Australians and asylum seekers: not in my backyard

Tony Abbott managed to get a great deal of mileage out of the asylum seeker debate during the 2013 election campaign and during his time in opposition.

I often wondered if his nasty inhuman stance was just him being contrary, in order to differentiate himself from the Gillard/Rudd government and attract the heartless Australian heartlanders.

Well, I no longer need to wonder.

Tony Abbott is a nasty little bastard. I thought Christians were supposed to be charitable. They probably are if you are one of them. Mr. Abbott is standing on a world stage and unashamedly condemning many people to either rot in detention, or go back to who-knows-what that drove them to our sunny shores in the first place.

No Australian government can be blamed for the influx of asylum seekers.

It should never have been politicised. It's a worldwide phenomenon. It always happens that people even worse than Tony Abbott take power and cause people to suffer due to religion, ethnicity, social status, war or just plain old neglect.

If things were good back home, these wouldn't risk their lives on a rickety boat run by ruthless bloodsucking smugglers.

The only really responsible thing we can do is to speed up the current processing, be good global citizens and speak up for the rights of these people in their own home countries, then welcome the poor and needy. 

We're privileged and selfish in this country. We got fat. The image of the egalitarian digger is fading away, to be replaced by the overfed under educated and uncaring image of Clive Palmer and Gina Rinehart.