SubscribeTo thine own self be true
Our PM really is in a bind over asylum seekers isn’t he:
TIM Costello has challenged Kevin Rudd over calling the influx of asylum seekers ”illegal” immigration and reminded him that some people smugglers in the past have been viewed as heroes.
As debate flared over the Prime Minister’s language, Mr Costello, chief executive of World Vision, said Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the theologian Mr Rudd much admires, spoke up for Jewish refugees and helped smuggle some of them out of Nazi Germany into Switzerland. ”This is why he was charged and sent to prison”
Rudd is being praised and blamed simultaneously, a function of his efforts to be all things to all people on this difficult issue. But whilst the ghost of 2001 still haunts labor, Rudd needs to remember the biggest problem with Labors then approach was not it’s perceived weakness, but its recognized fakeness. Though the media’s common wisdom is that asylum seekers are bad news for Labor, it is clear that the public are generally unmoved by the issue. Instead the real risk is to Rudd’s place in this history books should he say something really over the top and backwards in an effort to appear tough.
Times have changed from the panic of late 2001 which saw the tale end of Hansonism, globalisation frets and reconciliation flare ups, all dramatically compounded by 9/11. But while public knew that Beazley was a former Defence Minister(and one who commanded great respect in such matters, with even Howard saying he would serve under him in a war cabinet), Beazley’s mixed response to boat people was seen as fake and unreal. Labor had brought in mandatory detention, but in its confusion and moral outrage at Howard tried to both disown its history, whilst also appearing just as tough as Howard. A stance that ended up losing it many left wing voters who couldn’t respect the party anymore. There’s a big difference between downplaying troublesome issues (ie taking a small target strategy as Howard in 96 and Rudd in 07 did), and in appearing to be unsure, or fake in your endorsement of a policy you obviously don’t believe in.
Rudd is far less exposed than Beazley was. He just has to muddle through this and he will be ok politically. But he runs the risk of saying some really dumb things in coming weeks as he seeks out a solution/waits for the tide to slow. Already he has described asylum seekers as ‘illegal immigrants’ which is not true (at least until their cases determined).
Howard is remembered (and demonised) for his election speech claim “We decide who comes here and the circumstances in which they come”. It was a resounding line at the time, (and expresses a fair enough sentiment) but you have to suspect Howard probably regrets that history will always leave that quote on his record. Rudd needs to be careful not to try and bluster his way through this with strong language to hide his weak policy. (Weak in the sense of lacking form and direction, I don’t think there’s anything weak about the way we are arresting innocent people and denying our responsibilities). When Rudd got in trouble during the election campaign (such as over the Scores Strip Club visit) he took almost a full day off to work out a response and then stuck to it with absolute stubbornness. Just because he is PM, doesn’t mean he should abandon that formula. His media team need to find a good set of responses to the basic questions and have the man stick to them. Time to bring the Ruddbot back out of his packaging.
Refugees in Context
The Lowy Think Tank blog The Interpreter has a fascinating post up about China’s lack of planning and policy for dealing with refugees.
The recent influx of tens of thousands of Burmese refugees caught Chinese border guards by surprise. Local government in China’s Yunnan province had to temporarily shelter more than 13,000 Burmese — a difficult mission, especially when China lacks both the experience and regulations to deal with large groups of international refugees.
China borders 16 countries, most of which are economically under-developed, politically unstable and ethnically complicated. Some of these countries’ governments face increasing criticisms over their legitimacy, as in the case of Burma and North Korea; some are in a de facto state of war, as in the case of Pakistan; and some are unstable democracies, as in the case of central Asian countries and Thailand.
But China is not prepared. China is a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the supplemental 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. But China has so far not passed laws dealing with refugees. As a result, in the face of large numbers of refugees, local authorities can only handle each situation on a case-by-case basis, first seeking instructions from Beijing and then coordinating its policy with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, other departments and UNHCR.
While conservatives like Paul Kelly proclaim (in his new book March of Patriots) that there is a uniquely Australian bargain between the government and the people that allows migration but forces the use of mandatory detention, it’s worth remembering that every other country in the world faces challenges often much much harder than ours. Australia has no land borders with any other country, a sparsely populated immediate region (save Indonesia) and a strong political order that is accustomed to dealing with such issues in a nation wide and orderly fashion. Refugee numbers are overwhelmingly tied to international events (Tiananmen Square brought 16′000, Afghanistan and Iraq saw 8400 in 2001) and in 2008 of the 3′200 Protection Visa applications, those who came by boat made up only 4% of the total number of applications for protection visas.
