I'm Confused!

I can't understand why the new migration laws were scrapped yesterday. Why in these times of much-needed extra vigilance, Fielding, Troeth and Joyce were against tougher border protection, causing Howard to make the decision he did? Will this mindless opposition to the proposed new bill re-open the floodgates for so-called asylum seekers?

Correct me if I'm wrong...but I don't understand their opposition...I can see nothing wrong with processing these 'boat people' in offshore centres such as Nauru.

Australia has a wide, open coastline making it impossible to be controlled. We just don't have the man-power. In the mid-eighties, when I was managing an island resort off the coast of north Queensland, the coast guard folk often visited me asking for my support in keeping my eyes open for any strange off-shore activity! They, the coast guard admitted they were fighting an uphill battle, had their hands full and didn't have enough people to do what was required. Almost three years later, I was out west managing a hotel in Normanton, in the Gulf Country and I ran into the same guy from the coast guard. The Gulf, Cape York and surrounding land (thousands and thousands of acres) and sea were all part of his patrol area. He had one other assistant with him! I'm sure the situation has changed little since that time. One afternoon while I was in Normanton, I travelled to Karumba, on the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Up the river amongst the densely mangrove-covered, sandfly-infested shores illegal Vietnamese 'squatters' lived. One such 'squatter' gave me a mud crab from his catch that he had brought into town to sell. Nobody knew how many were squatting up there and nobody did anything about it.

This sort of thing must not be allowed to happen in this country. We have no idea who is landing on our shores or what they bring with them...and I'm not only talking about diseases!

We must not be apathetic about protecting our borders. We are living in a violent world, inhabited by many who hate us, our lifestyle and beliefs but very much would like to set foot on our soil.