Hardline boat people policy

OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott has propelled refugees back to the centre of Australian politics, vowing to do whatever it takes to stop the flow of boats entering our northern waters.

The move immediately was condemned by moderate Liberals as cruel and inhumane.

Risking the bitter atmosphere of the 2001 "Tampa election" and just days after declaring he would not be an "action replay" of former Prime Minister John Howard, Mr Abbott has pulled a play straight from his old mentor's playbook.

The policy seeks to capitalise on what the Coalition believes is growing public anxiety on asylum seekers, as the detention facility at Christmas Island overflows and applicants are brought to the mainland for processing.

Mr Abbott has drawn a political line in the sand, declaring "we will stop the boats". He even promises to turn them around. How he will achieve either remains to be seen.
There have been 128 boats so far this year. The Coalition says that is the greatest rate of asylum seekers on record.

The policy essentially is a re-badged version of the Pacific Solution, using unidentified third countries to perform "off-shore" processing of refugee applications.

Mr Abbott would not be drawn on which countries would be prepared to undertake the task. That is prudent as any so named would seem sure to object.

Turning boats around in open waters has proved highly problematic and generally is regarded as too dangerous to attempt. There also is the problem of where such boats are then taken, given that transit countries, such as Indonesia, are unlikely to want them back.

Politically, the risk to Mr Abbott is the policy will play into a building Government narrative portraying the Opposition Leader as a hardliner and policy extremist. Mr Abbott conceded it would not please everyone in his partyroom.

He was right. Moderate MPs, most of whom had not been consulted because the U-turn had not been presented to the partyroom, wasted no time.

Outgoing Victorian moderate MP, Petro Georgiou said: "The policy announced today is cruel. It further victimises the persecuted. It does not have my support."

Victorian senator Judith Troeth also was scathing describing it as "harsh and inhumane".

"I regard the proposed arrangement to send refugees and asylum seekers to a third country for assessment as a total abrogation of our obligations to newcomers to our country," she said.

Source:http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/national/hardline-boat-people-policy/story-e6frea8c-1225872261672