TauriskRe your post which included;"... It is also a great pity...

Taurisk

Re your post which included;
"... It is also a great pity that the subject of the 'boat people' has come to be a domestic showdown between our major parties, as if Australia and the world at large didn't have worse problems to solve. ..."

Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard should be held to account for their record in office; as should Tony Abbott as Opposition Leader.

In 2007 Rudd and Gillard responded to an Australia that had wearied of the harsh, inhumane approach to the management of asylum seekers by the Howard Govt. by unwinding the harshest elements of Howard's oppressive approach. They fulfilled that great big election promise!

Rudd and Gillard subsequently failed to implement a more humane regional solution; albeit partly because of Gillard's removal of Rudd as PM and Abbott's obstructionist approach that blocked key legislation.

As for the reactionary self-serving strategies Abbott has forced down our throats these past four years; denigrating, blaming and shaming others for the efforts they are making says more about him than it does about them.

I am disgusted that Abbott has so railroaded the political agenda that Australia risks turning its back on 46 million desperate and vulnerable people. People who have already been demonised and vilified from being queue jumpers to economic immigrants.

I despair at the xenophobia and racism those people will experience due to the underlying attitudes resulting from the manner in which Abbott has impacted the whole sorry story.

To default to military solutions on matters such as asylum seekers is an absolute indictment on the political scoundrel who mouthed it to the media.

Abbott must first apologise and then resign before he further corrupts the political debate in this country..