Labor lands on better policy

JULIA Gillard has found Labor's conscience on asylum-seekers - moving to a system of onshore processing.

She found it courtesy of Tony Abbott's refusal to support her so-called Malaysia Solution. But this happened not because Abbott, or indeed Gillard, personally grew a conscience on asylum-seeker processing. Far from it. This strange turn of events - a humiliating backdown for the Prime Minister and her Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen - has occurred because both major party leaders are too stubborn to strike a deal on this contentious political hot potato.

Stubbornness is a greater political problem for Gillard than Abbott. After all, she has a country to run. Labor, not the Coalition, has a competency issue managing asylum-seeker policy in the eyes of voters. Blaming Abbott for more boat arrivals - if that happens - just won't wash with the public. People know that when Nauru was in place alongside TPVs, boats stopped coming. Whether the policy would work again (the Immigration Department says no) matters little in this PR battle.

Labor's Left faction will be as delighted as I am with an outcome ending offshore processing. But there are problems with the way this change of policy will operate.

If the detention centres are going to fill to capacity with people from extra boat arrivals, after which anyone else who arrives goes straight into community living arrangements, that's a recipe for rioting among those trapped behind razor wire now.

Why not simply speed up the processing for all asylum-seekers? Or start community living for those already in detention? Or make arrangements for more processing centres? Again, stubbornness is getting in the way of workable policy outcomes.

Because both major parties are now trying to outdo each other in appearing "tough" on boatpeople, every new arrival will lead to ridiculous rhetoric about the loss of control of our borders.

An alternative approach would involve not viewing a couple of leaky boat arrivals each week, filled with displaced and desperate people searching for a better life, as a threat to national security or our way of life.

But that would take political leadership in the face of overblown community angst concerning this subject. So don't hold your breath.