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- Author:
- Phil Scott
- Posted:
- Tuesday, 10 November 2009
I was listening to the clear, reasonable voice of our Prime Minister on the radio last week.
He was talking about the problem of seafaring asylum seekers, in particular the ongoing saga of the Oceanic Viking. Though the ship is docked in Indonesia, and the Sri Lankan refugees on board were rescued in Indonesian waters, the Indonesian authorities won’t remove them by force from the boat. It would violate Indonesia’s human rights policy, they claim. The refugees are clearly not big fans of Indonesia’s human rights policy: they won’t set foot there.
Just bring them here and stop mucking around, say a lot of Australians.
Rudd is not inclined to do that for political reasons. It would look like a cave-in, and it would give the Opposition fuel to accuse him of being soft on asylum seekers.
Rudd was talking tough. His gist was: “I am not a commentator. My Government will decide what’s in the best interests of Australia, even if the decision is not popular”.
That sounds so decisive. It’s enough to make you all moist. But it begs a question that is rarely asked: unpopular with whom?
Suppose the Government had refused Liza Minnelli a visa to come to Australia. There would have been outrage, certainly on Facebook, but the horror wouldn’t have been universal. Somebody would have thought it was a good idea. (Possibly Lorna Luft.)
Why didn’t Rudd come down hard on Liza? He could have looked ‘tough on foreign entertainers’. It would have been, by and large, an unpopular decision but he reckons that doesn’t matter. What stopped him?
There’d be no political mileage in it.
Gay marriage, and applying anti-discrimination laws to everybody, are areas of unfinished business. Recent surveys show that any decision to allow Australian gay and lesbian couples to get married in a civil ceremony would be popular. Most people either support the change or don’t object to it.
So why won’t Rudd do something about it? Because in this case the homophobic minority is important. They are Liberal/National voters who swung to Labor for other reasons and Labor doesn’t want to lose them. Whereas Rudd knows the disappointed gays and lesbians will stay with him no matter what. He knows, and we know, we’d be wasting our time defecting to the Libs.
Now he’s trying the same balancing act with asylum seekers. Politics rules.
info: Phil Scott will be on extended leave until earl 2010.
November 10th, 2009 @ 10:21 pm
Yes, as you see I’m on leave till some time next year. I need time out to complete my Master’s thesis on Gay and Lesbian Archetypes in the Koran.
As far as the last 18 months are concerned, I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to comment on anything I wrote. The compliments buoyed me and the criticism stimulated me. They were all worthwhile. Have a great rest of 09, and a happy new year. Play safe and often. xxx
November 11th, 2009 @ 2:43 am
It’s pretty disgusting isn’t it? When those dumb polls are taken they don’t mean anything because the law of the land is never stated.
If the poll said “Australia has enshrined the refugee convention into the Migration Act and they are breaking Australian law” the poll might look entirely different.
No-one wants a government dumb enough to break the law, that’s why we booted out Howard, but I have not the foggiest notion why people think we should be harsh to refugees who are refugees because someone else has already been very harsh.
November 11th, 2009 @ 2:23 pm
As Phil pointed out, politicians don’t really make tough, unpopular decisions. They make decisions based on political mileage.
A tough, unpopular decision would be to let all the refuges into Australia or to legislate same-sex marriage regardless of “public opinion” (Murdoch’s opinion). Or to unilaterally withdraw the troops from Afghanistan. The list is endless.
Rudd should simply make decisions without pretending he’s putting himself at great risk. Like many politicians, he doesn’t know the meaning of the real risk. He’s never had to come out as gay, he’s never had to flee his homeland and he got his job by following the ALP line. Tough my arse!
November 15th, 2009 @ 12:57 pm
Labor lied about its promises on indroducing federal anti-discrimination law which are needed. Kevin the Rat and Malcome the mr Turntable (Rat meaning lacks compassion and Turntable means the liberals have a plan to repeal the same sex de facto laws) will NOT ever get my vote in 2010 or ever again – it is going straight to the Greens for the first time in my life!!!!!! – Bob Brown is the only decent person in politics.