http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/border-protection/ Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:00:13 +0000 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:00:13 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/killed-with-kindness-onshore-processing-is-a-deadly-policy/ Mark Latham is notoriously harsh and personal in his choice of language. It was one of the things which made him unelectable as prime minister and which saw him shred every friendship he ever had upon making his furious exit from parliamentary life. At the same time Latham can also make sense. His analysis may often be brutal and poorly-timed but it is often also right. He was 100 per cent right when he said on Sunday that the people who advocate the onshore processing of asylum seekers, on compassionate and humanitarian grounds, are creating a situation where desperate people will risk their lives at the hands of people smugglers in the dangerous hope of making it to the Australian mainland. Of course Latham could have easily avoided insinuating that the likes of Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young and the Labor Party’s Left Faction had effectively killed the 200-odd men, women and children whose bodies were still being picked out of the sea off the coast of Java. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/killed-with-kindness-onshore-processing-is-a-deadly-policy/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/killed-with-kindness-onshore-processing-is-a-deadly-policy/#item7414 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:00:13 +0000 By her own definition, Julia Gillard is the leader of a government which has lost its way. This was the rationale she famously used to justify the removal of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister last year. Sixteen months on and Julia Gillard yesterday found herself in the invidious position of having to convene a meeting of the Federal Cabinet where she looked each of her ministers in the eye and declared she would not tolerate any more leaks from within their ranks. There can be no greater demonstration of government dysfunction than a breach of Cabinet solidarity as seen last week over border protection. The ability to debate policy vigorously in secret is central to the effective running of government. Julia Gillard has lost this privilege. It is something which never happened to her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, albeit possibly because he was such a control freak that he never told his colleagues what he was up to anyway. Gillard is also in more strife than Rudd ever was on border protection. Rudd might have flip-flopped on asylum seekers but Gillard has performed a 12-month tumbling routine with the result being that hardly anybody supports or, worse, understands her policy. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/government-that-lost-its-way-opposition-that-cannot-lose/ By her own definition, Julia Gillard is the leader of a government which has lost its way. This was the rationale she famously used to justify the removal of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister last year. Sixteen months on and Julia Gillard yesterday found herself in the invidious position of having to convene a meeting of the Federal Cabinet where she looked each of her ministers in the eye and declared she would not tolerate any more leaks from within their ranks. There can be no greater demonstration of government dysfunction than a breach of Cabinet solidarity as seen last week over border protection. The ability to debate policy vigorously in secret is central to the effective running of government. Julia Gillard has lost this privilege. It is something which never happened to her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, albeit possibly because he was such a control freak that he never told his colleagues what he was up to anyway. Gillard is also in more strife than Rudd ever was on border protection. Rudd might have flip-flopped on asylum seekers but Gillard has performed a 12-month tumbling routine with the result being that hardly anybody supports or, worse, understands her policy. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/government-that-lost-its-way-opposition-that-cannot-lose/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/government-that-lost-its-way-opposition-that-cannot-lose/#item6940 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:00:13 +0000 By her own definition, Julia Gillard is the leader of a government which has lost its way. This was the rationale she famously used to justify the removal of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister last year. Sixteen months on and Julia Gillard yesterday found herself in the invidious position of having to convene a meeting of the Federal Cabinet where she looked each of her ministers in the eye and declared she would not tolerate any more leaks from within their ranks. There can be no greater demonstration of government dysfunction than a breach of Cabinet solidarity as seen last week over border protection. The ability to debate policy vigorously in secret is central to the effective running of government. Julia Gillard has lost this privilege. It is something which never happened to her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, albeit possibly because he was such a control freak that he never told his colleagues what he was up to anyway. Gillard is also in more strife than Rudd ever was on border protection. Rudd might have flip-flopped on asylum seekers but Gillard has performed a 12-month tumbling routine with the result being that hardly anybody supports or, worse, understands her policy. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Stop-the-boats-is-a-pathetic-bogan-slogan/ I love living in the Territory. I enjoy our laid-back way of life, our sense of community and relaxed attitude toward blinkers and pyrotechnics. I’ve even grown quite fond of the crocs. But some of the comments I’ve heard recently regarding asylum seekers are a whole other type of croc. A crock of shit. Seeking asylum is not illegal. There is no queue. And yes, your taxpayer money is being wasted - by offshore processing and mandatory detention. