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Politicisation of Asylum Seekers

The way this issue of AS has been politicised is abhorrent .

Asylum seekers eventually become immigrants once processed-it is just the arrival and treatment while waiting for acceptance that is the cause for concern.

Just a few thoughts that are coloured by the fact that I, like many others, was born in a country that was occupied during WW2 and my father(in the resistance) was desperate to take us as far from Europe as possible.. With 4 children he only just scraped in by lying about his occupation as there was no demand for his skills. Once in NZ , the reality overwhelmed him at times but he could never return -lack of money, pride, children settled . While safe with a house and income , there was nevertheless huge grief at loss of family, language, culture, etc. hidden under pride and bravado. So even at the best of times, migration has a real downside.

At the time, Australian immigrants were sent direct into migrant camps whereas NZ allowed farmers to sponsor families directly, so there seems to be a history here of ‘grouping’, which, while supportive in many ways ,can also backfire when there are ill-feelings . By living separately in the community, we adopted the new country and language as our own much faster than my relatives who came here to Oz.

Have watched immigrants overseas in particular where they face discrimination and many spend much time looking over their shoulders, struggling with language often for a pittance not to mention the problems their children often face especially if their appearance is different. And resentment if they do too well. For every success there are many failures.

Criminals do slip through normal immigration channels anyway (Cosa Nostra, Chinese Triads, etc.) and the ‘political terrorist’ branding often depends on hue of government in power at the time (Habib now visiting Egypt is case in point) So I can’t understand why it takes so long to process residency applications other than it being used as a deterrent . ( Applies to UK, EU,etc. applicants as well .)

Unfortunately for Australia, too many want to come HERE- not anywhere else- and not just for refuge. Often those who really need to escape, can’t. Those on boats have paid agents often the last of their money ,as Jewish people did in the ’40s, and are not aware of the standard of boats they will be travelling on. I think children are often sent ahead as footholds, the same way the Chinese sent their kids here as students and then were able to immigrate under the family reunion scheme. I can’t blame people for wanting to improve their lives.

Immigration from Europe stopped once safety was re-established, living conditions improved and those who were unhappy in their new country spread the word of disappointment back home.

Now all these years later, while I can understand my father’s desperation and fear, I often wonder if he would have done it again, given a second chance. And he didn’t even risk life and limb on a leaky boat.

It would be interesting to know if any follow up has been done of those refugees who arrived in leaky boats and were eventually settled during the Howard years? Those women and children who were stuck behind razor wire, how are they now?

Legacy of a sad difficult problem, dangerously inflamed by one J.W. Howard.

1,520 replies on “Politicisation of Asylum Seekers”

paddy@1401
great analysis by Rundle, paddy.
I am torn between feeling sorry that Hitchens has died – I think mainly because it is terrible to know that anyone must suffer the agony that he must have – versus the fact that my experiences of Hitchenswas that he was a usually (always) pissed, overly-lauded Lateline intervewee who was continuously justifying the unjustifiable in Iraq.

and I am also now familiar with the term dialectic…
Thank you Guy.

Phone Hacking ‘Started At The Sun Before Transferring To News Of The World’ Claims Brother Of Sean Hoare.
*******************************************************

Phone hacking started at The Sun newspaper before being transferred to News of the World, the brother of former showbiz reporter Sean Hoare told the Leveson Inquiry on Monday.

Stuart Hoare said his brother claimed his ex-editor Andy Coulson was “well aware” of the practice of illegal voicemail interception at the paper – something Mr Coulson strongly denies.

“The reality was that phone hacking was endemic within the News International group (specifically Sean identified that this process was initiated at the Sun and later transferred to the News of the World) and he went on record both verbally and in writing to make this claim,” The Guardian reported from the hearing.

Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph said hacking was “routine” at the newspapers.

More here…
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/12/19/sun-phone-hacking-leveson_n_1157467.html?ref=uk

Good grief! Gearing up for tonight’s dose of the Leveson inquiry, I read this “interview” by Piers Morgan smarming his way around Naomi Campell. I could only manage a couple of pages. 🙁
Interviews conducted by narcissists make me want to vomit.
When Piers met Naomi
http://t.co/QEcbgy0u

Another Poll Shows Obama Approval on the Rise
A new CNN/Opinion Research poll reflects the same uptick in President Obama’s approval rating found in yesterday’s ABC News/Washington Post poll. The president’s approval went from 44% to 54% last month to 49% to 48% in this month’s poll.

