I know americans are used to tuning into house debates on cspan but not so for us ozzies who have better things to do, we get one hour of question time and are grateful when it is over. Today we were treated to a marathon debate on of all subjects asylum seekers or was it offshore processing of asylum seekers, I remain unsure which. Basically the idea that people should choose to drown themselves on the way here is anathema to us or so it would seem
Asylum seeker bill passed by lower house (http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/asylum-seeker-bill-passed-by-lower-house-20120627-2129x.html)

However today we were treated to an exercise in futility for which our politicians are paid astronomical salaries. The idea was we were going to stop those blasted boats from leaving Indonesia. How we intend to do that short of sinking them in Indonesian waters I don't know but others apparently had an opinion.

The government of the day, not having the balls to submit its own legislation to defeat, allowed a private members bill which had languished in the house for yonks and the opposition tried to introduce its own bill. The opposition promptly and predictably attempted to amend the private members bill to reflect their own view and an independent moved a sunset clause and the most contensious issue was whether they should close down the debate for dinner. After hours of this nonsense, frankly I'M Appalled. ThIs is not democracy this is TRAVESTY and the reason why is tomorrow this bill will go to the Senate, suffer the same amendment process and be referred back. There is no discussion, no agreement to have a bipartisan approach to address a serious issue, short of war, how to stop people committing suicide

You should follow our example... don' t try to stop them and let them live there as illegals ,"doing the jobs that Aussies won't do ",until they overwhelm your social safety net . I know that we have a 'Wet foot/Dry foot'policy here ;at least in regards to Cubans.Haitians are treated differently . It is the policy adopted by the Clintoons where if they were stopped at sea ,they would be returned to their country . But if they managed to allude capture at sea ,Cubans were welcomed as refugees. Haitans however are not classified as political refugees like Cubans . They are considered economic refugees and can be returned home. They should probably direct their boats to Mexico and hoof it the rest of the way.

you should follow our example ..... don' t try to stop them and let them live there as illegals ,"doing the jobs that Aussies won't do ",until they overwhelm your social safety net . I know that we have a 'Wet foot/Dry foot'policy here ;at least in regards to Cubans.Haitians are treated differently . It is the policy adopted by the Clintoons where if they were stopped at sea ,they would be returned to their country . But if they managed to allude capture at sea ,Cubans were welcomed as refugees. Haitans however are not classified as political refugees like Cubans . They are considered economic refugees and can be returned home. They should probably direct their boats to Mexico and hoof it the rest of the way.

No Tom we are trying to avoid your mistakes, and we don't have jobs the aussies won't do just jobs the abo's won't do, we are full up on taxi drivers and camel drivers and yet they keep coming; the refugees from the messes you made. Iraqi, Afghan and some from the messes you didn't make Sri Lankans, Burmese. Africans, we treat them all the same, we intern them on Christmas Island, check their backgrounds, give them a medical and just maybe we will move them to the mainland. This is about stopping the catastrophys at sea, we take plenty of refugees who arrive by air, not the same problem and we have many short holiday stays who overstay their visas, not the same problem. Such people don't get access to our benefits schemes. As one of our politicians said if you knew that you could get to paradise and there was a possibility you could stay wouldn't you risk everything to do it. This is a paradise in the South Pacific in more ways than one, particularly one that doesn't have war, urban violence, slums, where the streets are paved, the water clean, electricity, sunshine, food from everywhere in the world.

Look I know we could station our navy on the iIndonesian border and not let the boats pass into out territory and eventually we would wind up with a war, or we could just let them come and land on our northern shore but we have some strict ideas about health etc but you can't live off the land in northern Australia, not if you are not aboriginal. If the crocs don't get you, the heat and lack of water will

The problem is there are millions of refugees in the world and only about fourteen countries that will resettle them so there are large numbers in camps in Pakistan, Thailand, Malayasia, Indonesia, Africa so there is a lot of push factors that send them in our direction

Paradise eh ? Who knows?? I may be a political refugee depending on tomorrow's SCOTUS Obamacare decision . Thanks for the heads up .

Bring your money with you, we don't need americans any more than we need afghani to clutter up our internment centres

I better leave soon while I still have some money to give. Decision on Obamacare in a few minutes... If I'm going to be forced to live in a nanny state ,I just as soon live in one that looks like it knows what it's doing.

Look Cairns is beautiful this time of year but since you are used to cooler climes I recommend Eden. You should be able to get health insurance here for $150 a month, or if you don't want it you can pay a 1.5% tax levy or you can pay the doctor at each visit which is a road to bankruptcy. We long ago learned you catch more flies with honey. Our ER's are nice but they will charge you if you are not in the system

Well Tom the sky hasn't fallen in. has this become one of those non debates, you know the one where you discovered things aren't as bad as you thought they were

No they are worse . Now that people are actually reading the law they are finding nightmares unthought of . The President showed what a 2nd term would be like this week when he unilaterally canceled a work provision of the welfare laws that Bill Clintoon signed . Now any slackard can get welfare . There is definitely blowback on the court decision with one state after another defying the medicaid provisions that the Feds tried to force them to comply with . The Fed chair went to Congress yesterday and told Sen Shumer that there is nothing else for the Fed to do and it's up to the Congress to pass a budget and stop the armegeddon that is going to happen if they allow the Bush tax rates to expire . We have less than a half year to avoid fiscal calamity . Regime change in November is our only hope.

Seems to me someone should sure as hell find out who is running that place because yo'all don't have a clue. Last time it happened over here we had a constitutional crisis and sacked the government