Australia has one of the best records in the world with migration and peaceful assimilation of migrants. But we also have a geographic advantage that no one else can beat. In light of these advantages, our harsh immigration policies are less the necessary undergirding to a multicultural society, but repressive measures that appease xenophobic elements without necessarily doing anything to change refugee behaviour, and an over-reaction to the scope of the problem faced. Thankfully some of these measures are beginning to change and well done to Liberal Senator Judith Troeth for crossing the floor to support the legislation stopping the charging of asylum seekers for their detention.
Defend your principles not your actions
One clear rhetorical difference between Right-Wing and Left-Wing politicians, is that so often the right when attacked, tends to step back and defend its principles (which are almost impossible to overturn) whilst the Left tends more to want to discuss the context and defend it’s immediate actions. In fact, despite the importance of principles to motivate anyone into politics, especially those seeking social change, you much much more rarely hear them defend their policies on the basis of such principles. If pushed I’d trace this back to the late 1970’s, when the Liberal project began to falter, and the focus turned more to defending what had been won (cultural, racial and gender liberalisation, welfare, workplace rights etc). Not only does this end up re-framing Liberalism as boring defender of the status-quo and coldly technocratic in orientation, it often leads to an opportunity to attack liberals as supporting -in principle- action that is in truth only endorsed because their is no other viable alternative (such as the massive corporate bailouts of Banks and institutions in the USA).
A clear example of this popped up this afternoon, as the Australian Rudd Government sought to defend its self after there had been a small increase in asylum seekers this year, and several were killed just a few days ago when one of the boats carrying people over blew up.
The Federal Government has denied receiving a report by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) warning the nation’s border protection policies were soft and would increase the number of illegal asylum seekers.
Immigration Minister Chris Evans said his Government had the full support of the AFP.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says people smugglers can ‘rot in hell’ as the Opposition accuses his Government of a ’soft’ asylum policy.
News Ltd has reported the AFP had delivered secret briefings to senior ministers weeks ago, warning that softer border protection laws would attract more unlawful arrivals.But Senator Evans said he had not received it.
“I haven’t seen such a report and clearly as the minister responsible I wouldn’t report on such advice,” he told reporters in Perth on Saturday.
“I was at a conference in Bali earlier this week that focused on people smuggling and I was briefed by AFP officers and they say we are making good headway in breaking up people smuggling gangs.”
First note the overblown and childish language from the PM that people smugglers can “rot in hell” so as to defend himself from charges of being weak. PM’s shouldn’t talk like that, and certainly not to defend themselves politically on what is very much a 5-minute issue.
But more important is Evan’s reaction. Even assuming he is telling the truth and had not seen the report, it’s not hard for the opposition to make the case that they had argued this already, that the government had already been told by other sources that these changes were potentially going to increase the number of those who seek to come to these shores. In short, it’s a no win situation for the government, and denying now only delays, and potentially compounds later accusations.
It would have been far better for Evans to simply come out and state the principles which led the Labor party to shut down the abject and inhumane failure that was the Pacific Solution. Evans should have simply re-iterated to the public that ‘There are some lines in the treatment of people who come to these shores, that Australia will not breech’, that ‘Australians expect that their government will treat asylum seekers in a humane and decent manner, and this is far more important than quibbling over how more guns & barbed-wire could have kept a handful more asylum seekers away.’ etc.
By defending the principle that Australian refugee policy ought to be humane in its treatment of applicants, Evans would have returned within the walls of an unbreechable rhetorical castle. Not even Hanson advanced the argument they should be brutalised, and the Liberals under Turnbull wont go anywhere near it. In which case the Opposition would be left trying to meekly argue that tiny minor policy details (like shifting from the navy to customs) are instead the most important issues. Points which will fly over the head of most of the public and be easily open to attack from the Rudd Government. Instead Liberal staffers are this very minute combing every piece of public advice given to the government on this issue, and every opposition statement before the fact suggesting similar results. And heaven help Evans if it turns out that AFP report somehow ended up on a staffers desk in his office and never quite fell before the ministers eyes.
This is a lesson Conservatives like Reagan knew intuitively, and Liberals ought to learn quickly. It makes for better ‘grabs’, it is much harder to argue against, and keeps reminding the public of the link between the politician and the principles they advocate. So defend the principle, not your actions.