Manus may be a hellhole, but it’s Labor’s hellhole DENNIS SHANAHAN, POLITICAL EDITOR THE AUSTRALIAN FEBRUARY LABOR’S predicament in the aftermath of the riots, death and injuries at Manus Island has been obvious. When in government, it deliberately set out to create a hellhole and achieved exactly that. So it’s hard to complain too much when the Coalition takes over its hellhole and things go awry. The best Labor can do now is criticise how the Coalition manages its hellhole. Labor has been reluctant to lash out with full force following the death of Reza Berati. Its arguments against, and parliamentary pursuit of, Scott Morrison have been half-hearted, focused on the timing of his knowledge of the events of last week and his correction of the public record. The predicament for the Abbott government is that it accepted the arrangements on Manus Island, which means most of what happens there to asylum-seekers, whether on the perimeter of the compounds or in the processing of claims, is beyond its control. Early reports from Papua New Guinea on last week’s riots suggest Berati died of wounds sustained in the Manus Island compound, and therefore under Australia’s care - which means Australia cannot shirk responsibility. But the politics of the situation suggest Labor won’t be able to pursue Morrison to resignation, as some have proposed, and the message from Labor and the Coalition will be that offshore processing is working by “stopping the boats” and “saving lives”. Hence Labor’s concentration on what Morrison knew and when he knew it, and why he didn’t release confirmation that initial reports that Berati had died outside the compound were incorrect until after 8pm last Saturday when he reportedly knew before midday. Labor cannot stand on principle over Manus Island, and Morrison covered himself as soon as he could last week in declaring that reports from the detention centre were “conflicting”. Thus the opposition has been reduced to concentrating on a relatively minor issue of public disclosure, which fits its theme of the Abbott government being “addicted to secrecy”. Impotence is the price Labor is paying for its complicity in the establishment and promotion of Manus Island as the PNG Solution to illegal boat arrivals. The Coalition’s price for its complicity will be having to take responsibility for a dangerous and complex situation it doesn’t control. Morrison can point to the fact he’s not renewing the contract of the current managers, appointed by Labor, but that doesn’t address the processing of the applications for refugee status or affect the world outside the perimeter. The simple truth about then prime minister Kevin Rudd’s reopening of Manus Island for offshore processing is that he, and Tony Burke, then immigration minister, and Richard Marles, now Labor’s immigration spokesman, who was instrumental in working with PNG last year, all hoped and believed it would not actually have to take asylum-seekers. The theory was that the idea of going to Manus Island, which was originally part of the Howard era’s Pacific Solution, and the prospect of being banned from coming to Australia and settled in PNG if found to be a refugee would be so frightening the boats would stop. As part of an act of bravado, Burke said Manus could be made to accommodate 10,000 people to head off people-smugglers’ plans to flood the facilities with asylum-seekers, as they had intended with Julia Gillard’s Malaysian people swap, which had a cap of 1000. When Rudd announced the plan, he wouldn’t publicly commit to a number at Manus but he was negotiating with PNG for places for 3000. Yesterday Burke batted away the 10,000 figure and said it was “if required, but I also always said the pace at which people would go would be when facilities were there, services were there and people would be safe”. At the time, Burke believed the reaction would be immediate, that the asylum-seekers would be deterred and nothing like the 3000 places would be needed. This was, of course, on the eve of an election campaign in which “stopping the boats” was going to be pivotal. There is no doubt Labor’s PNG Solution had the desired effect on illegal boat arrivals - it just wasn’t as immediate as Labor had hoped. Both Burke and Marles have cited the success of their PNG policy, and claimed it was central to Morrison’s success in being able to point to 70 days without an illegal boat arrival in Australia. But there is equally no doubt that unless it was backed with Abbott’s determined “tow or turn back” people-smuggler boats, the policy of offshore processing - designed to stop the boats with the moral justification of “saving lives” by stopping deaths at sea - would not have been as effective. While some of the more excitable Labor MPs are keen to demonise Morrison and call across the parliamentary chamber that he has blood on his hands, the party’s leadership group - including two former immigration ministers who pushed for offshore processing - are more circumspect about sheeting home the blame for what is happening. Labor has a long and conflicted history on dealing with illegal boat arrivals and asylum-seekers. Its policy has had to be crafted and compromised to allow, on the one hand, for the pragmatist policymakers who want to limit illegal entry to Australia, reassure the public that immigration is under control and try to stop people drowning at sea; and, on the other, those who want to accept more asylum-seekers. Mandatory detention for those arriving illegally by boat was introduced by the Hawke-Keating government in 1992 when the “wave” of boatpeople was less than 500 arrivals a year. In 2001, when John Howard turned away the Tampa and toughened visa laws, the rate was 10 times the 1992 level at 4141 - which was one month’s arrivals under the Gillard-Rudd government. In 2002, support for detention centres by then Labor leader Simon Crean drew fire from party supporters. These included frontbencher Carmen Lawrence and former Labor adviser Anne Summers, who accused Crean and Labor’s then immigration spokeswoman, Gillard, of dragging Labor back to the White Australia policy of the 1950s. The criticism from past oppositions, including Liberal immigration spokesman Philip Ruddock, who supported mandatory detention, has been the same as Labor’s attack this week - how the program is managed. And the prime area of concern and criticism has been the delay in processing applications, and the welfare of people in the care (and custody) of the Australian government. The issue of delays in processing of applications by inexperienced and understaffed PNG officials is cited as one of the main reasons for last week’s fatal riot. The politics, policies, criticisms, responsibilities and problems remain the same, and only go away when there is no one in an offshore or desert detention centre
Posted on: Thu, 27 Feb 2014 13:58:15 +0000
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