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Phony pollies and polyphony on asylum seekers

Evan Williams

by Evan Williams

22 Jun 05:40am

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Filed under: Coalition, Government, Kevin Rudd, Music, Politics, The Greens

81 comments

In music, “polyphony” is when a composition has more than one melody playing at the same time. This term should be adapted for the political sphere. So, all and sundry, I hereby declare the label ‘polliephony’ be applied to those times when pollies try and win both sides of the argument - in other words, when they try to walk both sides of the street.

It might take two to tango, but only one to lead. Photo: AFP.

Polliephony is unfortunately a technique that is pervasive in almost all Australian political debates. However, for purposes of “programmatic specificity”, I’ll focus on its use in the asylum seeker debate.  This is because the asylum seeker debate is ripe for the use of polliephony, as it has two distinct sides of the street to walk on: one ‘tough’ and the other ‘humane’. 

Which brings us to one of the more remarkable and indelible uses of polliephony in modern Australian politics. Kevin “Bonhoeffer” Rudd’s notorious “tough but humane” approach to border protection.

Really, this slogan’s glibness and obfuscation reeks to such an extent that even the most amateur political observer should feel both offended and embarrassed by it.

However, in more recent times we have an eerily familiar polliephonic stench coming from Parliament House, this time coming from the opposition benches. It could be heard last week when the ‘tough’ Coalition and the ‘humane’ Greens joined together to create the most incongruous team since Bob Dylan, Pepsi and Will I Am.

Unlike the aforementioned financially motivated motley crew, the Greens and the Coalition were ostensibly inspired by human rights concerns. One believes the Greens, as they have always sung the same melancholic melody on this issue, but the Coalition’s key change doesn’t really sound right after talking and acting tough for so long.

Herein then lies the problem for polliephony. Musical polyphony may sound great when Bach employs it, but when a Parliamentarian uses polliephony, it just doesn’t sound right.

In politics standing for something means everything - but standing for everything means nothing. You’ve got to pick one melody, one side of the road, and stick to it in order to gain people’s respect.

As Welsh Labour MP Aneurin Bevan famously declared: “We know what happens to those who walk in the middle of the road; they get run over”.

In Australia the penalty for this political crime is equally lethal. As we saw in the 2010 election, the punitive measure applied to the perpetration of polliephony is a public hanging of the government.

Most commented

81 comments

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    • Against the Man says:

      06:17am | 22/06/11

      Dude Kev and Juliar have no idea what there are doing. International Embarrassment is what they have become.

      Reply

    • dovif says:

      07:49am | 22/06/11

      That is incorrect

      Kevin knows what he is doing, even through foreign policy should include dealings on the Malaysian/Regional/PNG/Indonesian/East Timor/Christmas Island Solution. Rudd decided to not lift a finger and let Gillard solve the mess she left, from her horrible attempt at rewriting the AS rules.

      There was no boats, at one stage there was 3 in 2 years, then Gillard welcome them in, so Gillard should be forced to fixed the Issue. Rudd just want to sit on the sideline and let Gillard burn, it is poetic justice for Rudd

    • acotrel says:

      08:01am | 22/06/11

      @ATM Kev & JuliA are dancing to Abbot’s tune on asylum seekers.  Locking families up behind barbed wire is UNAUSTRALIAN, and it’s what happened during the holocaust.  Claiming it’s for the good, and it’s about ‘border protection’, is all bullshit!  What it’s really about is Abbott and Morrison playing the xenophobia card, so the LNP might eventually reclaim its birthright!

    • Tom says:

      09:00am | 22/06/11

      ATM, Who cares about international embarrassment? My concern is the wanton destruction they continue to inflict on Australians.

    • marley says:

      09:07am | 22/06/11

      Oh come on Acotrel.  It was the ALP that put up the barbed wire in the first place, and it was the ALP that kept it in place in 2007, when they had a solid majority and only Brendan Nelson to worry about.  Kevin and Julia made a deliberate choice back then to try to play both ends against the middle by softening border policy while maintaining the harsher aspects of detention - and they got exactly the disaster anyone with an iota of knowledge or insight would have predicted.

    • acotrel says:

      09:55am | 22/06/11

      @marley
      The HATE started with Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison!  Before that there was sanity.

    • marley says:

      10:27am | 22/06/11

      Acotrel - sorry, but that’s a rewriting of history on your part.  And the only reason Abbott and Morrison are able to make this an issue, is because Rudd and Gillard failed to act on their principles three years ago, when they had a solid majority, few boat arrivals, and a chance to take the upper ground.  But they were so frightened of losing votes on the right that they betrayed those principles - and look where that has led.  You can hardly blame Abbott for walking through a door the ALP opened.

