The Oil Drum: Australia/New Zealand | Australia: The Place To Be (Part 1)

90 comments on Australia: The Place To Be (Part 1)

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Miroslav_QLD on October 29, 2007 - 8:09pm

Lagedargent has brought up very good points. We need to understand the situation - Australia is NOT an isolated land.

Well, if I'm not too wrong, within 15-25 years, Australia might become the biggest refuge camp in history. Our current population is 21 million. This can double. Or triple.

This is the problem. Do we have a moral right (we, the 21 million people) to keep this entire continent, with the size of Europe, only for ourselves? No. But, are we able to welcome 20+ million people and give them SUVs, air cons, swimming pools, K-Marts, Medicare cards and Centrelink..? Again, NO. It's not sustainable. A good news is that potential refugees could live without SUVs and air cons, because they already live without them. I think our government should have a plan. The plan does not need to be exposed to the public, but it would be fair if the government (Howard's or Rudd's, it doesn't matter) simply says "yes, we are aware of this, and we do have a plan".

The way how I see it, Australia might have to draw a line between, say, Perth and Darwin, which is almost 50% of WA, and say: "OK, if you get here in a bathtub, we're not gonna send you back, we'll give some basic infrastructure, some petrol, some food, medicaments, vehicles, etc. but from that point you'll be on your own. We cannot let you in our big cities because they are already overloaded".

Yeah, I know, this is all like a 'Mad Max' scenario, but you see how things quickly progress..

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TenThousandMileMargin on October 30, 2007 - 4:42am

I think you are forgetting a few things:

1)Crossing the sea in leaky old boats is dangerous. If people do so in large numbers, most will die on the way as the Navy will not be able to save them all. Think about logistics.

2) People aren't going to get on a boat and travel 5,000 km if they are starving. They are going to use their last remaining money to buy food. The refugees we have seen so far have relatively good resources, they are fleeing political persecution.

3) Boats have owners. Remind me again why the owners would be interested in making a long and dangerous journey which will quite likely end with their boat being burned in Darwin harbour?

4)Indonesia won't be starving, it is a tropical country producing its own food via subsistence agricultural. Global warming will increase its rainfall.

5) Anywhere north of Indonesia is just too far for refugees to arrive in large numbers, though some will die trying.

6) If you think millions of people can successfully get to Australia from anywhere, you need to look at a map and thing about logistics.

7) You don't need to machine-gun anyone to stop mass migration. You just impound and destroy every boat you can catch. See point three. "Burn the boats" is a pretty simple and effective strategy that would rapidly dry up the supply of transport. You think people are going to swim?

If we are to believe in things we cannot see or touch, how do we tell the true belief from the false belief?

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