How the fark would anyone know that ? High Court make most decisions by spinning a bottle.
They did have options in place, but until they could read the High Court reasons for the decision any planning for legislation was a waste of time. In any case, new Laws also need time and inout from many sources, especially the Attorney General.
What a laugh? You read too much Murdoch and watch too much Sky News. Who do you think started Border Protection and detention of “illegals”. He just recently died and was a Minister in the Hawke Government. It could be a widely held view, but it has no basis in fact. A majority of Labor Members detest the actions of Rudd and Gillard Governmentsin their political inspired treatment of refugees, and now Albo is no better. We let immigrants in by the multiple plane loads, but treat real refugees like crap.
Howard Govt introduced offshore detention and redrew the national boundaries. It didn’t stop the arrivals by air.
In his second coming Rudd adopted the Howard Govt system, boat arrivals could not gain residency and there was a recommitment to offshore detention.
Kerryn Phelps in her one term was successful in remedial measures for medivac of some offshore detainees, but this was later overturned. Those medivacced formed part of the numbers in indefinite immigration detention.
There is, of course, an alternative significantly widely held view that on border control, both Liberal and Labor have presided for decades over a vicious, brutal and cynical regime based on a bunch of pedantic legal fictions that that casually destroys lives in the interests of pandering to the extreme right Murdoch press and a gaggle of loudmouthed bigots like Hanson.
The Coalition probably should be careful on this. The sort of quasi-fascist permanent jail without trial regardless of the constitution stuff that Dutton is pushing is not going to help them win back any Teal seats, and the outer suburbs seats they claim to be targeting have a significant population of refugees now. What was effective politics in the age of Howard might not prove to be so any more.
The initial justification for offshore detention was driven by the Xmas Island mass drownings, accompanied by other measures to dissuade boat arrivals.
The Gillard Government Malaysian solution was a good solution. It only went down on a technicality in the High Court. It could have been resolved by legislation. For whatever reason, Gillard didn’t go down that path ( maybe she didn’t have the numbers).
I have a recollection that the then Abbott opposition voted against the proposed solution or at least indicated they would. Stand corrected if I’ve got that wrong.
I think that’s how it happened. Gillard never had a majority in either house, so if the Coalition opposed something (and Abbott opposed EVERYTHING) then she needed the Greens and independents to get anything through parliament. The Greens opposed the Malaysia proposal because, as I understand it, Australia has certain treaty obligations regarding the treatment of refugees, and shipping them off to a country that did not recognise that treaty was just a way of outsourcing the violation of those treaty obligations. I don’t remember how the independents voted on the Malaysia thing, but given the Greens were opposed it was dead in the water in the upper house anyway.
Very little logic in the “debate” around this issue. Why bother with facts and logic when there’s an agenda to be prosecuted with the added bonus of a bit of fear-mongering.
UNHCR stays out of domestic politics, but privately I was told that the Malaysian solution would have worked, with Australia sponsoring refugee camps there with Malaysian assistance.
At the time, Malaysia allowed entry to any Muslims, many of whom went on to Indonesia where the boat people smugglers operated . It would not have worked for Indonesia because of the decentralisation of administration. In maintaining refugee camps in Malaysia of a high standard, there would have been less incentive to move to Indonesia.
All it took was legislation to provide for establishing the camps in Malaysia.
We now have violence in the refugee camps in Bangladesh, Rohingyas fleeing by boat to Aceh, pushed back.
Meanwhile in Europe, there are mass migrant drownings in the Med, with walls put up between EU members, conflicts in Africa causing more deaths, UN prevented from saving lives, particularly in Sudan. French have been kicked out of some former colonies, UN ordered out of Mali.
That’s the view from left of centre glasses. Why would ‘we’ defend Labor on their management of this problem? That said, there’s plenty in here for the left of centre politics not calling it as it is on the current troubles the Government are having on several portfolios: Immigration and borders, inflation, cost of living, energy costs, housing… The Government are not delivering as hoped, or promised at the election and I, and a few others recognise this.
It is what it is. The polls are supporting this view, but things can change. Labor can go to Christmas, reset, recharge and refocus back on the core issues Australians care about, something they’ve failed at in 2023 to their detriment. And if they do, they’ll be back in control.