Said pollster Keating Holland: “President Obama’s approval rating appears to be fueled by dramatic gains among middle-income Americans. The data suggest that the debate over the payroll tax is helping Obama’s efforts to portray himself as the defender of the middle class.”

http://politicalwire.com

this could easily be the bombshell that causes the canary to sing loud and long.

Andy Coulson must have just spent a fortune on his case to get mordor to pay his legal costs over hacking. Not only did he lose the court case he was told to pay mordors costs.

Mordor also lost his case against having to pay Mulcaires legal costs over hacking and the judge said they have to continue to do so.

Coulson has been arrested on aleged hacking and paying police bribes. He will probably not be able to afford the top silks that mordor travels with but it will still be expensive if he is charged for a few counts and decids to defend them.

my guess is now that mordor has thrown one of his golden haired boys under the bus Coulson will sing like a canary. No doubt he became an embarrassment to mordor and Cameron when he resigned from being Camerons comms man.
I sure hope he does start singing after he has had a couple of weeks over yuletide to reflect where he is heading fast, that is down the gurgler. Nobody wants to be associated with him now so he has a reason to get angry even.

Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson has lost his high court bid to force News Group Newspapers to pay his potential legal costs over the phone-hacking affair.

Mr Justice Supperstone, handing down judgment on Wednesday, ruled that Coulson’s former employer is not liable to pay his legal bills if allegations of criminal activity are made against him.

Coulson had asked for a declaration that NGN, which stopped payments in August, “must pay the professional costs and expenses properly incurred” by him “in defending allegations of criminal conduct” during his tenure.

Supperstone said in the judgment: “Clause 4.6 of the agreement [between Coulson and NGN] does not cover the criminal allegations made against Mr Coulson personally.

“If, contrary to my view, the criminal allegations are covered, no proceedings have commenced. For the reasons I give above, this claim fails.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/dec/21/andy-coulson-phone-hacking-legal-fees

1413
Ooh you’re so unkind Gaffy 😆 😆 😆
But It certainly makes the new year sound interesting. :mrgreen:

1414 paddy “But It certainly makes the new year sound interesting.” Things just slowly keep getting more interesting on both sides of the Atlantic. It’ll keep us in suspense next year.

Poll: House Republican popularity declines during payroll tax debate
By Cameron Joseph – 12/22/11 03:59 PM ET

House Republicans are more unpopular following the payroll tax cut extension debate than they had been last month, according to a new poll from Democratic-affiliated Public Policy Polling.

Two-thirds of voters disapprove of House Republicans, while only one-quarter approve, a jump in disapproval from the 62 percent disapproval and 26 percent approval rating they had for the House GOP last month.

The poll of 700 voters was conducted Dec. 16-18, before House Republicans rejected the Senate legislation, and has a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.

House Democrats remain unpopular as well, with 29 percent of voters approving and 64 percent disapproving. But their popularity remains nearly unchanged from the 28 percent approval and 63 percent disapproval last month.
http://thehill.com

I reckon Tom Mockridge should pull back from making such profound statements and learn from history.
All his predecessors at mordor media in the UK made all those sorts of profound statements about the play of the hacking and plod bribery.
Then it all came home to bite them on the arse with the biggest inquiry ever and they are all on the street, resigned in shame.

News International, the former publisher of the News of the World, which has been accused in another case at the Leveson inquiry of using a former soldier to plant computer viruses, had challenged the Guardian report about the police investigation. In an email to the paper the company’s chief executive, Tom Mockridge wrote: “News International has been advised that Mr Hain’s computer equipment (and that of the Northern Ireland Office) was not and has not been the subject of an investigation by Operation Tuleta and there is no belief or suspicion that this equipment was hacked.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/dec/23/peter-hain-investigation-police-hacking?newsfeed=true

1421
Chris

It all adds up in the end however small a victory over mordors sewerage pit.

Hopefully the Government will have collated all the lies and misleading information here in Oz and in conjunction with Mordors UK sewerage pit and will go the knuckle on him when the time is ripe.

little Fiji told him to sell up and fuck off and he did.

All the best for the holiday season Ticsters.

Cash is short
and times are hard
so let this be your fucken Xmas card. :mrgreen:

House GOP agrees to 2-month extension of payroll tax cut.
**********************************************

Facing withering criticism from across the political spectrum and abandoned by Senate allies, House Republicans bowed to political reality Thursday and agreed to a two-month extension of a payroll tax cut for 160 million Americans.

The agreement represented a remarkable capitulation on the part of House Republicans, who had two days earlier rejected such a deal with Democrats as the kind of half-measure that their new majority was elected to thwart.
And it amounts to a Christmas gift for President Obama, who attempted to paint his Republican opponents as willing to raise taxes for millions of Americans. Such an image could have cost the party politically just as it is gearing up to try to take back the White House and the Senate in 2012.

The agreement resolved the last stalemate in a year of bitter congressional fighting that earned lawmakers their lowest approval ratings in recent memory.

Republicans are hell bent on taking their approval rating to the bottom.

More here…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/boehner-2-month-tax-cut-would-hurt-small-businesses/2011/12/22/gIQA5ClZBP_story.html?hpid=z1

Trump Dumps Republican Party.
*************************

Donald Trump continued to tease a potential presidential run by changing his voter registration from Republican to “unaffiliated” and publicly denouncing the behavior of members of his former party, CNN reports.

Michael Cohen, an aide to Trump, said the real estate mogul and reality television star made the switch “in order to preserve his right to run for president as an independent if he’s not satisfied with who the Republicans nominate.”

Cohen added that Trump was “disgusted with the way Republicans are handling” the payroll tax cut extension, saying the actions of Republicans were partly to blame for his party change.

Big news. Right out of left field. Sorry. Right field. 😆
http://politicalwire.com

I hope everyone has a good day tomorrow wherever you are.

I can’t help but think of EC and his family. May they find love and strength together.

Let’s hope 2012 is a good one. Wishing everyone good health and happiness.

Obama on Track for $60 Million Quarter
*******************************
President Obama’s campaign set a goal of raising $60 million in the fourth quarter of the year, Reuters reports.

If it reaches its goal for the fourth quarter, the campaign will surpass $200 million in fundraising for 2011.

http://politicalwire.com

Justice Department Rejects South Carolina Voter ID Law
********************************************
The Justice Department blocked South Carolina’s controversial voter ID law, according to the Columbia State, “saying it would prevent black people from voting.It was the first voter ID law to be refused by the federal agency in nearly 20 years.”

Rick Hasen predicts the case will go the Supreme Court — and most likely be expedited ahead of the 2012 election — making “a momentous term even more momentous.”

http://politicalwire.com

Did anyone notice the Tony Abbott interview about asylum seekers? While Talking about what had to be done. He was shaking his head. In otherwords he was lying!

Merry Xmas Ticsters and hope you’re all well and truly satiated with good food,fine wine and the warmth from loved ones. Can’t help thinking of our wonderful Ecky and his lovely family. It has been one hell of a year and can’t wait for 2012.
Sorry for my lack of contributions but the demands in my real world have had to take precedence. Have been popping in every now and again and so appreciate ‘our place’ ….Paddy, love the way you keep us amused, a much-needed antidote to life’s challenges, and others for providing info that I’m missing as I rarely read a paper these days. Jen, hope your health has picked up and that life is treating you well.
Wishing you all the very best. xxx

By Post Author

Happy christmas all my pagan Ticster buddies!
Lets hope 2012 is saner than this year was.
Megan – am really fine now – whole thing is bizarre, but mercury levels now almost gone and I don’t eat predatory deep sea fish anymore.
Weird.
Also thinking of Ecky’s family… 🙁

early prediction for 2012:
Abbott will continue to lose public support and will be rolled by Turnbull.
The supposed Gillard/Rudd split wil be shown for the media construct it is… baseless, but he will be be whisked off to the UN regardless.
I will run for preselection for the Victorian senate and wont get it.
But it will have fun trying 😉

Chris
By the end of another two years of rollout it will be too big to stop.

I have spoken to people in my area and they are definitely voting Labor next election so the LNP can’t stop it.

I don’t know who they voted for last election but it is a good positive attitude.

Plus all the people in LNP held seats are whinging as to where is their NBN so the monkey has a hard row to hoe for the next couple of years.

The NBN the $60 tax bonus from the climate change so called tax and the huge investment from the mining tax. No where in the history of politics has any party had three massive issues to turn around their fortunes. Logic says they will win.

I ventured on to The Huffington Post this morning to see it featuring a Good Guys advertisement right next to Elizabeth Warren. Gave it a click and up came my brothers picture at the Brighton Store. Unbelievable. So I find a Elizabeth Warren picture and beside it my brothers image. Do you think I have paid out on him. Seeing as he is more in the Margaret Thatcher mold. Sponsoring a progressive online magazine like The Huffington Post. 😆

1445 Katielou “The last time he pulled ahead was after Bin Laden was killed” I bet there will be some reminders about that during the election campaign.

The Molotov Party.
***************
For the new GOP, conservative isn’t nearly radical enough.

