Oz Election Thread #4 - Gillard's Labor

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has indicated she is prepared to consider further changes to Labor's border protection policies, and is open to holding fresh negotiations with the Coalition on a compromise deal to end the political stalemate.

Rinehart sends ultimatum to Fairfax board
June 26, 2012/the AGE

MINING magnate Gina Rinehart, disappointed that she has not been welcomed by Fairfax as a ''white knight'', has threatened to sell her stake in the publishing business if the board does not bow to her demands.

Mrs Rinehart told the ABC's Four Corners that she would consider selling off her stake in the company ''unless director positions are offered without unsuitable conditions''.

The comments, made via her company Hancock Prospecting, were sent to the ABC a week ago, when Mrs Rinehart was moving to increase her stake in Fairfax, which owns The Age, and was seeking to gain board representation.

Mrs Rinehart is now the company's largest single shareholder, with 18.6 per cent, and is reportedly seeking three seats on the eight-member board, including the role as deputy chairman ...<cont>

Slanging match erupts over asylum policy
By chief political correspondent Simon Cullen/ABC News
Updated June 26, 2012 14:40:53

Video: Immigration Minister Chris Bowen on the policy battle (ABC News)
Related Story: Police to quiz crew over asylum boat tragedy
Related Story: Gillard open to asylum policy compromise
Related Story: Asylum policy deadlock must be broken: Oakeshott
Related Story: Identification of boat victims 'long and complex'
Map: Australia

Hopes of a breakthrough deal on the border protection stalemate are fading fast, as the political debate degenerates into a slanging match between the major parties.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen has accused the Opposition of "cheap and cynical" politics for rebuffing Labor's offer to restart negotiations on a compromise deal.

But Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he will not accept the Government's "dud deal". ....<cont>

Time to call the asylum seeker 'impasse' what it really is
Crikey Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:

There are some words one is loathe to reach for in politics. Voters may not think it, but rare is the politician at the federal level who isn't there, even in this benighted age, because she or he genuinely wants to do good by Australia. They may be utterly confused, ignorant or lazily unaware about how to maximise the national interest, but they still pursue it. As a consequence, daring to pass moral judgment on politicians can be hazardous and unfair. One may charge them with cynicism or opportunism, yes, but that is more a judgment on their tactics than on their morality.

But, having paid close or not-so-close attention to federal politics since the early 1980s, I can't do anything but conclude that the Coalition's current stance on asylum seekers is the clearest example of outright evil that I've ever seen from a political party at the federal level.

As is clear to every other member of Parliament, it is clear to Coalition MPs that Australia's current de facto position on processing asylum seekers onshore isn't deterring people who otherwise face many years awaiting resettlement from getting in boats, and therefore risking their lives. People are dying as a consequence, in large numbers. But the Coalition has no interest in altering this position. Shadow immigration minister Scott Morrison showed that last night when he made clear on 7.30 that even if Labor embraced the Coalition's position entirely it wouldn't get agreement.

Not merely does the Coalition not want to address the current tragic situation, it actively advocates policies that evidence shows will exacerbate it. If Labor did embrace the Coalition's position entirely -- Nauru, temporary protection visas, turning boats around where possible -- it would be doing so knowing full well none of those policies will deter boat arrivals, and indeed in the case of TPVs the evidence shows they would encourage boat arrivals. Labor cannot in good conscience do that and they should be savagely condemned if they did.

Nonetheless, this has led to some weird questioning from the media of Immigration Minister Chris Bowen about why the government won't simply do that, as if the matter of whether a policy will save lives or lead to more deaths is just another example of Canberra he-said-she-said, as if Labor was simply being stubborn and there was no difference between government and opposition policies. It's either the most sickeningly cynical stuff we've seen from the Press Gallery in a long time, or an example of profound ignorance of the issue, or perhaps both.

There is no "impasse" here. There is simple bloodymindedness in the face of offers of compromise. The government has bent over backwards to accommodate the opposition's policies while retaining the one policy that may work, offshore processing with no guarantee of being resettled in Australia, coupled with an increase in our humanitarian intake and support for the UNHCR. It has offered to reopen Nauru as a billion-dollar staging post for asylum seekers on their way to being settled in Australia, as it was last time except for the asylum seekers we could gull into returning to Afghanistan or palm off onto the Kiwis or the Norwegians. That would waste vast amounts of money, but it's only money, not lives.

