I just read this story on the News Crow and looked to see if anyone had started a thread on the topic.....The Newman Government was warned that closing the centre would put these young people at risk and ignored their advise.....Newman does indeed have blood on his hands and should take responsibility for his poor decisions.....Why have enquiries and independent advice when all they do is ignore it and do what they always intended to do anyway???

Its time wrote on Nov 8^th, 2014 at 9:15am:


Or frame the terms of reference to exclude looking at Government actions (AWB) or refuse to allow public servants to give evidence at the enquiry (children overboard) or look into union corruption but not big business involvement (RCTU) or dismantle institutions that will provide advise the Government does not want to hear.....Even place Liberal hacks who have lost their seats (Mirabella) into positions where they can influence a preconceived outcome that supports the party rhetoric.....How people cannot see through the obvious manipulation of democracy to push an ideological agenda shows how self interest trumps fairness every time in Australian society!!!

Just terrible, especially in light of the QLD governments recent pork barreling of the seat of Ashgrove.

Of course, to a lot of politicians, keeping your own seat and nepotism are more important than making sure your states most vulnerable are looked after.

Rocketanski wrote on Nov 8^th, 2014 at 10:38am:



There is no official record of deaths at sea under either government, however, it is around 800 Coalition and 850 or so Labor.   These figures also presume a number lost at sea and unaccounted for.   By far the largest was the SIEV 10 incident that occurred under the Coalition where over 300 men, woman and children died in one foul swoop.   There is a memorial erected in Canberra to them, the Government was so ashamed of such a huge loss - the biggest so far in Asylum Seeker deaths.

It's a shame Governments cant fund everything.
Either way, Newman's got a massive deficit to reduce thanks to previous successive state Labor government spendathons in Queensland.
It matters little how governments try to reduce spending or raise revenue, as there will always be those ready to complain.

Vic wrote on Nov 8^th, 2014 at 10:53am:


As long as the SIEV X disaster remains uninvestigated and surrounded in a fog of suspicion regarding possible Australian culpability, then it is extremely cynical, if not morally reprehensible for Labor to use this tragedy as fodder for their political propaganda to demonstrate the dangers of attempting to enter Australia irregularly by boat. They have it in their power to remove the stench surrounding this issue by holding the long-overdue inquiry that they pledged back in 2004.

The Drum

DaS Energy wrote on Nov 8^th, 2014 at 11:23am:


After the witch hunts Abbott has instigated I am sure the Labor party now regret their reluctance to hold the Coalition to account......Labor no doubt thought if they let the Coalition off the hook they would reciprocate in kind.....Tony Abbott however is not someone who would let political advantage slip and will use every avenue possible to attack his political opponents regardless of the cost or long standing conventions.....I hope the ALP learn from this and hold Abbott to account once he is thrown on the scrap heap by the electorate!!!



The Spartans had a good system where after their leaders finished ruling they had a trial and if they where found to have acted corruptly they where punished!!!