Well it appears its nearly official, Australia has effectively ceased to have borders.
In a major policy shift, the Federal Government is preparing to announce plans to release hundreds of asylum seekers from detention and allow them to live in the community while their applications for asylum are being accessed.
Many years ago, around the time of the Latham election I was having a conversation with a detainee about the likelihood of a Labour government opening the centres and releasing all the asylum applicants. At that time I told the bloke I thought it was extremely unlikely unless the greens held the balance of power. Fast forward a decade and here we are, right on schedule.

Evil or just plain stupid?
Audio: http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/news/audio/am/201010/20101016-sam-01-detention-release.mp3 Sarah Hanson Young wibbleing on about how nasty having borders are…
It means hundreds of asylum seekers, including about 700 children, who are currently in detention centres are likely to be released
Every child released, effectively making turning up with a kid a ticket straight out of detention and into Australia. This will have the effect of seeing more women and children on the boats, at the moment its more single men.
Senator Hanson-Young says issues of employment and education are still yet to be worked out.
“Children who are of school age will need to be going to school. That’s one of the things that I’m quite strong on,” she said.
“In terms of working, some people may be able to, because they’re up for it. Other people are simply are not in a state to be able to work as yet … My understanding is that the Minister wouldn’t have made a decision on those work rules yet.”
“Some people are simply not in a state to be able to work”… So the greens will be pushing for open ended welfare straight off the boat…how..enlightened of them.
She says there will be a variety of different options for housing.
“Currently, of course, there are families and children housed in detention facilities at the moment in Darwin where they’re under lock and guard by 24 hour security, where their movement is restricted,” she said.
“Even removing that restriction will actually help a lot. Parents could take their kids down to the park, make them meals as they see fit.
Housing: “Just open the centres and remove the guards” seems to be her solution.
Do you think it will cause more asylum seekers: “no that’s not going to happen its a myth and simply not true”…
The absolute stupidity and/or evil of this airhead is beyond normal. Australia has a tolerant and thriving society because we accept, to a large extent, that government of whatever stripes are actually trying to “do good” by the majority of the population.
This decision will see refugee numbers increase by a factor of ten over the next 2 years, Im willing to place an even money bet on it.
This is an act of political bastardry unequaled in the last few decades. Julia and her party have NO mandate for this at all, Im willing to bet they would have lost the election if they had so much as hinted at this policy turn around.