Reopening the Manus Island detention centre - or a similar one anywhere else in Papua New Guinea - would be an admission of massive policy failure by the Gillard Government.
The very fact that it is a live option shows a Government verging on the desperate.
But, by now, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen probably figures it is better than the alternative, given the Government is bleeding to death over border protection and detention, satisfying neither the left nor the right.
If Papua New Guinea agrees, no doubt the one fig leaf the Government will frantically clutch at is that PNG is a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention and Nauru is not.
But there is no hiding the fact that Manus Island was part of the Howard government’s Pacific Solution and that Labor has now effectively conceded it has no better policy than the one it ridiculed for years.
One of the architects of the Government’s present woes, former immigration minister Chris Evans, neatly summed up Labor’s Pacific Solution theme when he shut it down in February 2008.
It was, he mused, a “cynical, costly and ultimately unsuccessful exercise” ...
• UPDATE, Sunday, ABC Online: ‘Panicked’ Malaysian refugee deal under attack
The Federal Opposition has questioned why the Government has struck a deal to send asylum seekers to Malaysia when that nation has not signed the refugee convention.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced a deal with Malaysia to take 800 asylum seekers from Australia.
In exchange, she says Australia will accept 4,000 refugees from Malaysia.
Ms Gillard says from now on, asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat can be sent directly to Malaysia, where they will be at the back of the queue.
But Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says it is a panicked announcement.
“The whole reason why she couldn’t pick up the phone to the president of Nauru she said was because Nauru is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention,” he said.
“Malaysia is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention so why is the PM sending boat people to Malaysia if she can’t send them to Nauru?”
“We’ve seen a panicked announcement from a government which is proving yet again that it’s both untrustworthy and incompetent.”
• Saturday, ABC Online: Abbott’s surfing lesson
…
Mr Wakil spent 10 months in the Curtin Detention Centre in 1999 after fleeing Afghanistan.
He told Mr Abbott that detention does not deter people.
“What pushes people is all those desperate situations back in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Sri Lanka,” he said.
“I’m here today to request Tony, there are real alternatives.”
Mr Wakil did not hesitate to express his dismay over the current stoush between the Government and the Coalition over asylum seeker policy.
“The Howard government blew over $1 billion to lock up just 1,500 people in Nauru,” Mr Wakil told journalists after the surf lesson.
“Tony unfortunately has the same idea to do exactly the same thing, which is cruel and which is expensive.”
Mr Abbott interjected, saying “and Julia does too”.
The response prompted Mr Wakil to take aim also at the Government.
“Julia Gillard will blow over $800 million of taxpayers’ money just next year if she goes with this plan to lock up people on (Manus Island),” he said.
…
• Saturday on Tasmanian Times:
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