Thread: Australia turns back refugee boat

Stone the crows. What a hullabaloo.

Give the poor lads a home for fuks sake.

Perhaps a housing estate off Mount Isa and a job mining tin as payment.

Phone video shot by the passengers

Was it a Samsung Galaxy or an iPhone?

Do you want the $541.6 million or not? and we will toss in KW as "bonus" imagine it?
your own raving mad Aussie, you lucky buggers.

We can afford it, we have plenty left.

Originally Posted by peterpan

Do you want the $541.6 million or not? and we will toss in KW as "bonus" imagine it?
your own raving mad Aussie, you lucky buggers.

We can afford it, we have plenty left.

What the hell ?

Perhaps we should welcome them with open arms after their perilous journey, and employ them as animal feeders in the crocodile farms. To show the depth of our gratitude, it is our honor to house our guests with the original Australians. Now that's a point, innit- you never see an abo on a refugee vessel, do you?

Originally Posted by sabang

you never see an abo on a refugee vessel, do you?

Well said!

Indonesia makes veiled criticism of Tony Abbott as Marty Natalegawa emphasises human rights of asylum seekers
Michael Bachelard
April 21, 2014


Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa (with his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop) has questioned the Abbott government's boat turn-back policy.
Photo: AP

The Indonesian Foreign Minister has again made a series of implied criticisms of Australia’s asylum seeker policies, saying the problem “defies national solutions” and any policy should protect the human rights of smuggling victims.

Without specifically mentioning the Abbott government’s boat turn-back policy, Minister Marty Natalegawa said on Monday that “shared responsibility, not shifting of responsibility,” was the way forward.

“For Indonesia, the message is crystal clear; the cross border and complex nature of the irregular movement of persons defies - defies - national solutions,” he said.

“There is no other recourse but to take a comprehensive and co-ordinated approach … a sense of burden sharing and common responsibility should be a basis for our co-operation.”

In an implied criticism of Australia’s regime of detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island, the foreign minister also emphasised the human rights of asylum seekers “no matter, I repeat, no matter their legal status”.

“People who are smuggled are also, in a very real sense, victims, so therefore let us not dwell on terminology, let’s extend assistance to those where they need it not because they fall under a certain category, but simply because they are fellow human beings.”

He said the need for assistance included the treatment of asylum seekers after their arrival at their destination.

The veiled criticisms came at the opening on Monday of a 15-country international conference into protection of asylum seekers attended by an Australian delegation led by deputy ambassador to Indonesia, David Engel.

However, Dr Natalegawa later said his comments were “directed at all of us”, not at any one country, and added, “we need to take the politics out of this whole endeavour”.

He said he had not spoken to Indonesia’s military chief, General Moeldoko, about his comments last week that his Australian military counterpart had promised no more boat turn-backs.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison denied his government’s policy had changed.

However, Dr Natalegawa said he would not seek clarification from the Indonesian General.

“I think sometimes … constructive ambiguity can be very useful … we’ll see what are the possibilities,” Dr Natalegawa said.

He also expressed new optimism about the negotiation of a code of conduct with Australia over electronic surveillance - the issue that damaged the relationship between the two countries last year and prompted Indonesia to withdraw its ambassador from Canberra after it was revealed Australia had bugged the phones of the president, his wife and inner circle.

Dr Natalegawa said he had had “a very good conversation” over recent meetings with Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop.

“We haven’t formally, in terms of having drafts, [negotiated] the actual wording … but that is not too complicated. We are … having a similar expectation of what such a code of conduct would entail.”

He said the code would likely reiterate the basic principles of the bilateral relationship, especially the Lombok Treaty negotiated in 2006, and include a commitment not to undertake certain kinds of spying.

Its centrepiece would be “a commitment to refrain from the employment of intelligence resources in a manner that would be inimical to the interests of the other party,” he said.

He said the advantage of taking several months over the issue had been that Indonesia could see whether the commitment to refrain from electronic surveillance was “already being complied with”.

theage.com.au