A flood of information left the ALP all at sea

THE Labor Party has yet to learn that every appearance by its leadership contenders Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese, or its acting leader Chris Bowen, only serves to remind most Australians of the worst six years of governance in the nation’s history.

It’s as if Shorten, Albanese and Bowen have learnt nothing from the shattering defeat Labor suffered on September 7. As the contenders try and reconfigure their images to appeal to Labor’s shrunken membership, one senior Labor figure assured me that the party members were now either “Left-wing activists” or “parties to a branch stacking operation”. Pretty dismal stuff but is obvious that Shorten and Albanese know their market as they try to move their appeal further to the Left to arrest the loss of members to Greens and fringe Independents. The Labor losers are still in the spotlight because the victorious Coalition team has not devoted a fraction of the costly public relations resources used by the previous governments to feed the insatiable media appetite. But there is a huge difference in providing essential public information and pushing out self-aggrandising rubbish designed to provide anti-social media fodder for the benefit of the Left-aligned Canberra Press Gallery’s self-absorbed twitterati. When Immigration Minister Scott Morrison reiterated the Abbott government’s plans to deal with illegal people smuggling on Monday, the ABC, SBS and Labor’s acolytes in the commercial media hyperventilated about the restriction of operational information to be released by the new task force headed by Lieutenant General Angus Campbell. The newly-appointed three star veteran was clear about the goals of the task force and the need for the clamp down on operational information. “There is an absolute respect for the need for the Australian people to be aware of what is occurring,” he said. “But there’s also a balance that is struck operationally to ensure that the protection of the conduct of current and anticipated activity operationally, which might otherwise message to people smugglers how we intend to conduct our business. “And so for that reason a periodic and appropriate routine to media briefings is something I very much support.” Which sounds eminently reasonable coming from an experienced military figure. We don’t expect the SAS to broadcast details of their patrols in Afghanistan, why should those operating on the high seas be required to provide similar material? The failed former Immigration Minister and now acting Opposition Leader Chris Bowen said he never had advice to suggest withholding information was necessary. He says this is not about controlling people smugglers, this is about controlling the media cycle in Australia. More tripe from one of Labor’s more accomplished smear merchants. Can anyone recall Bowen or anyone else from Labor raising their voices when Labor Attorneys-General Nicola Roxon and the egregious Mark Dreyfus attempted to muzzle the mainstream media with draconian censorship restrictions? Let’s go to the record. When Kevin Rudd first led Labor, he and his team openly bragged about their destruction of the Howard government’s successful border protection policy. They boasted that they had unwound the effective regime which had stopped the boats and ended the drownings – and people smugglers waiting in Indonesia resumed offering package deals to Australia. Further, the Howard government didn’t make grand pronouncements about the success of its turn-back policy. It didn’t engage in megaphone diplomacy with the Indonesian government, it didn’t upset our largest northern neighbour and it managed to turn-back four boats in 2001 and it sent the strongest message to those who wanted to profit from the people smuggling trade. The loudest voices in Australia at the time were from the compassion community. When they weren’t singing kumbaya and shrieking vile imprecations at the former Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock, they were planting crosses in scenic parts of the People’s Republic of Canberra to demonstrate their self-recognition of their empathy with those who had been drowned trying to come to Australia illegally. Foremost among the wailers was Jon Stanhope, then Chief Minister of the ACT’s mickey mouse collective and now Administrator of Christmas Island, where he continues to rail against the Coalition. Strangely, Stanhope’s voice wasn’t heard when more than 1000 people drowned or were killed under Labor, many, tragically, as their people smuggler’s boat was smashed on the jagged limestone shore of Christmas Island within sight of the Administrator’s bungalow. Stanhope is so exercised over the Coalition’s Operation Sovereign Borders exercise he has said he may have to resign his post – but why didn’t he offer to resign when the people were drowning under Labor? Stanhope and his fellow travellers in the compassion club and boat people industry are hypocritical in the extreme. Leadership contender Shorten seems to want to let anyone who wants to come to Australia walk through the door, on the grounds that immigration is a good thing. Albanese is hedging. Immigration is not only good, but necessary for Australia. There is just no way our economy can continue to grow without the assistance of skilled migrants. There must however be an orderly migration program, not open slather as Labor pushed for with lethal results.