I just read an article where Tony Abbott proposes focusing on “turning boats back to Indonesia”(see link below).
It is the same old soapbox rubbish that I hear in the lead up to every election, and I am getting sick and tired of the political focus on “boat people” and “people smuggling”.
The reality is that less than 5,000 people arrive this way each year. I’ll say that again – less than 5,000.
We live on the World’s largest Island, and we already have huge geographic obstacles to illegal migration, so I really do not understand the issue.
Boat people represent less than 0.02% of our entire population, or 1.5% of our total migration each year.
It is hardly significant, and to be honest, I have met only two or three boat people in my entire life, and they were all decent up standing citizens who contribute to Australia.
People seem to forget how difficult the migration process can be – let alone when a dodgy boat from Indonesia is part of the journey.
Every migrant is likely to be an asset – it takes a particularly motivated family to leave everything they know, to seek a better life elsewhere.
In my 10+ years as a migration solicitor, I have observed countless motivated migrants setting up businesses and new lives here, and I have no doubt that migrants help boost our economic future.
Lets get onto some real political issues like how we protect our resources from being purchased by foreign countries, and how we need to protect our coastline from the increased port construction work and increased mine related shipping traffic along our reef systems.