Alan Partridge asks: "would you just accept all asylum seekers...

Alan Partridge asks:

"would you just accept all asylum seekers arriving
by boat or would you limit their number?

Australia accepts 200,000 economic migrants a year.
Of the 30,000 asylum seekers a year (that rot in our
prison camps, some for years) some 90% of them
are assessed as genuine refugees. Meaning we
currently accept only 27,000 genuine refugees
and 200,000 economic migrants. Hence my
proposal: Legalise people smuggling and
tax it. This would save lives and convert
a huge enforcement cash outflow into
a revenue stream that could be used
to charter one 737 a day to bring
100 refugees a day to Australia.
(that's the number arriving now)
vet them for terror or criminal
links and resettle them and
finance English courses.

We accept 200,000 economic migrants per
year now - if refugee numbers rise under
my proposal (beyond the current 30,000
a year) we reduce the 200,000 so our
resources won't be over-stretched.
Consign Rudd's PNG penal colony
plan to the rubbish bin of history.

Prohibiting refugees (like prohibiting
drugs) puts up the price and makes
smuggling more profitable. But
legalising people smuggling
cuts the cost and provides
a revenue stream to the
Government, not to
foreign smugglers.