Why is Australia's asylum seeker policy so lauded

[EalingBlue2]

at the Senate estimates hearing today it became clear that the annul cost of keeping refugees in off shore detention is close to $1.5 billion a year and that is generally to house about 5000 people. Now to my simple mind that is spending approx 350k each. Then it was revealed that under our new successful policy with Cambodia we have spent 180million on a programme that has seen 4 people relocated to Cambodia at a cost of a cool 50 million each. At the same time we have spent well in excess of double that on the department and naval operations which have turned back something in the region of 2000 people probably at a cost of many times the 300k each we have spent on those we are housing in Nauru.

Meanwhile Australia's biggest natural resource producers struggle to remain competitive due to skills shortages and paying over recent years up to 300k PA in wages , transport and living costs for relatively low skilled jobs in the extremes of WA, Queensland and the territory.

This is then lauded a mighty success but for the life of me I cannot understand why paying 300 k a year to house someone off shore when they could be paying tax, fixing a labour shortage and labour problem is actually a brilliant policy???

But the Cambodia policy surely has hit new heights of waste, the biggest insult is that one of the four re settled who cost 50m each hated Cambodia so much he went home to face the music. Meaning it's now 67m per person settled there. This is what UKIP wants as UK policy isn't it!

I understand the situations aren't comparible though as Aus must have a population density of about 2% of the UK with about 50x the natural resources and much higher wages and labour costs.

Something had to be done here to stop deaths at sea and the interception and stopping at source is helping but when it is at the price of schools and hospitals and with such waste we need to keep a sense of what success is.

 

[Mad Fax]

I work for a big UK/Oz mining company and highly skilled people are getting laid off for the last year or so, certainly no shortage of labour in WA and there are certainly no jobs around paying 300k! There are very few unskilled jobs in these areas these days, we're no longer sending people underground with a spade and a canary. Any unskilled jobs are generally filled by locals and indigenous people easy enough. Booms over in WA mate :)

You're correct in saying something needs to be done regards the asylum seekers though, not sure what the answer is but its not flooding the resource sector with cheap labour.

 

[Mike D]

I work for a big UK/Oz mining company and highly skilled people are getting laid off for the last year or so, certainly no shortage of labour in WA and there are certainly no jobs around paying 300k! There are very few unskilled jobs in these areas these days, we're no longer sending people underground with a spade and a canary. Any unskilled jobs are generally filled by locals and indigenous people easy enough. Booms over in WA mate :)

You're correct in saying something needs to be done regards the asylum seekers though, not sure what the answer is but its not flooding the resource sector with cheap labour.

When you had racist bigots like this running the country I take very little the Aussies do seriously.

 

[Mad Fax]

When you had racist bigots like this running the country I take very little the Aussies do seriously.

I'm from Radcliffe.

 

[bluemanc]

I work for a big UK/Oz mining company and highly skilled people are getting laid off for the last year or so, certainly no shortage of labour in WA and there are certainly no jobs around paying 300k! There are very few unskilled jobs in these areas these days, we're no longer sending people underground with a spade and a canary. Any unskilled jobs are generally filled by locals and indigenous people easy enough. Booms over in WA mate :)

You're correct in saying something needs to be done regards the asylum seekers though, not sure what the answer is but its not flooding the resource sector with cheap labour.

not sure what the answer is but its not flooding the resource sector with cheap labour

Correct.Mad Merkel's spin on that is lumping them all together & forming migrant Ghetto's,what could possibly go wrong.

 

[JULES]

at the Senate estimates hearing today it became clear that the annul cost of keeping refugees in off shore detention is close to $1.5 billion a year and that is generally to house about 5000 people. Now to my simple mind that is spending approx 350k each. Then it was revealed that under our new successful policy with Cambodia we have spent 180million on a programme that has seen 4 people relocated to Cambodia at a cost of a cool 50 million each. At the same time we have spent well in excess of double that on the department and naval operations which have turned back something in the region of 2000 people probably at a cost of many times the 300k each we have spent on those we are housing in Nauru.

