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THE FRONTRUNNER IN Australia’s 7 September election would pay Indonesians for unseaworthy boats to stop them ending up in the hands of people-smugglers, as part of a plan unveiled today.
Asylum-seekers arriving by usually rickety boats, often via transit hubs in Indonesia, are a major political issue in Australia and tend to dominate election campaigns, despite coming in relatively low numbers by global standards.
Tony Abbott, who is leading Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in opinion polls, said he would step up on-the-ground operations in Indonesia with a “community outreach” scheme aimed at disrupting people-smuggling rings.
The Aus$440 million ($397 million) scheme would include a capped government buy-back plan for the leaky fishing vessels as well as stipends for Indonesian “wardens” in 100 villages to provide information to Australia and bounty payments for information leading to successful smuggling prosecutions.
“The important thing is that we stop the boats,” Abbott told reporters in Darwin.
“It’s much better and much more sensible to spend a few thousand dollars in Indonesia than to spend $12 million processing the people who ultimately arrive here,” he said, referring to the figure the opposition claims the government spends processing every boat that arrives.
Abbott refused to “put a figure on” how much he would be prepared to pay per boat and said allowances or bounties would be left to the discretion of “our people on the ground”.
He also pledged $67 million to deploy specialist Australian police operatives in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.
Abbott declined to comment on whether he had spoken to the Indonesian government about his plans, which were ridiculed as “crazy” and “bizarre” by Australia’s ruling Labor party.
“It is absolutely in Indonesia’s interest to stop the boats, I have no reason to think that the Indonesians won’t be prepared to work cooperatively and constructively with us,” he said.
Both major parties have pledged a crackdown on the issue — Rudd’s Labor government has signed an agreement with Papua New Guinea to banish boatpeople there for permanent resettlement even if found to have a valid refugee claim, effectively closing Australia’s borders to those arriving by boat.
Abbott has argued for a military-led border patrol operation for the heavily trafficked sea corridor between Australia and Java, in Indonesia, and towing boats back where possible.
Immigration Minister Tony Burke rejected Abbott’s latest plans as “simply crazy policy” that would only benefit the Indonesian shipbuilding industry, with no way to buy boats as fast as they could be made.
“Of all the mad ideas I’ve heard in immigration, I think boat buy-back wins,” Burke said, adding that Indonesia had one of the largest fishing fleets in the world, with the majority of vessels “used by poor villagers to make a livelihood”.
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Buy my dirty leaky old fishing boat I use to bring thousands of emigrants into your country, so I can go and buy a bigger faster boat to bring tens of thousands of emigrants into your country.
Great idea
Would it not save lives. The issue with boats is they keep sinking with thousands of desperate people drowned and the con men laughing their rsez off.
They keep sinking because they are overloaded. Also, the gangsters will just increase their payment for boats. They will not lose the chance to make millions because Australia is willing to bid a little bit more. This is all election BS from the most bigoted nation in the World.
Ah, there it is, I’d nearly forgotten it; the familiar whiff of pre-election rhetoric wafting up our nostrils from the other side of the world .. Grand schemes and plans that play to the populist audience, without one scrap of feasibility or authenticity behind them i.e. “We’re going to burn the bond holders!” .. i.e. LIES, LIES AND MORE LIES… Politicians seem to be the same the world over; far be it from them to let the nuts and bolts of logistical concerns like other nations’ sovereignty and self-jurisdiction get in the way of a good pre-election lie! ..
I believe it was Arthur Caldwell, then Australian minister for immigration who when asked why their country tried so hard to keep asian immigrants out while letting Europeans replied ” cause two Wongs don’t equal a White” good to see their attitudes have improved.
I think a more pressing matter is the fact that the indigenous population are still in large living in poverty, have a lower life expectancy and are subject to racial abuse on a daily basis. I hate the way countries get colonized and are then forced to try and integrate into the white mans way of life. Then only when it suits the white man’s political agenda will any of the indigenous problems be addressed. I think the way of life in oz is very progressive on many fronts but backward on others.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA241Lg70fg
If this video isn’t evidence of Australia’s unprecedented efforts to improve the lot of their indigenous people, I don’t know what is.
A possitive step to dissuade thousands of extra liabilites from arriving to devour resources.
have your say