Even those who loathe Karl Rove’s every word may be hard-pressed to dispute his pre-Christmas summation of the Republican circus so far: “the most unpredictable, rapidly shifting, and often downright inexplicable primary race I’ve ever witnessed.” And all this, as he adds, before a single vote has been cast. The amazing GOP race has also been indisputably entertaining, spawning a new television genre, the debate as reality show. Installment No. 12, broadcast by ABC in the prime-time ghetto of a Saturday night in early December, drew more viewers (7.6 million) than that week’s episode of The Biggest Loser. It’s escapist fun for the entire family (Hispanic and gay families excluded). Or it would be were it not for the possibility that one of the contestants could end up as president of the United States.

Rove does have one thing wrong, however. His party’s primary contest, while unpredictable, is not inexplicable. It is entirely explicable. The old Republican elites simply prefer to be in denial about what the explanation is. You can’t blame them. To parse this spectacle is to face the prospect that, for all the GOP’s triumphal declarations that Barack Obama is doomed to a one-term presidency, the winner of the Republican nomination may not reclaim the White House after all.

More here…
http://nymag.com/news/frank-rich/gop-2012-1/

Ben Nelson Retiring Ahead Of 2012 Election.
***********************************

Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska said Tuesday he will retire rather than seek a third term next year, dealing a significant setback to Democratic efforts to maintain control of the chamber.

The 70-year-old conservative Democrat, whose seat is being heavily targeted by Republicans in 2012, said in a statement that “while I relish the opportunity to undertake the work that lies ahead, I also feel it’s time for me to step away from elective office, spend more time with my family, and look for new ways to serve our state and nation.”

“Therefore, I am announcing today that I will not seek re-election,” he said. “Simply put: It is time to move on.”

More here…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/27/ben-nelson-retiring-reelection_n_1171256.html

1456 Katielou He said whats The Huffington Post? Never heard of it. I sent him a screen dump of the advert. He also said it was a mistake that the advert was directed to his store. It should have been sent to the central Good Guys site. He doesn’t handle the advertising. My email was the first he knew of it. A total of 4 liberal sites and the Thesaurus.com. Yeah. I admit I was looking up a big word. 🙂

Obama Retains Hispanic Support
**************************

In a hypothetical general election match-up against Mitt Romney, a new Pew Research poll finds President Obama wins the Latino vote by a 68% to 23% margin.

These results are quite similar to the outcome of the 2008 presidential election, when Obama carried the Latino vote over Sen. John McCain by 67% to 31%

http://politicalwire.com

1465
😆
I’ll be fucking amazed if Roo gets away with a mere 100 Mill Gaffy.
Hell, it couldn’t happen to a richer bastard. 👿
Let’s hope he lives long enough to watch the empire crumble. 🙂

Fucken Amen to that Paddy. :mrgreen:

With a bit of good management it will hopefully cost the bastard every bit of that just for his own silks to try to keep him out of Gaol, plus the same for the son of mordor.

Team Obama Likes Its Chances: AZ, VA, NC Could Go Democrat In 2012 (VIDEO).
***************************************************

In a video to supporters Thursday, Obama 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina made public the many paths to 270 electoral votes he sketched out for reporters last month.

The major highlights: Messina says the campaign is working with more than 40 pathways to victory next year, including strategies that run through Florida and the Midwest (where team Obama has pointed to Democratic organizing in Ohio during the SB5 fight as a key to holding the Buckeye State.)

Perhaps most interesting is the campaign’s continued confidence in the South and the confirmation that the Obama campaign thinks Arizona is in play.

More here…
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/team-obama-az-va-nc-could-go-democrat-in-2012-video.php?ref=fpnewsfeed

1466 paddy “Let’s hope he lives long enough to watch the empire crumble.” An outstanding idea paddy.

Pew poll: Obama leads Romney and Perry by huge margin among Hispanics.
****************************************************

A new Pew poll shows Hispanic voters favoring Obama over Romney and Perry by a huge margin. Wash Post:

Obama leads Romney by 68 percent to 23 percent and Perry by 69 percent to 23 percent among Hispanic voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 5.2 percentage points for the sample.

Great news this far out from the election. Obama was an unknown quantity this far out in 2008. Having said that. There’s still a long way to go.

More here.
http://www.americablog.com/2011/12/pew-poll-obama-leads-romney-and-perry.html

Here’s cheers to a year where the pox on society Rupert started it wearing a few little left jabs as the celebs started fighting back…then later a few uppercuts as the Guardian ploughed on…and then a ripper of a body shot with the Dowler revelation…then a series of hooks as his main grub paper was closed,loyal subordinates were sacked, and him and his son were hauled up and humiliated in public.

Staggering on the ropes, the judicial inquiries and plod investigations(real ones this time) have begun.