Meanwhile Australia's biggest natural resource producers struggle to remain competitive due to skills shortages and paying over recent years up to 300k PA in wages , transport and living costs for relatively low skilled jobs in the extremes of WA, Queensland and the territory.

This is then lauded a mighty success but for the life of me I cannot understand why paying 300 k a year to house someone off shore when they could be paying tax, fixing a labour shortage and labour problem is actually a brilliant policy???

But the Cambodia policy surely has hit new heights of waste, the biggest insult is that one of the four re settled who cost 50m each hated Cambodia so much he went home to face the music. Meaning it's now 67m per person settled there. This is what UKIP wants as UK policy isn't it!

I understand the situations aren't comparible though as Aus must have a population density of about 2% of the UK with about 50x the natural resources and much higher wages and labour costs.

Something had to be done here to stop deaths at sea and the interception and stopping at source is helping but when it is at the price of schools and hospitals and with such waste we need to keep a sense of what success is.

1. can you honestly not work out why australia has this type of policy ????!
2. the bit about ukip...... no mate they want gas chambers, honest they do, it was in the daily mirror, honest, I swear it, honest

 

[Blue Hefner]

When you consider that the white man is not indigenous to Austraila I always find it pretty rich when people say we should follow thier lead - in Austraila, the immigrants took over!!!

And also, it's not lorded by human rights charities

 

[EalingBlue2]

When you had racist bigots like this running the country I take very little the Aussies do seriously.

To be fair he is no longer running the country and is now a bitter back bencher

 

[EalingBlue2]

When you consider that the white man is not indigenous to Austraila I always find it pretty rich when people say we should follow thier lead - in Austraila, the immigrants took over!!!

And also, it's not lorded by human rights charities

True, Australia seems to be a country where the last wave of immigrants are usually the most vociferous about stopping the next. I had a taxi driver with a strong cockney accent ranting at me the other day about immigrants in Australia - he refused to accept that either he or I were immigrants......

My point was less about this side of it though and more the economic irrationalism of a policy which has us spending irrational amounts on individuals for purely political reasons.

 

[EalingBlue2]

1. can you honestly not work out why australia has this type of policy ????!
2. the bit about ukip...... no mate they want gas chambers, honest they do, it was in the daily mirror, honest, I swear it, honest

Australia has this policy for the simple reason that it wins votes , it wins votes because it is not looked at in terms of facts or rationally but through the lens of Murdoch and through the lens of three word slogan.

If you ask people do they want to stop the boys they say yes . Equally if you asked people would they be happy spending 50 m to send someone to Cambodia or 500k to house someone in Nauru they wouldn't agree

 

[EalingBlue2]

I work for a big UK/Oz mining company and highly skilled people are getting laid off for the last year or so, certainly no shortage of labour in WA and there are certainly no jobs around paying 300k! There are very few unskilled jobs in these areas these days, we're no longer sending people underground with a spade and a canary. Any unskilled jobs are generally filled by locals and indigenous people easy enough. Booms over in WA mate :)

You're correct in saying something needs to be done regards the asylum seekers though, not sure what the answer is but its not flooding the resource sector with cheap labour.

Wasn't meaning to imply earning 300k more costing 300k Less than half of the actual costs is the salary as the fly in fly out, infrastructure and other issues costs the lions share rather than pure wages. I realise also that things are not what they were as the construction projects are coming to an end and many of the operations are pretty efficient live in terms of manpower.

 

[Bill Walker]

The number of boats was growing and growing, how many do you allow in , a thousand boats a month, 5 thousand boats a month ?

When you had racist bigots like this running the country I take very little the Aussies do seriously.

Never let a good story get in the way of the facts haha

It was actually Labour PM JUlia Gillard that re-opened The Nauru Regional Processing Centre in August 2012 after a large increase in the number of maritime arrivals.

