Rita Panahi: Boat policy looms as a dilemma for Labor
VOTERS know that Labor is suspect when it comes to illegal migration, boats, border protection and national security; it talks the talk but struggles to walk the walk, writes Rita Panahi.
Rita Panahi
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A FEW months ago, Bill Shorten’s destiny seemed all but certain. The Old Xaverian was set to become Australia’s 30th Prime Minister; all he had to do was smile politely and not say or do anything fantastically stupid. But that can be a difficult task in modern politics.
A series of policy missteps by Labor and the Turnbull Government managing to get key legislation, including the income tax cuts package, through the obstructionist Senate has put the Opposition leader on the back foot.
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Now, Shorten is facing a policy revolt from within Labor ranks, with a number of MPs and key members of the union movement pushing for a softening of Labor’s border protection policy.
Labor is still ahead in the polls, recording 36 straight Newspoll victories; but in the latest figures the margin was down to 51 to 49. That, together with Shorten’s falling popularity, is giving the Coalition renewed hope of snatching an unlikely victory at the next federal election.
And, those hopes will only be strengthened by a good showing at Saturday’s by-election extravaganza, in which the Coalition expects to record a historic victory. If Labor loses either Longman in Queensland or Braddon in Tasmania, it will be the first time an opposition seat has been lost to the government in a by-election for 100 years.
If Labor manages to lose both seats, then Shorten’s leadership will certainly be called into question.
What rubs salt into Shorten’s wounds is that this week’s Yougov Galaxy poll also showed that Labor would be in a vastly superior position if it was led by Anthony Albanese. With Albanese as leader, Labor’s primary vote would be boosted by six points in Longman and four points in Braddon.
But Labor, whether under Shorten or Albanese, faces another potential crisis, one that could prove terminal in the polls.
It has been well documented that many Labor MPs, including senior members of the frontbench team, are troubled by the party’s stated policy on boat turn-backs, offshore processing and other measures employed to protect our borders. At the 2015 national conference, several senior MPs, including Penny Wong, Tanya Plibersek and Albanese, voted or gave their votes to proxies, for a motion to ban boat turn-backs.
For several years Labor has officially been on a unity ticket with the Coalition on the key issue of border protection, espousing its support for tough policies adopted under the Abbott government.
However, it’s clear that the party’s position is one that deeply displeases many of its own, including high-profile MPs Kristina Keneally and Ged Kearney, who used her first speech in Parliament earlier this year to label Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers as “shameful”.
“We are a rich country, we can afford to take more refugees. I doubt, however, we can afford the ongoing cost to our national psyche of subjecting men, women, children to years of indefinite detention in camps,” Kearney said.
LAST week the Australian Council of Trade Unions Congress, under new president Michele O’Neil, put additional pressure on Labor to soften its approach to border protection. ACTU delegates voted for a Labor government to end “offshore solutions”, including boat turn-backs and offshore processing on Nauru and Manus Island.
One wonders if there is a widening gulf between the union leadership and its rank-and-file members, who are probably more concerned about working conditions, job security and remuneration than activism on asylum seeker policy. Indeed, it would be interesting to see what percentage of union members are in firm agreement with the majority of Australians who support the sound policies that stopped the boats and sees the country run a generous humanitarian program, uncompromised by the chaos caused by tens of thousands of boat arrivals under the Rudd/Gillard governments.
The electorate is neither stupid nor suffering from mass memory loss and can recall Kevin Rudd’s tough talk on border security in 2007 and the recklessness of the policies he employed once prime minister that gave a green light to the evil people smuggling trade.
Voters know that Labor is suspect when it comes to illegal migration, boats, border protection and national security; it talks the talk but struggles to walk the walk.
The Coalition failed to capitalise on that sentiment in 2016’s federal election, with a campaigning Turnbull barely mentioning the issue because “stopping the boats” was seen as Abbott’s achievement. It was a costly mistake; the Coalition scraped in with a one-seat majority. Turnbull won’t make that mistake again if he’s interested in winning the next election.
Illegal migration continues to be a significant issue in much of the Western world. Australia has led the way with sound policies that have proved enormously successful in avoiding deaths at sea while ensuring genuine refugees are given priority. Under Labor, the refugee intake was completely compromised by economic migrants. If Labor again dismantles policies that work we will see the people smuggling trade resume, with all its tragic consequences.
In the past two years, authorities have turned back more than 30 boats. Australia cannot afford to become complacent on this critical issue.
Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist
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