However, nobody should be compelled to defend anyone’s views. Conservative minded people think alike, left of centre posters think alike. Abd the views collide or agree accordingly. It’s pretty simple.
Maybe but it started before that with my old SL Comrade the late Gerry Hand, who was the immigration minister who, in 1992, and started the policy of mandatory detention for illegal arrivals and asylum seekers.
His famous quote " I believe it is crucial that all persons who come to Australia without prior authorisation not be released into the community."
But as @dmaplestone says Labor is soft on Border Control.
Seriously BigA, it was a crap idea and not a solution at all. Australia needs to step up to its international responsibilities, and solve people issues at the source and be humanitarian in its response to refugees. Gillard was a real jerk over this.
Conservatives often like to assert that things are simple, and that their view is the official version of the adults in the room. Born to rule isn’t a sleight, it’s an observable trait and condescension is its outward face.
It isn’t simple except when it’s presented so by vested interests in media, finance and politics. It’s complex and people who insist it isn’t enjoy the darkness afforded by that very much because they can operate in it like it’s business as usual prior to the internet.
To which you reply smugly that we’ll agree to disagree because our differences are clear cut and I’m just a leftist who votes Labor. The truth being much more complex than that, and quite different.
No such thing as illegal arrivals. They are asylum seekers coming in on SIEVs( suspected illegal arrival vehicles). Those coming by air do not come on SIEVs.
Within the EU there has been a correction - those attempting to come by boat are referred to as migrants. Some may later be granted refugee status, but they are not illegal.
After the Xmas Island drownings, Bowen moved to transfer some of the visa quotas ( business etc) to the refugees quotas. I knew the UNHCR rep who went with him to Xmas Island, thought highly of him and she had no reason to lie about the effectiveness of the Malaysian solution. She also thought highly of the Immigration PS, who subsequently got emasculated under Dutton and Pezzullo, who took over Customs and transformed it into Borderforce with AFP assistance.
The AFP has gone back to AG’s under the Albanese Government. O’Neill and Giles are currently faced with a dysfunctional PS after the Pezz wrecking ball and Robodebt.
The Gillard Government arranged for the families of the drowned to attend their funerals on Xmas Island, which was opposed by Dutton and co.
After that, it all went downhill with the ALP, when Rudd came back and reinstated the Coalition policy, out of fear that the ALP would be wiped out in western Sydney. And Bowen lost his nerve.
IMO, O’Neill needs to be less vocal and Dreyfus as the chief law Minister should be more prominent ( the death of his wife may have been the reason for him not being prominent earlier).
O’Neil should be removed from “Home Affairs” - she has revealed herseldf to be a crypto-fascist wolf in a Labor sheepskin coat.
Albo needs to grow a pair. He puts up with any old iron from his right wing, and refuses to implement his own left wing policies for fear of the Murdoch Media. He may be a nice man, but as a leader he’s just a weakshit, scared of his own shadow, who is helping Dutton and the rest of the “Liberal” fascists in their revival, at a time when he should be working to wipe them out. Some new laws (or old ones resurrected) to control Media ownership, plus effective penalties for libel, would be a start…
Rents are out of control, prices for basic necessities are going through the roof, and what does Albo do about it ? Sweet FannyAdams, apart from tax cuts for the rich and the mining moguls and other multi-nationals.
And now they’re running scared about releasing a few refugees from indefinite detention, and whining that a couple of them have committed offences after release. So what ? They’ve been arrested for those acts and will be charged, in the same way that any Australian resident would be arrested or charged. If refugees have to be locked up en masse because a handful of them might commit offences, the logical course of action is to lock up all Australians for the same reason.
If Labor can’t do better than this, they deserve to lose their majority at the hands of the Greens next election, which can’t come soon enough.
He shouldn’t be working to wipe the LNP out. Like all politicians, they should be working for the betterment of all Australians. If that results in other political parties becoming irrelevant, then so be it. The constant need to play politics to stay in power, rather than focussing on doing what is right is what gives spuds like Dutton a look-in in the first place.