 

[Bill Walker]

at the Senate estimates hearing today it became clear that the annul cost of keeping refugees in off shore detention is close to $1.5 billion a year and that is generally to house about 5000 people. Now to my simple mind that is spending approx 350k each. Then it was revealed that under our new successful policy with Cambodia we have spent 180million on a programme that has seen 4 people relocated to Cambodia at a cost of a cool 50 million each. At the same time we have spent well in excess of double that on the department and naval operations which have turned back something in the region of 2000 people probably at a cost of many times the 300k each we have spent on those we are housing in Nauru.

Meanwhile Australia's biggest natural resource producers struggle to remain competitive due to skills shortages and paying over recent years up to 300k PA in wages , transport and living costs for relatively low skilled jobs in the extremes of WA, Queensland and the territory.

This is then lauded a mighty success but for the life of me I cannot understand why paying 300 k a year to house someone off shore when they could be paying tax, fixing a labour shortage and labour problem is actually a brilliant policy???

But the Cambodia policy surely has hit new heights of waste, the biggest insult is that one of the four re settled who cost 50m each hated Cambodia so much he went home to face the music. Meaning it's now 67m per person settled there. This is what UKIP wants as UK policy isn't it!

I understand the situations aren't comparible though as Aus must have a population density of about 2% of the UK with about 50x the natural resources and much higher wages and labour costs.

Something had to be done here to stop deaths at sea and the interception and stopping at source is helping but when it is at the price of schools and hospitals and with such waste we need to keep a sense of what success is.

The mining boom is over ealing, there are little or no vacancies now, either skilled or unskilled

 

[EalingBlue2]

The mining boom is over ealing, there are little or no vacancies now, either skilled or unskilled

True though there are still big shortages of labour in parts of Australia , less in mining construction though.

my point is paying 50m to send someone to Cambodia or 300k to live in a concentration camp or 500k to be put in an orange pod and pushed to indoneisia is a huge waste or my money. I would rather we spent 500k on 5 teachers or 300k on a paediatric surgeon or 50m on new schools in the inner west than waste it like this. No one seems to question it or discuss it either

 

[Bill Walker]

True though there are still big shortages of labour in parts of Australia , less in mining construction though.

my point is paying 50m to send someone to Cambodia or 300k to live in a concentration camp or 500k to be put in an orange pod and pushed to indoneisia is a huge waste or my money. I would rather we spent 500k on 5 teachers or 300k on a paediatric surgeon or 50m on new schools in the inner west than waste it like this. No one seems to question it or discuss it either

I think people dont comment because there is no other way to stop the boats, ie put the people smugglers (who were making a small fortune) out of business, can you think of another way ?..........a lot of these refugee's were just financial migrants looking for a better life in Oz, they will stop coming now, the genuine refugees who are in off shore facilities I have sympathy with and hope that the processing is speeded up

 

[billymumphrey]

As an Australian, it is quite shameful. The more you see, the harder it is to escape that we are nation built on xenophobia.

Have we really moved that far from the White Australia Policy where the minister of the time was actually quoted as stating "Two Wong's don't make a White!"?

Every generation it seems we need to demonise another ethnic minority, the Europeans after WW2, the Vietnamese boat people in the 70's, the 'Asian Invasion" (thanks Pauline Hanson) in the 90's, and now the Muslims from the Middle east. Yet every time the populace falls for it. We have this entrenched belief in zero sum gains, in that by taking in these people they're somehow taking resources away from ourselves. It's pure selfishness. Collectively, yes, there is a cost, which is minimal individually and will be repaid when people settle down, raise families and contribute to society.

We spend vast amounts in 'stopping the boats' and housing people in fairly inhumane circumstances and for what? Far more people arrive in Australia on planes and overstay their Visas.

We'll harp on about 'doing our bit' by taking in 12,000 Syrian refugees, caveating that by saying only if they're Christian, whilst doing nothing for the hundreds of Syrian asylum seekers already in the system.

These policies should not be lauded by anyone. We're a joke.

 

[RadcliffeRick]

I'm from Radcliffe.

