leave.
And then in 1996 waking up in the middle of the night and seeing fire rushing down the opposite side of our valley.
No one has any idea how fast bushfires move until you've seen one.
As for the appeals, donate to the Salvation Army appeal not the Red Cross. I think they're better placed to deal with long term community needs, though the Red Cross are nondenominational of that's a concern.
Worst of days 09:06am on 09 Feb 2009 Kitty,
If you've ever seen a Eucalypt on fire you'll know they don't always burn - they often explode.
As for "what could have been done"?
The town of Kinglake had 200 homes. It now has 3. According to the mayor they have an early warning system, but it didn't go off.
Why?
This fire was travelling at 2km every 8 minutes. By the time you've seen it and gotten the family in the car, it's there.
THERE WAS NO WARNING.
And if you can outrun it and the exploding eucalypts, families perished in their car. Why? Because when the winds reach the speed required to push a fire that fast, trees tend to fall across roads, across cars blocking you in.
Your comments are incredibly insensitive but above are some facts to dispell your notion that we are all somehow idiotic country bumpkins who don't know how to clear out our gutters and hose down embers. LIKE THAT WOULD HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE.
By the way it's nice to see that you are even aware that we have bushfires.
Perhaps you'd like to tell your President?
The offers of aid from Britain and New Zealand were much appreciated. The silence of our our strongest ally is deafening. Does Obama not have five minutes to delegate a response to his Press Secretary? Would that be too much to ask?
American exceptionalism 01:33am on 15 Nov 2008 One man's optimism is another's blind trust and naivety.
Yay Americans are optimistic! Or maybe they're simply just not paying attention. The truth can hurt, so let's all bury our heads in the sand.
What Obama win means for Oz 01:04am on 15 Nov 2008 AgentSoul, go to wikipedia and type in 'Gough Whitlam'. Anyone can introduce these reforms provided they have the guts and political will to do so. And hey you won't even have to worry about %$^%*&^ John Kerr the Cur waiting in the wings to dismiss your elected representative.
Yay. Bob Brown just announced he wants to push for a Republic, and I've just re-connected with my hatred towards our current system, given that a non-elected representative can protect his own backside and dismiss parliament ostensibly while working for the Queen.
Oh well at least Kerr is now dead and was hounded to his grave. Small pleasures.
Australia's indigenous political hopes 06:57am on 12 Nov 2008 Comparing African Americans and Indigeneous Australians sounds fine at first but it's really apples and oranges. How many native americans are in the US congress or senate? Now you have a relevant comparison.

Ridgeway himself wrote a column last week about how it is possible, as long as the individual is able to balance indigenous priorities and majority needs and appeal to both groups without feeling like a sell out.

And of course possess the ability to rise to the top of the party via factional infighting and backroom deals.

It's highly possible, but there are no obvious contenders on the horizon for either Australia's first indigenous, or for that matter female, PM.

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