But, no deal from Tony Abbott's opposition. No deal because, as everyone knows, the opposition believes it profits politically from each boat arrival. No deal despite people dying; men, women and kids dying horrendous deaths.

The Greens haven't been much better. They've achieved a big policy win: their policy of onshore processing is the country's de facto policy. The evidence that it isn't working hasn't shifted their position. They talk of expanding our humanitarian intake, which is exactly what Bowen proposed as part of the Malaysia Solution, based on the logic that Australia needed to do more to take pressure off the processes whereby asylum seekers can be resettled here without resorting to boat journeys.

At least Christine Milne this morning proposed a way forward based on a multi-party committee, her favoured tool for resolving gridlock. Yes, it's yet another committee undertaking yet another inquiry but there is some potential there -- Milne's view is that such committees, which involve extensive input from experts, can provide a forum for politicians to abandon rigid positions without losing face.

But it depends on good faith from the Coalition. Of that, there is none to be had.

What will otherwise achieve change? Well, not the latest sinking. It will disappear from the media cycle; there aren't the graphic pictures that accompanied the December 2010 Christmas Island tragedy to keep it going. Parliament will go into its winter recess at the end of this week and the issue will vanish until the next sinking. Until the next deaths.

Evil.

Personally I have absolutely no time for boat people! They are welcome here if they follow the proper steps to emigrate to this Country like all of us New Australians had to do!

There is no possibility of finding a solution to the problem of asylum seeker boat arrivals that will not be seriously morally, legally and politically flawed in one way or another.

Journalist told Slipper staffer 'we will get him'
By Simon Cullen and Jamelle Wells/ABC News
Updated June 26, 2012 19:46:38

Video: Court hears Slipper allegations part of political scheme (7pm TV News NSW)
Related Story: Brough to assist in Slipper case
Related Story: McArdle refuses to be drawn on Ashby advice
Map: NSW

Lawyers for Peter Slipper have filed court documents alleging a News Limited journalist sent a text message to one of the Speaker's staff, saying: "We will get him!!"

Steve Lewis allegedly sent the message to James Ashby less than a fortnight before Mr Ashby filed a sexual harassment claim against the Speaker.

The allegations were then published in several News Limited newspapers under Lewis's byline.

It is one of a number of text messages that Mr Slipper is relying upon in his defence of the harassment allegations.

Read Mr Slipper's points of claim here (link)

Mr Ashby launched court action against Mr Slipper and the Commonwealth in April, accusing the Speaker of making unwanted sexual advances towards him.

Mr Slipper has rejected the allegations and filed points of claim in the Federal Court accusing Mr Ashby of being part of a campaign that had "the object of inflicting damage on Slipper".

The document relies heavily on text messages sent between Mr Ashby, another of Mr Slipper's staff members Karen Doane, Lewis, and Howard government minister Mal Brough....<cont>

Politics live: June 27, 2012
June 27, 2012 - 4:33PM/the AGE

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LIVE: Parliament debates asylum legislation

Parliament debates asylum seeker legislation live from Canberra as the latest asylum disaster unfolds near Christmas Island.

Welcome to our live coverage of politics from the national capital. All times in AEST. You can also follow me on Twitter @murpharoo

Another sinking brings asylum debate to a head
Updated June 27, 2012 16:50:19/ABC News

Video: Watch ABC News 24 for all the latest on the asylum seeker disaster. (ABC News)
Related Story: Asylum seeker disaster north of Christmas Island
Related Story: Hints of progress in border protection standoff
Map: Christmas Island

Authorities have confirmed one person has died after another asylum seeker boat capsized north of Christmas Island today, with more than 130 people onboard.

It is believed the boat's passengers were women and children from Afghanistan.

The incident follows the sinking of another boat in the Indian Ocean last Thursday, in which 90 people are believed to have drowned.

The key points:

More than 130 people were believed to be onboard

AMSA says one person is dead and 136 are believed to have been rescued

HMAS Maitland and three merchant vessels are at the scene

The capsize has catalysed the political debate around asylum seeker policy


Parliament is debating Rob Oakeshott's bill on offshore processing

The Government says if the bill passes, Nauru will be reopened and the Malaysia swap plan will proceed

The Opposition wants to guarantee offshore processing in countries that have signed the UN refugee convention, which would exclude Malaysia

Follow the latest developments below via link below: