Just why our prime minister, burdened with a dog’s breakfast of an illegal immigration policy, still stubbornly refuses to re-open the perfectly acceptable, good and working processing centre for illegal immigrants on the beautiful Pacific island of Nauru is difficult to comprehend.
She doesn’t even want to talk about it.
No, she wants Malaysia but the High Court said NO because Malaysia does not provide acceptable living conditions for refugees and asylum seekers.
She wants Manus island but the PNG government said NO, and it’s not the safest place anyway.
She wants East Timor but they weren’t even properly consulted, and they too said NO.
But just what IS her problem with Nauru?
Does it really matter where offshore the processing centre is?
The point is, is that when it’s offshore, that sends a key message to the people smugglers and their customers: You won’t make it to Australia.
It worked.
The boats stopped and hundreds were spared the horrifying death of drowning at sea.
That’s all that Gillard’s lack of policy has really done – killed hundreds.
Australia takes in a fixed number of refugees and asylum seekers per year.
If they come illegally by boat, that means someone in a refugee camp – say in Malaysia or Africa – who’s set to come here legally is forced to wait even longer.
Thus, the Gillard government’s policy can hardly be considered humane.
Real refugees and asylum seekers are given the cold shoulder over those with $10,000 or likely more who then further insult our system by throwing away their documents.
If they make it at all that is.
But don’t worry yourself, Julia.
Today we read that just as you appear not to (deeds, not words, PM), some of them don’t care if they drown whilst trying to get here, either.
UPDATE
Meanwhile, as the government dithers over policy and pride…
MORE than 600 boatpeople a month would flood into Australian waters unless offshore processing is revived as a policy option, Tony Abbott was told by government officials today.
Labor has been warned, and the Opposition Leader was today also told, that onshore-only processing would overwhelm the immigration detention network within about one year.
And, inevitably, the asylum-seekers that were part of that influx would be released into the community, with the potential for long-term cultural change and European-style disharmony in Australia, Mr Abbott was told in a special briefing by government officials in Brisbane this afternoon.
Those would be the government officials Gillard sent to Abbott after his offer to help.
The PM is in a lose-lose situation. She desperately needs to re-open the processing centre on Nauru but doesn’t have the humility to do so.
It would be a much easier decision for a new Labor leader/PM.
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