We have been saved from the Prime Minister’s bellicose and Trumpian assault on our good nature by the cross benchers.
For a government, which has rejected the global science for climate change over the past 5 years, to accept without question the musings of our Border Force, suggests a drastic need to reinforce its policies.
The government claims 1000 refugees will flood Australia, undermining the ‘‘third pillar’’ of the federal government’s border control policy, being the indefinite offshore detention of people seeking asylum.
The refugee boat policy will collapse and we can all blame Mr Shorten.
What is the basis of these claims and do they have any statistical validity?
It seems that the possibility of lying by the people smugglers to weary refugees is the basis of Border Force advice.
In reality, boat turn backs are the major successful policy initiative, whereas short-term medivacs after 5 years incarceration and not applicable to new arrivals are hardly a pull factor.
While Trump knows how to turn defeat into victory (just by claiming victory), this approach does not work here.
The PM (reopens Xmas Island) failed to understand that a little humanity could have been a victory for a government that listens and learns and is prepared to take a negligible risk to show a human face.
Prof B J Allen, Yowie Bay