    • RyaN says:

      11:01am | 22/06/11

      @acotrel: so now its Abbotts fault what this incompetent Labor government is doing? Well I never!

    • Michael says:

      11:20am | 22/06/11

      Acotrel, i’m pretty sure it was Mr. Keating that implemented detaining refugees and asylum seekers.

      Howard gave us the temporary protection visa, Rudd cancelled them.

      I say open the flood gates, let them all settle in safe Labor and Green seats, wouldn’t want migrants living amongst the racist Liberals in their electorates anyway would we smile

    • Shifter says:

      11:46am | 22/06/11

      @Tom - wanton destruction? You’d probably be a bit shirty if you’d been imprisoned for lengthy periods whilst seeking asylum in a supposed free country.

    • Belinda says:

      12:12pm | 22/06/11

      I mix in circles where most people previously would have been Labor supporters when Howard was in government. Now they have had enough of Gillard and the spin. I will likely vote informal rather than the loopy Greens who are really the left extremist side of Labor but Abbott might be worth a go if for no other reason than to make sure I help clean out Gillard and co. 2 more years? I can’t stnd the though of listening to her and her climate change nonsense for that long.

    • peter says:

      01:16pm | 22/06/11

      @ Shifter says:11:46am | 22/06/11
      Free country… maybe for you ya useless bloody dole bludger!
      The rest of us are paying some of the highest taxes on the planet so incompetents can waste it on porkbarreling and giving leeches like you a free ride… This is not a FREE COUNTRY and is not open to whoever wants to just enter, if they want in then they better bloody contribute to our society, leave their baggage behind and make damn sure they have identification which can confirm they are not criminals, violent or otherwise… if not let them find somewhere else live.

    • Leopard says:

      01:59pm | 22/06/11

      @Peter This is true - we pay extremely high taxes -  Not a “free” country at all.  And the taxpayers don’t want to fund any more free-loaders.
      All those who think differently should be putting up hands to pay extra tax.

    • Kriksty says:

      01:59pm | 22/06/11

      dovif how do you explain the 1700 processed through Nauru if only 3 boats arrived?  Surely not 500-600 on each boat?

    • Tom says:

      02:05pm | 22/06/11

      Shifter, read the blogs. The embarrassment ATM referred to was Kev and Juliar. Is it just that your comprehension is challenged or are you trolling?

    • Ben81 says:

      02:49pm | 22/06/11

      Kriksty, those 1700 people were processed between 2001 and 2007, not just the few years prior to 2007 when people smuggling had all but completely dissappeared around here before Rudd reversed everything.

    • acotrel says:

      08:39pm | 22/06/11

      @Michael Tony Abbott is incapable of trhinking for himself.  He merely believes in and copies his great white god Howard! I don’t doubt it has always been government policy to detain asylum seekers.  That doesn’t make locking families behind barbed wire OK!  Especially when they are denied their basic human rights, as happened when Howard invented the Pacific solution! As a solicitor, he must have known that in every western democracy people who are locked up have the right to access the courts through a writ of habeas corpus , to be shown just cause for their imprisonment.  The High Court of Australia recently passed down a decision affirming this.  Howard’s cynical actions were ILLEGAL ! ! ! And a matter of shame for all Australians. Abbott and Morrison are simply being similarly poisonous.

    • JC says:

      07:42am | 22/06/11

      Polliephoney ???—doesn’t she post on this site ???

      Reply

    • Anubis says:

      10:28am | 22/06/11

      Close JC - that’s persphoney - pretty much the same thing though. She echoes her master’s biddings but throws in her own brand of vitriol just to spice it up a bit more.

    • Deepthinker says:

      07:57am | 22/06/11

      These people must be clever, I am flat out living a natural live on my pension, I reckon that after watching a phony questions without notice session in our federal parliament they must be paid up members of actors equity, of course they don’t stick to the rules of the game just like the journos don’t stick to the rules of the media alliance either.

      Reply

    • acotrel says:

      08:26am | 22/06/11

      @Deepthinker Just be grateful you actually have any pension.  If you’d lived before Gough Whitlam came along, you probably wouldn’t have one !

    • hazym says:

      04:32pm | 22/06/11

      @acotrel,

      The old age pension was introduced into Aust in 1909 long before Whitlam was born.
      Strewth you’re a dill.

    • Plain Jane says:

      08:14am | 22/06/11

      Nah- you`ve got it all wrong-. Kev,Juliar, Greens, are all totally discordant and out of tune. No harmony, tunefullness anywhere in that mob

      Reply

    • atthepub says:

      08:18am | 22/06/11

      Anybody please stand up and lead this country already?

      Credentials not required just a heart with focus and commitment will do.

      Reply

    • acotrel says:

      08:31am | 22/06/11

      @atthepub Tony Abbott has focus and commitment.  Sad that it’s only all about his own political future and power!  If he had a few constructive ideas .... who knows, he might even get elected?

