The ‘party discipline’ that has its roots in the Labor Party’s precursor of the 1890s has stifled real political debate, making even the smartest politicians sound like hacks and act like sheep.
History suggests that resettling refugees on Nauru and Manus Island in Australia and New Zealand will not enliven people smuggling between Indonesia and Christmas Island.
The region is showing signs it is determined to ensure similar mass displacement crises such as that which took place in the Andaman Sea in 2015 are avoided.
The Labor Party has been driving a campaign bus from Cairns to Canberra. On Sunday night Sam Dastyari told supporters they had raised enough money to extend its journey through to Melbourne.
Anticipation is core business for political strategists. Last year Bill Shorten and those around him correctly judged Labor was electorally exposed on border protection.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton’s incendiary remarks about refugees may resonate electorally. But, as Michelle Grattan explains, they will also come at a cost.
If Malcolm Turnbull is returned he should tip Peter Dutton out of the immigration portfolio when he chooses his new ministry. Dutton’s Tuesday comments, when targeting the Greens proposal for a big increase…
Both major parties support offshore processing and boat turnbacks. But public opinion on asylum seekers is not so clear-cut. And nor are the policy alternatives.
If a new High Court claim against Australia’s offshore detention regime succeeds, it will entirely undermine Australia’s inhumane practices in relation to “those who come across the seas”.
It is hard to credit that two asylum seekers in Nauru could set themselves alight on Australia’s watch and the stories receive, compared to much else, so little attention in our hyper media cycle. One…
High rates of self-harm are endemic on Nauru. And yet, the Australian government persists in seeing suicide and self-harm as the fault of refugees and their supporters.