Australia has just spent over $ 500,000 deporting 119 Papua New Guineans who arrived by boat at Horn island - and demanded Australian citizenship. This - it seems - is another hangover from our past colonial era.
Papua New Guinea was originally colonised by Britain and Germany. The German part was forfeited to Britain after the first world war, and when Britain began to shed colonies after the second world war this island country was dumped on Australia. It gained independence in 1975.
The question seems to be whether during the time that Papua New Guinea was under Australian control it's people became Australian citizens. They were certainly subject to Australian laws - but their status is not clear.
The flotilla that set out to land in Australia and demand Australian citizenship claim that there was no referendum held to officially sever their ties to Australia, and that they therefore did not have a say in their country being granted independence.
This seems to be a murky can of worms that will eventually find it's way through the legal system. If the courts find for the people of Papua New Guinea then there is every chance of mass migration from that undeveloped land - to what must seem the utopia of Australia.
There is dispute as to how many people our land can hold - and maybe we will need to add a few million people from the land to our north to the official population census if the courts give this claim the nod.
It seems that those heading for Christmas island are not the only " boat people " seeking to make Australia their home !
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