ONSIDE COMMENTS
Boat people
The New Zealand government’s proposed hard-line stance against boatpeople seeking asylum has been met with an online campaign featuring Oscar Kightley against the move. KARL SAMUEL believes caution is necessary.
Those of us living in NZ & Australia (as I do now) who haven’t been beyond the Pacific don’t realise how lucky we are. But that’s all the more reason we need to take a tough line. We saw with the rioting that took place in Sydney about the movie that mocked Islam. Hey people, it was an American movie not Australian! Middle Eastern communities are taking over Sydney suburbs like Auburn and they’ve become ghettos. What has this got to do with refugees? There is growing evidence of criminals buying their way onto boats heading for Australia and once they’re here its too late.
Lucky countries
The National government is simply using this issue as a campaign tool. It’s simply to risky for these boats to travel all the way to New Zealand. The Tasman crossing is often a treacherous journey and most of these boats aren’t particularly seaworthy. The article is right - they’re simply scaremongering. They’re trying to generate support by comparing our situation to Australia where it’s become a massive problem. In reality though, the situation in Australia and New Zealand is poles apart.
Jeremy