Friday April 17, 2009, 6:25 pm
So far the facts about this case are not known. Last time somebody speculated about this kind of thing we had a furore about "asylumn seekers throwing their children overboard", only to discover they had not. But the mud stuck.

What is important is that people smugglers are taking advantage of the global situation of violence, poverty, confusion, and Australia's reputation of being a good place to live.

Illegal migrants, asylumn seekers, etc. are on the move all over the globe, and will continue to be so until conditions improve in their own environments. Let us try to sort out the economic crisis, various wars, piracy, drug related violence etc. so that conditions improve for us all.

Saturday April 18, 2009, 3:01 am
Exactly, Mary.

The story DOES carry a stench of blaming the victim, particularly "those"people.

Saturday April 18, 2009, 4:28 am
I think it is awful but when you read the story who is footing this bill, it will be the tax payer, everyone can jump up and down and critize Australia all they want but I think we in this country have to take a strong stance about who jumps the cue. Their are folk who stand in a cue wanting to come here and are genuine so people who try coming here by boat have themselves to blame.

Saturday April 18, 2009, 6:38 am
Mary Donelly, first of all NO-ONE is "illegal".

Secondly, everyone who invaded Aboriginal Australia came here ILLEGALLY.

Thirdly, people only risk their lives to come to Australia as boat people because the system of regulation at embassies, etc., is not adequate.

"Their own environments"? They have as much right to consider Australia as their home as any white people do. We are all here illegally, except for the Aborigines.

Saturday April 18, 2009, 6:49 am
Sue, there is no queue in many places. And if the queue method was adequate, there would be no-one risking their lives to come to Australia.

Criticise Australia? I AM from Australia. Australia is killing and oppressing people in Afghanistan, and supporting the fundamentalist Northern Alliance warlord government in Afghanistan, which is a harmful to human rights as the Taliban is.

Australia furthermore takes part in the first world's yearly $500 billion net plunder of the Third World. The wealth that the people of the Third World are producing is ending up in Australia, so they have the right to enjoy that wealth.

Saturday April 18, 2009, 7:50 pm
Simon

Well done on your grammar! I should have watched mine better.

What do you mean by the "Third World"? I thought it disappeared at the same time as the "Second World", circa 1991.

As a matter of interest, according to your system our Aborigines are also here illegally as they came from somewhere else too. At that time nobody around had the writing skills to indicate that.

"Legalities" and "illegalities" are artificial classifications,used to make life easier for people to communicate. Something can be "legal", without being "just", "moral", or even "sensible". None of which helps the plight of the tens of millions of displaced people on our planet.