The timing of this announcement by the government of a serious downgrade to the use of detention facilities for asylum seekers, sorry, illegal immigrants , is telling.
The let this one slip out just when the Libs climate change war was at it's peak, so their response would be drowned out.
This is New Labor spin management of Blairesque finesse, following the pattern set by the British Labor staffer who suggested releasing bad new on 9/11 a couple of hours after disaster struck. Abominable. Expect more of it.
The ALP knows this is unpopular. The libs are right to oppose it in the senate. There are still opportunities to diverge from the ALP, even if ETS went begging somewhat.
Detention has been a very effective deterrent. Immigration increased under Howard for people who came through official channels. That's fair. That's in the countries best interest.
Allowing people to break our laws and then vanish into the community so they can't be found and deported isn't.
And BTW if people are not in detention, where are they? That's right. They are in government housing normally reserved for the less well off Aussie citizens. I've seen it all in England. It's called benefit tourism.
This country is headed down the new labor path ... to oblivion. Sorry, now i'm thinking like a defeatest Pom. We will take a couple of steps down that path and then some Aussie battler will wrestle the media to the ground and save us from the commies and hippies. Oi Oi Oi!!!!
