Labor puts its foot in it, again, on boat arrivals
In Ancient Greek myths, their greatest hero Achilles was marked by a fatal flaw: the heel that his mother neglected to submerge in the divine water that made him invulnerable. The moral of the story is clear. No matter how impenetrable or unstoppable any force may seem to be, there is always a weakness that could bring the whole thing crashing down.
But perhaps most telling about the Achilles story is that it is not a profound mistake or moral misjudgment that paves the way for his downfall but a small human error. It is carelessness, not a curse, that seals his fate.
Three thousand years later in modern Australia, the Achilles heel of the Labor Party is once more starting to reveal itself with the arrival of yet another asylum seeker boat off the coast of Western Australia.
As with our ancient hero, this weakness in Australia’s protective shield is not the result of deliberate will or proactive policy but simple careless oversight. However this doesn’t mean the results could not be just as catastrophic.
As any good Catholic knows, there are sins of commission and sins of omission. In other words, failing to do the right thing can be just as bad as doing the wrong thing.
In this case the Immigration Minister failed to anticipate – or indeed notice or heed a pretty clear judicial warning – that the High Court would find against the government and pave the way for the release of scores of criminal immigrant detainees.
Since that decision in November three asylum seeker boats have tried their luck on Australian shores. If that’s a coincidence then Stevie Wonder should get a driver’s licence.
The detainee bungle and the subsequent spate of boat arrivals might not be seismic events in and of themselves – few Australians will be directly affected – but the message they send could not be worse.
Firstly, it goes to the government’s basic competence, the simple nuts and bolts of governing itself.
If the minister and his army of lawyers failed to anticipate and prepare for the pretty obvious possibility that such a landmark case might not go their way – even after the presiding judge openly suggested it – then what other balls is the government dropping?
Secondly, it goes to increasing anxiety about the post-Covid surge in migration. While the numbers of asylum seekers we are talking about here are minuscule compared to the skilled migrants we actually want, the image of the government losing control of any migrant intake could not come at a worse time.
And thirdly, it goes to that other fundamental of government: Basic law and order. Regional Queensland, NSW and the Northern Territory are all in the grip of various crime epidemics. The last thing we need is to be releasing more criminals into the community.
The government may not be entirely responsible for assembling this tinderbox, nor for striking the match, but it failed to have a fire extinguisher at the ready. Once more, it is what you don’t do that can be just as destructive as what you do.
It is therefore of enormous importance to the government’s wellbeing – let alone the nation’s – that it is seen to be acting swiftly and emphatically in response to what is now a string of border breaches and the legal snafu that started them.
While some in the Left turn their noses up at the immigration concerns of mainstream Australians, those noses quickly get rubbed in something unpleasant at the ballot box if those concerns are not addressed.
The government is to be commended for finally presenting a fix for the conundrum of repatriating offenders whose countries won’t take them, and the Coalition and the Greens are to be condemned for blocking this for their own purposes.
However it is also true that this response was far too long in the coming and, ironically, hopelessly rushed when it did.
There is a disturbing habit for some in the Labor Party to think that the issue of boat arrivals goes away when the boats do.
On the contrary such complacency means they inevitably return, and sink Labor governments in the process. See Rudd. See Gillard.
And indeed our hero Achilles was part of one such uninvited armada when he arrived on the shores of Troy.
But oddly, in the Iliad – the most famous and foundational book ever about him – he was neither invulnerable nor had a weak heel. Instead he was both mighty and mortal and he chose his fate.
The government has the chance to do the same. For its own sake it must choose not just wisely but firmly.