Trying to score points from tragedy

WE all know the opposition spokesman on immigration Scott Morrison is good at getting a headline, and he does pretty well at exposing the failure of the government's asylum-seeker policies.

But he shouldn't feel that just because asylum-seekers have been out of the headlines for a few weeks he needs to go searching for publicity.

Arguing that the corpses and families of asylum-seekers killed in the tragedy off Christmas Island shouldn't be flown at taxpayers' expense to Sydney for funerals is more than a little unedifying. Especially given that it comes on the back of emails from One Nation members arguing a similar line.

If Morrison's stance is popular in certain sections of the Australian community, more shame on he who reflects such opinion instead of trying to reshape it with leadership.

Joe Hockey disagreed with his frontbench colleague, presenting a stark contrast in styles between the two future leadership contenders.

For the sake of stability, the opposition Treasury spokesman won't want to fuel tensions any further, and that will be the view of a majority of his colleagues who want to keep the pressure on the government rather than descend into internal bickering. But we now know one man will put politics ahead of all else while the other has a bottom line below which he isn't prepared to stoop.

Tony Abbott didn't like it when the Seven Network's Mark Riley used the death of an Australian soldier in Afghanistan to poke a stick at him; the Opposition Leader should feel the same way about Morrison's insensitive media intervention on the very day the funerals took place. Instead, he chose to back up Morrison's comments.

Manufacturing a story about wasted government resources to coincide with funerals hardly helps Morrison or Abbott come across as compassionate conservatives. If they really were concerned that transporting asylum-seekers to the funerals of close family members was a waste of money, as opposed to the political opportunity of pointing out the "waste", a quiet word with the minister would have been the more dignified way to go.