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Stop-the-boats-is-a-pathetic-bogan-slogan/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Stop-the-boats-is-a-pathetic-bogan-slogan/#item6746 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:00:13 +0000 By her own definition, Julia Gillard is the leader of a government which has lost its way. This was the rationale she famously used to justify the removal of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister last year. Sixteen months on and Julia Gillard yesterday found herself in the invidious position of having to convene a meeting of the Federal Cabinet where she looked each of her ministers in the eye and declared she would not tolerate any more leaks from within their ranks. There can be no greater demonstration of government dysfunction than a breach of Cabinet solidarity as seen last week over border protection. The ability to debate policy vigorously in secret is central to the effective running of government. Julia Gillard has lost this privilege. It is something which never happened to her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, albeit possibly because he was such a control freak that he never told his colleagues what he was up to anyway. Gillard is also in more strife than Rudd ever was on border protection. Rudd might have flip-flopped on asylum seekers but Gillard has performed a 12-month tumbling routine with the result being that hardly anybody supports or, worse, understands her policy. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/if-julia-buys-bipartisan-tony-shell-buy-anything/ There is a certain evil logic behind Tony Abbott’s offer to work side-by-side with Julia Gillard to fix the asylum seeker issue. Due to the vagaries of minority government plenty of other members of this shambolic parliament have had a go at playing prime minister, so it’s only fair that Abbott joins the Windsors and the Bandts, the Oakeshotts and the Wilkies, in determining government policy. Abbott’s offer to work with Gillard is excellent politics in its cheapest form. By extending an invitation to Gillard to support the amendment of the Migration Act to allow offshore processing, Abbott looks like the very model of civilised bipartisanship. In reality it’s a political ploy aimed at drawing even greater attention to the fact that the Gillard Government has failed, again, on border protection. None of the options Julia Gillard has at her disposal to resolve the asylum seeker problem are politically palatable. Nor are they politically sellable, not in a climate where, according to Newspoll, just 12 per cent of Australians say that Labor is doing a good job on border protection, and are twice as likely to support the Coalition as the party which could best deal with the issue. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/if-julia-buys-bipartisan-tony-shell-buy-anything/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/if-julia-buys-bipartisan-tony-shell-buy-anything/#item6651 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:00:13 +0000 By her own definition, Julia Gillard is the leader of a government which has lost its way. This was the rationale she famously used to justify the removal of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister last year. Sixteen months on and Julia Gillard yesterday found herself in the invidious position of having to convene a meeting of the Federal Cabinet where she looked each of her ministers in the eye and declared she would not tolerate any more leaks from within their ranks. There can be no greater demonstration of government dysfunction than a breach of Cabinet solidarity as seen last week over border protection. The ability to debate policy vigorously in secret is central to the effective running of government. Julia Gillard has lost this privilege. It is something which never happened to her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, albeit possibly because he was such a control freak that he never told his colleagues what he was up to anyway. Gillard is also in more strife than Rudd ever was on border protection. Rudd might have flip-flopped on asylum seekers but Gillard has performed a 12-month tumbling routine with the result being that hardly anybody supports or, worse, understands her policy. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/next-up-go-back-to-suburbia-you-stinking-racist-bogan/ Hot on the heels of its successful documentary about asylum seekers, Go Back to Where You Came From, SBS will soon be broadcasting the sequel. Entitled Go Back to Suburbia You Stinking Racist Bogan, this innovative program will shatter the myths surrounding low-income Australians in marginal seats and their attitudes towards asylum seekers. In a ground-breaking journalistic exercise five university-educated reporters who live in the inner city will be given a packed lunch and a GPS and deployed to suburbs such as Penrith, Frankston, Logan, Rockingham and Salisbury, where they will meet “real people” and get “the real stories” behind the brick veneers. