S BORDER BATTLE
unrest until it was closed last year. There were brawls, fires and escapes and even protests where detainees sewed their own lips together.
At the beginning of this year the Coalition announced it would close the Blaxland Compound within the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre precinct in Sydney by mid-2019 but that decision was now under threat.
In those days Villawood too regularly hit the headlines being the site of violent protests, firefuelled riots and hunger strikes.
Labor immigration spokesman Shayne Neumann labelled the decision to reopen Christmas Island “ridiculous” and said it was a “hysterical and unhinged response from a desperate and dishonest prime minister”.
The government, however, contends the advice from the Home Affairs Department said Christmas Island was the centre easiest to open at short notice.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute border security program head Dr John Coyne said there was no doubt the events within Parliament House in the past week were reverberating around the region.
“The medevac bill itself doesn’t mean people are going to come to Australia … but the problem with it is it creates a spark of hope,” he said.
“All of a sudden things are changing. Under Labor there’s no protection visas, they (politicians) are talking about medical treatment.
“It is filtering through, you only need to look on Twitter. It’s not the bill itself but the commentary around it with (Greens Senator) Nick Mckim saying it’s the first step and then advocates saying it’s the first step to open borders.”
Dr Hughes expects it’s an issue that will play well for the Coalition in marginal seats it’s desperate to hang on to in Queensland and WA.
In NSW, the issue tends to play most strongly in Labor’s Western Sydney heartland where it was already vulnerable to losing the Penrith-based seat of Lindsay.
These are also the areas of the city that are most prone to congestion and infrastructure gaps as the state government struggles to keep up with a growing population and overall immigration — an issue that causes many voters to be sceptical of any policy that might increase the pressure.
But ANU School of History Associate Professor Frank Bongiorno was more sceptical that the issue would be an election winner nner this time around.
“I don’t think it will have the same ame effect as
2001. I don’t n’t think people have forgotten tten what it was like when hen the boats were coming ng in but keeping it in the forefront refront of an incredibly complex political environment ent is a hell of a lot more difficult,” cult,” he said.
But it is one of the few remaining issues with a really wide philosophical sophical divide. Even on the economy nomy Mr Morrison is not a raving g free market conservative ve and despite the retiree tax and changes to negative gearing earing Mr Shorten could hardly ly be called a radical.
Dr Hughes hes said if a boat arrives those se images would be powerful but ut without that the Coalition could still turn the narrative into nto a broader narrative on national security given Labor’s or’s opposition to other laws to boot ot people from the country on n character grounds.
“Shayne e Neumann’s relative absence from om the debate is a weakness for Labor,” Dr Hughes said. “What t are the details of their policies? es? The strength the Coalition have is Peter Dutton who whether her you agree or disagree with ith there is that certainty about bout what the government nt stands for.” Dr Andrew Hughes Dr Andrew Hughes