Here you go, DaveR. There would have been plenty of weather cycles in the seven years where the influx of boats were deterred. Nauru still gave genuine refugees somewhere to go.
And it's disappointing that labor ever used this as a political football and potentially putting our national security at risk. They gave the Pacific Solution bipartisan support in 2001, but Rudd and Gillard decided to use it for electioneering and this is what they did - and this chart doesn't give the thousands more this year.
It's pretty clear to me the Pacific Solution (2002-2007) stopped the demand and put the smugglers almost out of business.
