OPINION: The shocking thing about Dutton and detention

THE gobsmacking thing about Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton's interview on Insiders.

John McVeigh MP with Peter Dutton MP in Toowoomba. April 2018. Picture: Bev Lacey

THE gobsmacking thing about Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton's interview on Insiders wasn't that he didn't know if any dangerous criminals had come to Australia under the so-called medevac bill.

What shocked me more was his implication that his department's staff are allowing people in offshore detention to come here without his approval.

The bill specifically gives him the discretion to disallow entry to unsuitable people but if he says he doesn't know who's come in then obviously nothing is being run past him.

And with the government embarking on its third term, it's just embarrassing that he keeps talking about the Rudd-Gillard administration. Move on, Pete.

REGARDLESS if you think union boss John Setka said revolting things about Rosie Batty or not, it's hard to see how anyone could support him remaining in his position.

Just what was this context that excuses denigrating someone like Ms Batty?

Context is the convenient modern-day excuse when anyone is caught saying something dreadful, it seems.

People who truly believe in the labour movement know that it is bigger than any one person which is why Setka should go.

His threat yesterday to withhold donations from Labor shows he doesn't care about anyone but himself.

IT'S terrible to see what's happened with mass protests in Hong Kong.

At the same time, we can take some consolation from the fact citizens are fighting, and seemingly winning, against what is clearly the Chinese Communist Government moving in to dismantle democracy in Hong Kong.

One wonders what Beijing's ultimate goal is in all of this. Whatever it is, it's not hard to see more pain for Hong Kong, truly one of the world's great cities.

Originally published as OPINION: The shocking thing about Dutton and detention