Australia wants people to come visit; they love to have tourists since that is what a big portion of their economy is based on. However, this does not mean that they want people to try and come stay there forever. This was made very clear when the new Australian PM, Julia Gillard, declared tough new measures on asylum seekers. It is as if the government is saying come to visit, but don’t plan on staying.

In a series of measures that will be put in place before the next election, which actually does include the very controversial mining tax, Ms Gillard has grabbed refugee debt by the horns. She has declared that political correctness is dead and should just be swept away with.

As it turns out, Ms Gillard seemed to endorse the Howard policy on asylum seekers. People got this idea after she defended him when he was attacked by India media suggesting that he was racist. She said that he was most certainly not racist, and moreover, the ordinary Australians who are concerned about emigration levels are not racist either. This new hard line approach to emigration is leading some people to believe that a strong policy on emigration is going to happen.

Ms Gillard went on to say that she certainly does dismiss labels like intolerant or racist, because people raise concerns about border security. She said that they also have to be very alive to the complexity of this. Ms Gillard added that there is no quick fix to the situation.

Not too long ago, the Australian government was accused of being too soft on “boat people.” They were allowing the word to spread throughout the world, and this was causing Vietnamese people to arrive by boats in great numbers. The government has suspended asylum seekers from places like Afghanistan, but Asia nationalities face no such suspension.