Labor’s border bet an election risk

Kerryn Phelps, Julia Banks and Rebekha Sharkie last night. Picture: AAP

Bill Shorten has taken the huge step of changing Australia’s ­border protection from opposition and now runs the risk that any people-smuggling venture between now and the election will be his fault.

The Opposition Leader succeeded last night in defeating a government on legislation on the floor of the house for the first time since 1941, further weakening the minority Morrison Coalition.

But Shorten has taken a big long-term risk for the short-term humiliation of the minority government, which is trailing in the polls and going to an election in three months.

Make no mistake, Labor has weakened border-protection laws that have stopped people-­smugglers, halted deaths at sea and put an end to the detention of 50,000 people. Yes, Labor has defeated the Morrison government but it was a shemozzle of a process involving emotionally driven independents, rushed decisions, deliberate avoidance of advice, constitutional defiance, the changing of parliamentary tradition and precedent, political bargains and brinkmanship.

And, yes, Labor will appeal to voters who want an end to offshore processing and who are concerned about the health of ­detainees as it wrestles with the Greens and independents for votes. However, it simultaneously provides an excuse for Coalition voters wavering about their vote to stick with the government.

The reality is that no matter how well-intentioned, compassionately minded or technically tricky the amendments Labor passed with the Greens and independents are, they will be interpreted or wilfully misrepresented by people-smugglers with waiting lists of desperate people wanting to come to Australia.

This has happened every time tough border-protection laws introduced by Labor and ­Coalition governments have been weakened and it means the deaths of hundreds of people.

Last night, Shorten tried to reduce the bill to its most compassionate essence, declaring it wasn’t about weakening border protection or doing away with ­offshore processing but just ensuring people received medical care. This argument might wash in the streets of Wentworth or the halls of justice and medicine, but its weakening of ministerial discretion cannot be denied and will not be ignored by people-smugglers. It also ignores the broader humanitarian truth that hundreds more people die coming to Australia on leaky boats than die for want of medical treatment on Manus or Nauru.

As Scott Morrison said to Shorten across the chamber last night: “This is now on your head.”

As red dust swirled around Parliament House, dimming the light and lending a Shakespearean sense of dramatic history to Labor’s victory, the opposition must be careful it doesn’t end up on the wrong side of that history.