    • Nafe says:

      08:59am | 22/06/11

      Actorel. I actually agree with your entire post. Abbott has done a marvoulous job as opposition leader, and now its time to start announcing his direction and policies other than climate change and asylam seeker policies that he is preparing to implement when he gets elected.

      Australians are sick and tired of directionless governments and want to see a positive agenda for the future.

      There are 2 things that can save labor, 1, a change of leadership to Stephen Smith, or 2, Tony Abbott not forming policy objectives and Liberal instability.

    • acotrel says:

      09:23am | 22/06/11

      @Nafe
      ‘now its time to start announcing his direction and policies ‘

      I’ve got a really great election slogan for him!  How about - ‘IT’S TIME !’ ?

    • Leopard says:

      10:01am | 22/06/11

      @acotrel,  You heard that one from your ‘sources amongst the blue collar workers’?

    • acotrel says:

      10:58am | 22/06/11

      @Leopard Do you mean the same ‘sources’ that told me the fellas are all thinking of voting for independents ,next election?

    • Leopard says:

      11:24am | 22/06/11

      Dear acotrel,  your reference to your own special “sources amongst the blue collar workers”  made you sound like a pompous windbag -  with the greatest respect.
        Leopard purrrrrrrrrrrr

    • jo says:

      08:22am | 22/06/11

      Evan you article is just your opinion, it does not represent much reality on this topic you have choosen to discuss.  Its common sense that there is a need to be humane and tough on this issue of asylum seekers.  the coalition doesn’t support the malaysian asylum policy, this isn’t a backflip, They rightly don’t agree with it, and good on them.  I think its a frightful policy.

      Reply

    • TimB says:

      08:25am | 22/06/11

      Ah another article trying to claim the Liberals hold two positions on the issue. No. You’re sadly confused.

      They haven’t changed their position in years. Offshore processing in Nauru & TPV’s. No whipping. No squalid conditions. It’s all rather humane when you think about it. Especially when you put it up against Labor’s Malaysian solution.

      The Liberals have been consistent the whole way through. It’s Labor that can’t stick to their position.

      Reply

    • nossy says:

      08:51am | 22/06/11

      @TimB - yes the Libs as you proudly told us two days ago Timmy have only one position on every issue dont they - “NO” ! You must be a proud chippie young Timmy!  hahahah

    • TimB says:

      10:50am | 22/06/11

      Nossy I beg of you. Lay off the boating for a while. You’re suffering sunstroke.

    • Ben81 says:

      03:02pm | 22/06/11

      Came to pretty much say what TimB said.
      There is no “key change”, no reason why the Coalition should suddenly adopt and accept Labor’s policy, they have consistently called for a return to the policy that worked and is proven.
      The only change is from Labor, who have realised what a mistake they made but are still trying to save face by avoiding Nauru purely for political reasons.

    • Vaunted says:

      08:42am | 22/06/11

      No tragic shipwrecks and missing vessels either. I’d say the lad’s not speaking from any actual knowledge base, just parroting simplistic rhetoric he picked up from hanging around with undergraduates and the GetUp! crowd.

      Reply

    • rob says:

      08:46am | 22/06/11

      Acotrel is an absolute #$%^%$...Nauru has no barb wire.  Check out Malaysia refugee camps you moron

      Reply

    • acotrel says:

      10:41am | 22/06/11

      @Rob There was no barbed wire on Devil’s Island!  And asylum seekers are as innocent as DREYFUS !

    • acotrel says:

      10:55am | 22/06/11

      @Rob I wonder if Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was on Nauru when the asylum seekers were there?

    • Michael says:

      11:34am | 22/06/11

      Why not just address the point raised acotrel? you talk shit, talking more shit wont hide the fact.

    • Nafe says:

      08:55am | 22/06/11

      Tough and Humane can go together and compared to the Malaysian solution, Nauru is definatly Humaine. It is also tough as it’s manditory off shore detention. Combined with TPV, i think its the perfect ballance of tough and humane.

      If you want tough without humaine then send them to Malaysia to get beaten, tortured and sent back to their homeland.

      Definatly another lefty rubbish article from someone who doesn’t understand the debate..

      Reply

    • Peteme says:

      10:29am | 22/06/11

      Acotrel, detaining illegal immigrants, behind barbed wire or not, is a long way different from the “Holocaust,” and all of the implications that accompany that word. You do not seem to realise that these detainees have a number of rights, including the right of appeal against certain aspects of the detention procedures.

      The last time I checked , I’m pretty confident the rights given to detainees reaching this country were certainly not available to victims of the “Holocaust.”

      You might like to correct me on these points.