Here’s hoping 2012 delivers the knockout blow.

Wouldn’t it be karma if it culminated at the hands of the justice department of the guy his sewer rats labellled a black muslim foreign commie terrorist.

Thanks Catrina, cheers EC, and thx to all for sharing your thoughts here.

Hi HarryH –
excellent sentiments ! 2012 has been a strange messy and often disturbing year IMO. At a local level. the terrible loss of our Ecky and personally a major health scare that I was incredibly fortunate to get to the bottom of meant lots of tears shed in my home. . Politically we have seen Abbott outpolling Gillard and the rise of a lot of nonsense about Rudd being back as PM … of course helped by Rupert’s minions spouting thier dross from the majority of MSM’s he has control of.
Globally – what a basket case.
Who knows how the global economy will ride out the next 12 months, and whether the impact of climate change will shut up the idiot deniers Rupert so kindly gives so much air time to.
Feels as if we are in for a wild ride – good to have our little island to retreat to .
Happy New Year Ticksters 🙂
🙂

Great contribution HarryH. Which I very much agree with.
Let’s hope the Murdoch’s are nailed in 2012. Happy New Year to the Ticsters and let’s not forget EC. All the best in 2012.

Gaffy 1481,

Ta for the link to TheGlobalMail. Chris has been mentioning it for a while too.

Just read the bio’s for all the reporters on the homepage. Seriously impressive and they will be impossible to ignore i would imagine. I wonder how the half serious msm journo’s will respond?

I am now going into 2012 with a definite new bookmarked site.

thanks for link the Gaffers-
ditto HarryH …
may the demise of of the MSM dross continue unabated in 2012.

Appreciate the news and views from 2011 and lets hope 2012 is a good/better year for people of compassion and rationality and for just/ecosocialist societies replacing capitalist expolitation.

HarryH “Chris has been mentioning it for a while too.” Thanks for the credit Harry. But its the first I’ve heard of it.

Happy new year ticsters, as I sip the last of the brandy…..
😆
You’ve got to love a year that starts off with Robert Doyle, trying to burn down the arts centre, while he fiddles on the town hall balcony. 🙂
Covering Melbourne with a fiery golden shower!
The man’s a friggin legend. :mrgreen:

Should Britain join the United States?
*****************************

London Times columnist David Aaronovitch has surrendered. In a column in Thursday’s paper he claims that enthusiastic support of British involvement in the European Union is pointless. De Gaulle, he concedes, was right to be sceptical as to whether the British could ever be engaged participants in the European Project. The British do not understand, trust or like their European neighbours. Of late, the feeling is mutual.

Euro-sceptic Tories embrace isolation with glee. We could be another Switzerland, they suggest (though without the mountains and chocolate). Aaronovitch’s reaction? “Switzerland, Meh”.

The further Britain withdraws the more the European Union can get done. Britain has been recalcitrant* on the EU.

http://www.americablog.com/2011/12/should-britain-join-united-states.html

* thank you Paul Keating

With Over 500K Signatures Already Collected, Recall of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Appears Inevitable.
****************************************************

A recall of controversial Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker now appear inevitable. In just 28 days, activists collected 507,533 signatures. Organizers have until January 17 to collect 540,208 signatures, which is equal to 25% of the state’s 2010 general election turnout. To be safe, recall advocates have set a new goal of 720,277 signatures by the deadline.

More here…
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/12/31/396004/scott-walker-recall-500k-signatures/

MY MUM TALKS TO ALIENS!
*********************
DNA & Polly Graph Evidence during this documentary of beings from somewhere else have been here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xkVs0BhTHo

I just caught the lie detector test on SBS. Surprise! Surprise! They weren’t telling the truth. Oh Damn! I spoilt it for you. 🙂

Dontcha just love it when a Goppers chickens come home to roost, and they are the size of emus, and they kick their shithouse down.

Indianna SOS has been removed from office for all kinds of reasons including voter fraud. They just can’t help themselves the scumbags.

Some remarkable news late today. Finding he was not eligible to be a candidate on the ballot in the November 2010 election, a Marion County Circuit judge has ordered Indiana’s Republican Sec. of State Charlie White removed from office and replaced by his Democratic challenger Vop Isili, the second highest vote getter in that election…………………………………..

Earlier this week, in the criminal case, White also received bad news. according to the Indiana Star, “A Hamilton County judge Monday denied a motion by White to dismiss his felony charges, which were filed against him earlier this year. His criminal trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 30. Felons are ineligible to serve as Secretary of State.” Merry Christmas, Mr. White.

http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=143204

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