Anthony Albanese is repeating the same mistake as Bill Shorten if he believes public, moral shaming of Scott Morrison on the grounds of faith is an acceptable or coherent political argument.
The case of the Tamil asylum-seeker family, deemed by independent courts to not be refugees, is an unfortunate one. But as former Labor cabinet minister Stephen Conroy has pointed out, it is always unwise to “adopt individual cases for political campaign purposes”.
Conroy, who was in parliament when Labor relaxed Australia’s border security regime, warns “there is no forgiveness for those who want to promote cases … (that) could lead to more boats coming”.
Kristina Keneally, who enjoyed a rapid rise through Labor ranks, has exposed her naivety and hypocrisy on border protection and respect for an individual’s religious beliefs. In June, The Weekend Australian reported a push by Labor frontbenchers, including Keneally, Tony Burke, Chris Bowen and Michelle Rowland, to back stronger protections for religious groups.
Keneally savaged Labor’s election campaign as being “tone deaf” to the concerns of faith-based communities. “We lost them on the more traditional, touchstone culture and social issues,” she said.
Yet she clearly believes it is not tone deaf to mix religion and politics. Keneally and Joel Fitzgibbon, the Labor frontbencher most vocal in suggesting the party lost touch with Australian voters, made clumsy attempts to bludgeon the Prime Minister — a former immigration minister — into submission.
As alternative home affairs minister, Keneally would face the same reality as Morrison and Peter Dutton — people-smugglers are watching, and will put asylum-seekers on boats if there is any opening. Don’t mind the fact Labor in government had the same policy on Sri Lankan economic migrants.
The former NSW premier is no longer in Macquarie Street. State parliament is reserve grade, the home of the cheap barb that doesn’t have serious implications for border security.
Senior Labor MPs ignored the sentiment of multicultural voters in western Sydney following the same-sex marriage survey and remained silent when Shorten used faith to attack Morrison during the campaign.
Has the lesson not been learnt? Battleground seats Labor must win back, including Capricornia, Dawson, Flynn, Lindsay, Robertson, Petrie, Herbert and Longman, are among the electorates with the highest number of Christian voters in the nation.
Labor’s own western Sydney seats, held by their most senior MPs, have the highest percentage of religious people in the country.
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