Last weekend the Prime Ministers of New Zealand and Australia met at the iconic town of Queenstown, New Zealand. The pristine air did nothing for their thinking if what we are hearing about a decision they made.
It seems that NZ is about to take 150 refugees and that this number will be included in the 750 that NZ usually takes. This will happen each year. There is a fundamental problem with this, all in the name of fairness.
If NZ does go ahead and take these refuges, it is most unfair to those genuine refugees who are ‘doing the right thing’ by joining the quiz The refugees that Mr Key has agreed to take are from the queue-jumpers who have paid exorbitant prices to ‘people smugglers,’ then to be placed on islands near Australia to be processed when their boats either sink or enter Australian waters.
Mr Kay uses the reasoning that if and when NZ receives ‘boat people’ who have managed to make it this far, then Australia will help process them. This is all a little vague and possibly improbable given the nature of the Tasman Sea.
Come-on Mr Key and Ms Gillard----get real. This is nothing more than an attempt to push NZ not taking a group of people on a regular basis who are not following process. Is this not a message to the rest of the world where People smuggling is rampant that NZ is a soft target simply because Australia has not found a solution to this vexing problem?
Yes, NZ must play its part in helping to resolve issues around people smuggling, but no in this manner. Go back to Ms Gillard, Mr Key and do not be pressured into making these stupid and unfair decisions.
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