Mr Morrison now assures us that "operational reasons" preclude the timely release of information. Because I am operationally challenged, or perhaps because I have insufficient security clearance, I cannot understand how turning boats around in secret instead of in public creates a greater deterrent, operationally.If ever there was a government policy that will soon be reversed, this is it.
My best guess is that the removal of boat arrivals from the daily news, and the deletion of their struggles at sea from the national ledger, are calculated to deprive the people aboard those boats of the last hope they had; a vocal contingent of Australian citizens who still looked at them and felt sorry.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Annabel on the secrets at sea
Asylum seeker policy: we're all mad here
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It's obviously an electoral advantage to the Coalition in the short-term. But more here I think: the Coalition view this obviously as a national security issue and are presumably anxious to extend to the area of border protection/illegal immigration the same secrecy that other national security operations enjoy.
It's such a controversial and inflammatory topic that I'd imagine a lot of the ministerial work in the last few years in this portfolio has involved public relations. Again, this response seems extreme, but it could work.
When John Howard announced that he'd turn back the Siev X, of course, that became a huge news story, and ultimately, a huge distraction: I think Howard calculated that the media would focus obsessively on this story, and he successfully used this ongoing focus to win the election on the message - Coalition strong on border control, Labor weak and decisive. The obsessive focus on this issue, however, has continued, so that when Kevin Rudd fought the 2007 election he obviously thought he could win a few votes by campaigning in this area. And of course he did win and make changes, with the unfortunate results that we see today. By attempting to defuse media attention, the Coalition may also be hoping to bring more consistent and more effective policy making to this area with a provision that could very well benefit Labor governments in the future as well as Liberal governments.
And I think there may have been a concern about these stories being broken by public servants leaking to the media. I think that's what Neil Brown suggested in his column in The Spectator, anyway - can't remember the column and will have to go back and check the reference. So they may hope to control the message there, too.
These are just speculations. But if it helps a return to sane policymaking in an area where a lot of people have made a lot of terrible failures over the last few years, well, maybe it's a good thing.
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