Morrison may look like Custer but he now has cause and momentum

Scott Morrison speaks to the media on border protection today. Picture; AAP.

Scott Morrison is wasting no time with looking in the gift horse’s mouth on border protection from Bill Shorten; he’s jumped into the saddle and is galloping to the horizon.

The Prime Minister may look like Custer charging to his last stand but he now has a cause and momentum and his colleagues are starting to feel it. Some Labor people with long memories are also sensing the shift in political dynamics.

The Opposition Leader has humiliated the Morrison minority government, passed the changes to border protection laws through the House and Senate and pressing the Government on extra sitting days for parliament to shift the focus back to the banks’ bad behaviour.

But the third day into the first sitting week of parliament in the 2019 election year is still being dominated by the issue of border security.

Labor’s parliamentary tactics have been successful although shoddy, illogical and driven by the Greens and independents but there remains a greater strategic risk to the ALP’s election campaign because Morrison is prepared to use the advantage of incumbency to the full.

While declaring he will defend Australia’s borders and “stand” between people smugglers and their trade, Morrison is going to reveal the full consequences of Labor’s decision to change the border protection laws from opposition.

Based on advice from the security and border protection agencies, Morrison immediately announced this morning — as the medical evacuation bill passed the Senate — that the government would be reopening the detention centre on Christmas Island.

Apart from the costs in carrying out this recommendation to deal with the potential flow of asylum seekers which the Coalition will sheet home to Shorten, Christmas Island is a stark reminder of the terrible cost of deaths at sea.

It was the boats crashing on to rocks and people dying without aid that encapsulated the danger of deaths at sea under policies that couldn’t stop people smugglers.

Labor is still in front in the polls, so far in front it seems happy to implement policies ahead of the election, but Shorten has given Morrison his much needed test of character and competence.

Morrison’s message is that he will suffer the blows of parliamentary losses without rushing to an election, while highlighting Shorten’s susceptibility to pressure from the Greens, independents and pressure groups and reckless incompetence in formulating new laws that bring the words of “Tampa. 2” to the lips of Labor supporters.