      And another thing. You might like to take the issue of detention up with the former Minister for Immigration during the time of the Hawke-Keating Government. As I understand it, Gerry Hand introduced the policy and locked them up at Woomera.

      Did you equate the detention policy with the “Holocaust” then, and if not, why not?

      Reply

    • Steve says:

      01:41pm | 22/06/11

      The term “que Jumper”  was coined by the then Prime minister Hawke referring to boat people in a channel 9 interview.

      Most of the major protocols that operated under the Howard years were introduced in the Hawke/keating era. the major difference is that Howard politisised the issue which got the loony leftists jumping up and dowm.

      The previuos “tough” approach was far more humane than what we have now. I support the previous approach of so called toughness but even the present approach of sending unaccompanied minors to Malaysia is a bridge too far for me and i suspect many Australians. I also understand why it is being done because we know that boats will be loaded with unaccompanied minors and sent to Australia.

      The onus is on the left to depolitisise this issue, fess up to having got it wrong and acknowledge that the previous system that operated under the coalition was the most humane approach.

      All of us blind Fredddys who knew this all along can play a role by not saying"I totld you so” and allowing the left to keep political face

    • Against the Man says:

      11:58am | 22/06/11

      Where are the resident Labor Losers TChong and Seano? Why no comment?

      Reply

    • Dieter Moeckel says:

      12:13pm | 22/06/11

      It doesn’t matter who did what and when. The current policy for the treatment of asylum seekers who arrive by boat is wrong, inhumane and a disgrace.
      Any one with a scintilla of human decency and compassion must be repulsed by the policy.
      Our very system of justice mandates that any person is innocent of any crime until convicted by a court of law and cannot be detained behind bared wire without a court order, which incidentally is subject to appeal.
      By detaining asylum seekers individuals or groups without a court order is an anathema of our justice system.
      The detention of asylum seekers in third party countries or islands excised from Australian legal jurisdiction is as cynical as keeping combatants at Quantanamo Bay by the USA a complete abrogation of legal responsibility.
      Only a gutless world and UN allows both these to flourish.

      Shame on anyone who sup[ports such a system.

      Reply

    • thoughtaboutit says:

      01:50pm | 22/06/11

      ok, think about it here, what are they called?
            illegal immigrants
      because they have entered without any sort of permission from the government (thats what visas are). this is a crime, and they are criminals. the point of locking them up is to make sure that these people who have committed AT LEAST ONE crime, have not committed other crimes. legally, we have every right to deport them. Australia already takes thousands of legal refugees from camps. “boatpeople” are queue jumpers. i can understand, but they are still just queue jumpers

    • antman says:

      07:52pm | 22/06/11

      No,thoughtaboutit, they are only called “illegal immigrants” by those too prejudiced or ignorant to be bothered with the truth.

      When they arrive, they are “asylum seekers”. Seeking asylum is not a crime, nor is arriving here as a genuine refugee. Only when and if they have been processed and found not to have a legitimate claim for asylum are they “illegal immigrants”. The vast majority are found to have a legitimate claim and thus are not, and never were, “illegal immigrants”.

      Even if what you said was true, Dieter’s point would stand, they would still be held in detention for a crime for which they have not been tried and convicted, whether or not they have commited one.

      It’s a shame that you are unable to live up to your screen name.

    • WTF says:

      12:27pm | 22/06/11

      When will you do gooders get a bloody life"you can,t expect to land on anyones shores and be treated like a new best friend"there is a policy use it.

      Lock them up at nauru and process from there.Thats the solution but you can bet the most useless excuse for a prime minister won,t use it because its not her idea.

      We deserve better all over the scale"look at the egotistical jerks we have like oakshott.Can,t wait until the Greens have the balance of power"fun and games ahead.

      Reply

    • Michael says:

      02:29pm | 22/06/11

      So when is Rudd returning to Bouganville/Boganville?

      Reply

    • the Liberal Loafer says:

      06:17pm | 22/06/11

      The only genuine asylum seekers are mental asylum seekers.
      All the rest ,whether illegal or legal, should enter Australia immediately.

      Reply

    • sam says:

      06:56pm | 22/06/11

      well miss i read this! and have to ask what the f*** are you going on about

      Reply

    • drurdyfruib says:

      12:28am | 06/08/11

      OMG, it is still accepting donations! Fantastic example of a creative fundraising effort that raised $10,000 in 48 hours to build a classroom at the school in Tanzania.

      Reply

    • snittyNuast says:

      12:13am | 05/09/11

      Thanks mate… just dropped by.!!!!!  Will look for BIKE STN when we get to Seattle. Still in Buenos Airies.!!!!!

      Reply

    • bookmarking says:

      08:45pm | 07/05/12

      I am so grateful for your blog post.Really looking forward to read more. Will read on…

      Reply
 
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