"NO WAY! You will not make Australia home..."

[Fish]

While this topic probably deserves a detailed reply I don't have the will at the moment.

I just want it on record that I disagree with many of the assertions on this thread about refugee's motivations, the costs of humane vs inhumane treatment and the options open to refugees. It is ground that has been covered for many years in Australia and there is a lot of detailed myth busting information out there for anyone interested that covers many of these points in detail so I won't rehash it. Of course there is room for different opinions but we really need to understand the facts first. The problem is there is usually a little bit of truth in every myth but the scale is often totally off.

What I will say is that the current minister should be ashamed. I believe if most Australians came face to face with the reality of our actions and saw the truth they would be too.

Edited October 31, 2014 by Fish

[Mara]

The only opinion I really have is summed up by "I cried because I had no shoes, till I saw a man who had no feet"!

I have often tried to put myself in their shoes, be they genuine refugees who have waited many years in a camp to be placed somewhere or boat people that have paid their way to come here in leaky boats, or for those that have stepped off planes and asked for asylum, and the one question that always comes back to me... what would I do if I was in their place?

Would I wait?

Would I go?

Years in a refugee camp?

Quicker in a leaky boat?

Plane ride and seek asylum?

Desperate people will do desperate things.... that is the only conclusion I could come to.... if I put myself in their shoes!

I have no idea what the right answer is, all I can do is pray for them.

[Kurkprop]

So this is something i'm pretty passionate about, so excuse the soap box.....

(Really hope i don't ruffle anyone feathers but this is an important topic to me)

My issue with this all is purely financial, i vehemently dislike any kind of racial profiling, racial slurs...etc but that is a separate problem to the below so i'm not going into any of that.

When i got my tax return this year the provided numbers showed somewhere around 30% or 40% of my taxes went to welfare (I can find the paper tonight if anyone needs me to),

Additional refugees will add significantly to this, as is mentioned above, why do they come to Australia, why don't the boats stop in Indonesia to ask for refugee status, it will cost the refugees a lot less?

I get it, who wouldn't want to have the kind of life offered by Australia,

Until the new policy changes the number of refugees was increasing significantly every year, since the change the numbers have dropped to almost nothing as the refugees for the most part don't want just a different country, they want Australia.

The problem is, it is not sustainable for Australia, they were talking about $200k-$500k in costs per refugee,

If they are granted refugee status the country could end up supporting the family for the rest of their lives, our dollars could be better spent i think if they just added a tax for a feeding program in Ethiopia rather than paying for a refugee that could have landed at a closer country to their source, what im trying to say is that the philanthropic money from the country could be way better spent stopping people from starving rather than on giving families a new life in Australia.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/public-service/boat-people-warning-on-rising-cost-of-refugees--up-to-500000-each-20131222-2ztax.html

Now i want you to multiply 30 000 refugees by $250 000 (Lets be really conservative), then add lifetime welfare, then make that 30 000 per year and tell me how much more tax you are willing to pay to make the government books balance, the drama on the petrol tax increase currently is the perfect example, we are talking 40c on 50 liters of fuel, that is an increase of zero point 8 cents per liter and people are throwing their toys over it.

Would Australians be willing to give up their Public schooling, childcare benefits, look at what is happening when the government tries to remove the university subsidy

As much as people want the government to do things sometimes it is just not financially possible, the money has to come from somewhere and it was REALLY expensive

The cost of offshore processing is about $400k per asylum seeker per year. The cost of onshore processing using community detention would be $100k. These figures are from the governments own Commission of Audit.

Add to that the long term psychological damage these people end up suffering from after spending years in Nauru is conditions you wouldn't even keep a dog in vs. including them into our community and giving them a chance to make something of themselves.

To me it is a no brainer.

Edited November 1, 2014 by Kurkprop

[Tiermelk]

what would I do if I was in their place?

I would probably have done the same, but if the Australian government changed the odds and made it more difficult I might have reconsidered and gone elsewhere.