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/next-up-go-back-to-suburbia-you-stinking-racist-bogan/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/next-up-go-back-to-suburbia-you-stinking-racist-bogan/#item6156 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:00:13 +0000 By her own definition, Julia Gillard is the leader of a government which has lost its way. This was the rationale she famously used to justify the removal of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister last year. Sixteen months on and Julia Gillard yesterday found herself in the invidious position of having to convene a meeting of the Federal Cabinet where she looked each of her ministers in the eye and declared she would not tolerate any more leaks from within their ranks. There can be no greater demonstration of government dysfunction than a breach of Cabinet solidarity as seen last week over border protection. The ability to debate policy vigorously in secret is central to the effective running of government. Julia Gillard has lost this privilege. It is something which never happened to her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, albeit possibly because he was such a control freak that he never told his colleagues what he was up to anyway. Gillard is also in more strife than Rudd ever was on border protection. Rudd might have flip-flopped on asylum seekers but Gillard has performed a 12-month tumbling routine with the result being that hardly anybody supports or, worse, understands her policy. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/government-forced-to-defend-detention-security-after-breach/ In case you missed the news, there was a mass breakout at the Inverbrackie detention centre yesterday. The controversial site, home to asylum seeker families, has been the source of local fears. Many are concerned about espionage, terrorism, and plummeting property prices. The escape, however, shows that what they should really be worried about is plum pickers. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/government-forced-to-defend-detention-security-after-breach/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/government-forced-to-defend-detention-security-after-breach/#item4790 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:00:13 +0000 By her own definition, Julia Gillard is the leader of a government which has lost its way. This was the rationale she famously used to justify the removal of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister last year. Sixteen months on and Julia Gillard yesterday found herself in the invidious position of having to convene a meeting of the Federal Cabinet where she looked each of her ministers in the eye and declared she would not tolerate any more leaks from within their ranks. There can be no greater demonstration of government dysfunction than a breach of Cabinet solidarity as seen last week over border protection. The ability to debate policy vigorously in secret is central to the effective running of government. Julia Gillard has lost this privilege. It is something which never happened to her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, albeit possibly because he was such a control freak that he never told his colleagues what he was up to anyway. Gillard is also in more strife than Rudd ever was on border protection. Rudd might have flip-flopped on asylum seekers but Gillard has performed a 12-month tumbling routine with the result being that hardly anybody supports or, worse, understands her policy. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-year-ago-on-christmas-island/ This time last year, almost to the day, I was standing on the jetty at Christmas Island’s Flying Fish Cove. It was dawn, on a perfectly still morning, and the sea was flat. Moored just inside the harbour was the infamous Australian Customs boat, the Oceanic Viking, waiting to disembark a number of asylum seekers from a vessel they had intercepted. The images and footage of this week’s tragedy on Christmas Island showed a scene that could not have been more different from that calm morning in December last year. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-year-ago-on-christmas-island/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-year-ago-on-christmas-island/#item4720 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:00:13 +0000 By her own definition, Julia Gillard is the leader of a government which has lost its way. This was the rationale she famously used to justify the removal of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister last year. Sixteen months on and Julia Gillard yesterday found herself in the invidious position of having to convene a meeting of the Federal Cabinet where she looked each of her ministers in the eye and declared she would not tolerate any more leaks from within their ranks. There can be no greater demonstration of government dysfunction than a breach of Cabinet solidarity as seen last week over border protection. The ability to debate policy vigorously in secret is central to the effective running of government. Julia Gillard has lost this privilege. It is something which never happened to her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, albeit possibly because he was such a control freak that he never told his colleagues what he was up to anyway. Gillard is also in more strife than Rudd ever was on border protection. Rudd might have flip-flopped on asylum seekers but Gillard has performed a 12-month tumbling routine with the result being that hardly anybody supports or, worse, understands her policy. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-labor-wedged-itself-into-a-bad-policy-on-boat-people/ The heartbreaking boat crash off Christmas Island is the tragic climax of the confused and contradictory approach to asylum seekers that is now strangling the Labor Party. This confusion was perfectly crystalised in a small item buried in the Federal Budget in May this year. In an obvious attempt to throw a blanket on the issue, the Rudd Government had just announced a freeze on processing Afghani asylum claims, signalling it expected to shortly reclassify the war-torn Middle-East country as safe to return to. Yet before any final decision had been made the Government quietly inserted $5.8 million to pay for two immigration officers to go to Kabul to repatriate deported asylum seekers. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-labor-wedged-itself-into-a-bad-policy-on-boat-people/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-labor-wedged-itself-into-a-bad-policy-on-boat-people/#item4719 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:00:13 +0000 By her own definition, Julia Gillard is the leader of a government which has lost its way. This was the rationale she famously used to justify the removal of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister last year. Sixteen months on and Julia Gillard yesterday found herself in the invidious position of having to convene a meeting of the Federal Cabinet where she looked each of her ministers in the eye and declared she would not tolerate any more leaks from within their ranks. There can be no greater demonstration of government dysfunction than a breach of Cabinet solidarity as seen last week over border protection. The ability to debate policy vigorously in secret is central to the effective running of government. Julia Gillard has lost this privilege. It is something which never happened to her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, albeit possibly because he was such a control freak that he never told his colleagues what he was up to anyway. Gillard is also in more strife than Rudd ever was on border protection. Rudd might have flip-flopped on asylum seekers but Gillard has performed a 12-month tumbling routine with the result being that hardly anybody supports or, worse, understands her policy. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-day-both-extremes-almost-met-in-the-middle/ Julia Gillard is not just between a rock and a hard place in the aftermath of the Christmas Island tragedy - she’s wedged between an angry Left and a rabid Right. It was hardly unexpected that Andrew Bolt and his gang quickly trotted out the “blood on her hands” mantra after dozens of asylum-seekers met their awful deaths yesterday, but they’ve been joined by a loud chorus of refugee advocates claiming the atrocity could have been prevented with a softer government policy. The only people not attacking the Prime Minister today are the Opposition, who’ve remained for the past 24 hours particularly civil towards Gillard and her Immigration Minister Chris Bowen. And Gillard’s announcement this afternoon of a standing group including the Opposition and representatives from the Greens to examine the fact of the boat’s sinking could well prolong that cease-fire beyond the usual limits. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-day-both-extremes-almost-met-in-the-middle/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-day-both-extremes-almost-met-in-the-middle/#item4715 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:00:13 +0000 By her own definition, Julia Gillard is the leader of a government which has lost its way. This was the rationale she famously used to justify the removal of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister last year. Sixteen months on and Julia Gillard yesterday found herself in the invidious position of having to convene a meeting of the Federal Cabinet where she looked each of her ministers in the eye and declared she would not tolerate any more leaks from within their ranks. There can be no greater demonstration of government dysfunction than a breach of Cabinet solidarity as seen last week over border protection. The ability to debate policy vigorously in secret is central to the effective running of government. Julia Gillard has lost this privilege. It is something which never happened to her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, albeit possibly because he was such a control freak that he never told his colleagues what he was up to anyway. Gillard is also in more strife than Rudd ever was on border protection. Rudd might have flip-flopped on asylum seekers but Gillard has performed a 12-month tumbling routine with the result being that hardly anybody supports or, worse, understands her policy. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/inverbrackie-so-much-for-the-new-era-of-transparency/ Are the people of Inverbrackie racists?  Are South Australians who complain about a lack of consultation in the decision to house 400 asylum-seekers in the Adelaide Hills actually closet rednecks who simply don’t like foreigners turning up unannounced on our shores? Some of them might be. But overwhelmingly, most of them are not. Whatever you think of Mike Rann, you would be hard pressed to accuse the Premier of racism in questioning the less-than-transparent process by which Inverbrackie was chosen as the venue for a detention centre. There are plenty of other South Australians with similar concerns, and to suggest that they’re all pitchfork-wielding hillbillies does them a disservice. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/inverbrackie-so-much-for-the-new-era-of-transparency/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/inverbrackie-so-much-for-the-new-era-of-transparency/#item4353 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:00:13 +0000 By her own definition, Julia Gillard is the leader of a government which has lost its way. This was the rationale she famously used to justify the removal of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister last year. Sixteen months on and Julia Gillard yesterday found herself in the invidious position of having to convene a meeting of the Federal Cabinet where she looked each of her ministers in the eye and declared she would not tolerate any more leaks from within their ranks. There can be no greater demonstration of government dysfunction than a breach of Cabinet solidarity as seen last week over border protection. The ability to debate policy vigorously in secret is central to the effective running of government. Julia Gillard has lost this privilege. It is something which never happened to her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, albeit possibly because he was such a control freak that he never told his colleagues what he was up to anyway. Gillard is also in more strife than Rudd ever was on border protection. Rudd might have flip-flopped on asylum seekers but Gillard has performed a 12-month tumbling routine with the result being that hardly anybody supports or, worse, understands her policy.