“On November 12, 2012, the rate of homelessness in Australia was 49 persons for every 10,000 persons ... released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics ... by 8 per cent in the five years to 2011, the number of people who were homeless rose ...”

There were shouts in the federal Parliament yesterday all the way to the High Court of Australia.

The Tamil asylum seekers should not be sent back where they came from.

This is a kind gesture exhibited by the Greens and the asylum seeker supporter-groups.

The uncanny thing about this is that the kindness displayed by these people forget the existence of our own kind in wretched situations in Australia.

They say “charity begins at home”, but allowing the boats in will “Cost of detention $113,000 per asylum seeker”.

If the Greens have ever been planting new trees, or helping our own brothers and sisters in the streets, I would not have written this.

Please wake up Australia.

— RICHARD MINDIN,

Chiltern Valley