Yesterday, right across the nation at the extra-long lunches in well-reviewed eateries, children of all ages toasted their mothers' infinite capacity for love, selflessness and forgiveness. And this morning, the confectionery-floral-jeweller-publishing conglomerate started cackling well before the banks opened.

Well, that was the end of that for most of us - heathens and true believers - but not for tens of thousands of first-generation Australians whose ageing mothers and fathers are kept off our shores by some ingenious immigration policies.

And if the opposition has its way, most of these mothers and fathers won't make it here in a thousand years. They can come for a visit, of course, hug a grandchild or two, just as long as they don't stick around.

http://www.theage.com.au/opini...y-20100509-ulns.html