I would keep that quiet if I were you :-)

 

[EalingBlue2]

I think people dont comment because there is no other way to stop the boats, ie put the people smugglers (who were making a small fortune) out of business, can you think of another way ?..........a lot of these refugee's were just financial migrants looking for a better life in Oz, they will stop coming now, the genuine refugees who are in off shore facilities I have sympathy with and hope that the processing is speeded up

We turn round and push people back to a place where for much of the last 5 years we would not even send our cattle and we ou corrupt governments to take the refugees and house them in concentration camps. There has to be a better way.

The fact is Australia entire economy, growth and everything here is fired by immigration and nearly all of it has and always will be economic as well as being refugees - I suspect half the blue mooners on here are economic migrants . Australia needs to grow, to build, to innovate, it is held back by chronically expensive labour and chronically expensive housing ,

There has to be a solution, I also reckon even if we have to have people detained it should be in Australia and humane and we should be better than outsourcing our cruelty.

But forget my lily livered lefty sympthies it is a pure rational economic logic that we are wasting money, people and stunting the nation for petty Murdoch inspired politics which is against our national interest. Demand and supply alone dictates

What drives it ? In my view an unholy alliance by the more extreme unions and the Pauline Hanson styled right backed up by the telegraph, herald and the courier mail. So it is not solely a problem of the right but of the extremes and they have made a costly and irrational waste mainstream politics .

 

[Bill Walker]

We turn round and push people back to a place where for much of the last 5 years we would not even send our cattle and we ou corrupt governments to take the refugees and house them in concentration camps. There has to be a better way.

The fact is Australia entire economy, growth and everything here is fired by immigration and nearly all of it has and always will be economic as well as being refugees - I suspect half the blue mooners on here are economic migrants . Australia needs to grow, to build, to innovate, it is held back by chronically expensive labour and chronically expensive housing ,

There has to be a solution, I also reckon even if we have to have people detained it should be in Australia and humane and we should be better than outsourcing our cruelty.

But forget my lily livered lefty sympthies it is a pure rational economic logic that we are wasting money, people and stunting the nation for petty Murdoch inspired politics which is against our national interest. Demand and supply alone dictates

What drives it ? In my view an unholy alliance by the more extreme unions and the Pauline Hanson styled right backed up by the telegraph, herald and the courier mail. So it is not solely a problem of the right but of the extremes and they have made a costly and irrational waste mainstream politics .

Its all well and good to say, yeah open the doors, so anyone who wants a better more prosperous life can just arrive here in Oz without papers/passport and we'll welcome you,

There is already an immigration process, I myself have been through it, it is there to check things like Im not a convicted rapist or paedophile or violent criminal as well as my suitability for employment...is there any jobs for what I do ? and unskilled ? well 145 people applied for a job as shop assistant at a Woolworths in Brisbane recently, jobs are very hard to come by, so do we raise taxes to pay for unemployed migrants for whom there are no jobs ?

Mass immigration without process would be a mistake imo

 

[EalingBlue2]

Its all well and good to say, yeah open the doors, so anyone who wants a better more prosperous life can just arrive here in Oz without papers/passport and we'll welcome you,

There is already an immigration process, I myself have been through it, it is there to check things like Im not a convicted rapist or paedophile or violent criminal as well as my suitability for employment...is there any jobs for what I do ? and unskilled ? well 145 people applied for a job as shop assistant at a Woolworths in Brisbane recently, jobs are very hard to come by, so do we raise taxes to pay for unemployed migrants for whom there are no jobs ?

Mass immigration without process would be a mistake imo

I've been through it to. You seem to be falling into the trap that Abbott and Murdoch have pushed that there is no middle ground between locking people in third world detention centres at an absurd cost and saying everyone in its a free for all. There is a huge difference between the two. My point is how much tax - billions and billions is wasted on this outlandish vote grab all of which could actually be spent funding Australian jobs, creation, technology and investment. It is a scandalous waste of our tax that is being used to win votes at the expense of our economy, health and education