Legal immigrants are a bigger problem
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday October 29, 2009
Australia will face modest levels of seaborne asylum seekers for decades. Their effect on Australian population numbers will be negligible. The only long-term viable policy for dealing with them is not an "Indonesian solution" nor a Pacific solution, but a domestic Australian humanitarian solution.The Australian environment (as Ken Henry and I believe) and the Australian quality of life (as we should all agree) will benefit not from unworthy management of a few thousand annual asylum seekers, but much more from a substantial lopping of its current hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants.Australian diplomacy should be aiming at minimising the number of asylum seekers created, not on expecting other nations to manage for us the small outflow reaching Australia.Alan Hall MaroubraGood on Governor Ismeth Abdullah of the Riau Islands for standing up to Kevin Rudd and his pathetic pandering to the ugly side of the Australian electorate ("Indonesia governor rebels on refugees", October 28).Australia can easily afford to process and accommodate the 78 asylum seekers. Do the right thing and bring the Oceanic Viking home. It is unreasonable to place its crew in a stressful limbo so that Rudd can look tough bullying homeless people.Jason Leske Greenslopes (Qld)One wonders what Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull would do if Aung San Suu Kyi fled Burma's military dictatorship fearing for her life and was heading to Australia in a boat ("Leaders' wives step up for Suu Kyi", October 28).Mick Stojcevski WollongongInteresting that the Human Rights Commission report on conditions at the Christmas Island detention centre noted there was "little open space, virtually no trees and there is no grassy area for the children to play" ("Rudd's policy belies the brutal honesty of Christmas Island's names", October 28).Has anyone checked thenew suburbs in any big city in Australia? These children will feel right at home when they are eventually released into the mainstream population.Michele ZehnderNorth BalgowlahSigns always incyclists' blind spotThere really is something different about cyclists and their disregard of road rules. I regularly use the Bay Run at Haberfield, which is shared by walkers, joggers and cyclists. The path outside the UTS Rowers Club is very narrow and bisects the walkway between the club entrance and car park.For many years, prominent signs have asked cyclists to dismount and walk their bikes past the club entrance. I reckon I have watched 1000 cyclists in a decade pass these signs, and on just one solitary occasion I saw one dismount.Recently traffic-calming gates have been erected in an effort to force cyclists to do the right thing, yet most still refuse to comply. This statistically significant observation is evidence of a collective bloody-mindedness. Almost all cyclists seem to regard themselves as superior, and this arrogance manifests in the more aggressive individuals as anti-car militancy and road rage.Stephen Wilson Five DockThe police may have handed out more than 11,000 fines but it doesn't look as though any of them were in Lidcombe ("Cyclists not given free ride by police", October 28). Cyclists ride up and down the John Street footpaths without helmets all the time. This week I saw a police car pass one.It may be dangerous to ride on busy streets, but it is dangerous for pedestrians if pushbikes are on the footpaths. I know two people who have been hit by cars while riding, but I also know two who have been hit by pushbikes while walking on the footpath. One is on light duties for six months because of a fractured skull.I wrote to the Bicycle Institute of NSW about the issue, but it has not rushed to give me a response. Cyclists have a lot to do to raise the image of a mode of transport that has solid environmental and health benefits.Grenville Rose LidcombeBeauty is in the eye of the readerThere is a certain cynicism engendered by the release of a body image report by three slim, attractive women, two of whom make a career from their looks and the looks of others ("Don't gloss over ageing, true beauty is in diversity", October 28). Surely the crucial issue here is not what is in the magazines, but why we are so complacent that young women in particular get ideas about what they should look like and how they should be from glossy magazines and popular culture.Attractiveness and personal worth as dictated by popular culture will always be exclusive and limited €“ even if the models go up a size or two. Where else might we find these ideas?Kim Chapple DarlinghurstOn page 7 was an article on a proposed strategy for body image, which in part condemns the heavy airbrushing and digital trimming of magazine models. Not before time. Alas, opposite was a full-page ad featuring a model in her underwear, airbrushed to within an inch of her life.Jim Dewar North GosfordLethal poisons need more respectTim Booth (Letters, October 27) says Chemcert accreditation courses €śare no doubt designed for the simple minded€ť, and is convinced he "knows his job" and should be allowed access to a lethal product.I am sure Mr Booth is a competent farmer, but I would be concerned if he was allowed to use 1080 baited meat on his property unregulated.Is he aware that the information on 1080 packaging about safety directions, first aid, storage and disposal has recently changed? Does he know his obligations regarding storage, transport and disposal of baited meat and packaging, the required notifications to neighbours and safety procedures relating to the water table, streams, dams, rivers, crops and domestic animals?Unregulated use of poisons and pesticides poses a threat not only to the individual farmer, but to the wider community. If Mr Booth cannot be €śbothered€ť with a blanket course on chemical use, there is no reason he should be given unrestricted access to lethal poisons.David Manion BathurstUproar comes 18 years too lateWhere was the uproar when the killers of Victor Chang were sentenced 18 years ago ("Move to overturn Chang killer's release", October 28)? We all knew the minimum sentence would be reached this year. The public outcry should have been voiced in 1991. So much for "truth in sentencing".Tiit Tonuri CowraThe reaction by politicians on both sides of the House to the proposed parole of the murderer of Victor Chang has been disgraceful. As those who have spoken know perfectly well, the sentence of the individual who committed that appalling act has nothing to do with the members of the NSW State Parole Authority (of which I am one, though with no involvement in this case).The sentence and the non-parole period were decided by the judge who presided over the trial. It was open to all groups to appeal against any perceived leniency when it was handed down. The task of the parole authority was simply to judge the performance of the perpetrator in jail, once the specified non-parole period had been reached.If matters to do with incarceration are going to be decided on the basis of the popularity of a victim, or political opportunism, cherished and hard-won protections will be endangered for us all.Noel Beddoe KiamaClubs are more than worth the costRoss Gittins equates spending on gambling exclusively with social cost ("It pays to put happiness on a pedestal", October 28). Clubs are not-for-profit organisations and use their gambling revenues to contribute positively via employment, sporting facilities, live entertainment, food and substantial donations to charities and sporting groups.The NSW Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal last year measured the social benefit of clubs at $811 million annually. No one pretends there is no cost to a small number of people from gambling, but any analysis of poker machines should look at how that money is spent. Perhaps Gittins would be better off advocating a "pre-commitment" on fast food, given Access Economics estimated the cost of obesity to the nation at $58 billion last year.David Costello Chief executive, ClubsNSW, Sydney
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald