What is wrong with this picture?

I don't know what the situation is with Canadians currently in affected areas on the North-East coast of Japan, but the situation and response of the Australian government has been a bit of a bad joke.

There are Australians living in cities and towns not too far from where the reactors are currently spewing radiation. Right now they are in no immediate threat, but as soon as the wind shifts (as it does during Spring) that radioactive cloud is going to swing South. Not to mention the situation a long ways from being under control and there is still a serious risk of a critical mass explosion which would see a huge plume of radioactive material thrown up to drift on the wind. Such an event in one of the 4 afflicted reactors would seriously compromise efforts to secure the other three increasing the risk of additional radiation release. In all it is a very bad situation for people to be in.

Australia's response so far? Adivse people to leave. This when roads are completely clogged. Infrastructure is damaged due to the earthquake, fuel is impossible to find, food and water are scarce, and many people cannot even get to their belongings in buildings condemned by the quake. The UK and France have already been arranging charter busses to get to their people and transport them to safety. At least one Australian family was fortunate enough to get seats on one of the UK busses that reached their city. Their building was closed off after damage from the quake so they had no belongings or credit cards. They were desperate for someone to help arrange transport out of the area, and the Australian consolate provided nothing, no money, no transport, no help.

Granted this is a disaster so I'm sure they're juggling all kinds of emergencies. But I think this has the potential to galvanize people into a special kind of loathing towards our government in the face of other recent events. Australia has a problem with illegal immigrants, particularly those arriving by boat. People pay their last cent or dinar or what-have-you (along with a healthy sum donated by relatives living in Australia via Western Union) to people smugglers for a place on illequiped boats setting out for Australia via Indonesia. One of these boats was intercepted and directed to a processing centre on Christmas Island. Unfortunately due to poor navigation, bad weather, and a poorly maintained boat, it ran afoul of rocks on the wrong side of the island. Several people were killed.

Now here is the kicker. The Australian taxpayer paid to have 12 bodies flown from Christmas Island to Sydney with several surviving family members for funerals, and then flew most of those family members back to Christmas Island. Plus they flew 5 more bodies back overseas to countries like Iraq for burial there.

This was money spent not on Australian citizens, or tax paying residents, but on people that were trying to enter the country unlawfully. There are thousands of refugees and persecuted people living around the world desperate to get asylum in a better country. These people jump the queue by hopping on a boat knowing that they won't be turned back, and likely won't be sent back if they wait long enough or scream loud enough.

I don't want to sound like they shouldn't be helped, but it begs the question. How can the government justify spending that kind of money on unlawful aliens, and yet cannot be bothered to effectively organize a dozen charter busses for its own citizens stuck in a rapidly escalating disaster zone?!