 Political Corrections
with Margo Kingston
Parliament All at Sea Over Refugees
On Wednesday, we saw in the Senate the Government, Labor and One Nation sitting together on one side of the chamber to pass - after chopping off debate - seven migration bills that transform immigration law and practice. All Labor Senators who spoke were critical, some passionately so. Only the Democrats, the Greens and Brian Harradine voted no. The symbolism of the new political order was spectacular.
It was not only the trashing of core legal principles at stake - retrospective laws, the banning of the court oversight of the executive and mandatory sentencing for the first time in federal law - and it was not only the demonisation of genuine refugees and their transformation into things, not people. It was also the trashing of the role of the Parliament.
All sorts of rules have been broken by the major parties - time for committee hearings on unintended consequences and the like, time for consultation with affected groups, time for a cost-benefit analysis, time to consider our compliance with the refugee convention.
The Parliament has proved itself impotent. This is a precedent without peer in modern Australian political history. No longer will retrospective legislation be a no-no. No longer will the right to justice be a given. No longer can international undertakings be taken seriously - a point the Conservatives will live to regret when they peddle their lines about world trade organisation rules and the like.
Certain accepted norms have been overrun. Their replacement? Time will tell.
When John Howard threatened a race election on Wik, Beazley told his caucus there were some things worth losing an election over. That was one of them.
This one isn't.
You'll remember that when Labor stood firm on Wik, Pauline Hanson swept the Queensland poll in June 1998 and a terrified Howard effectively backed down in his deal with Brian Harradine to avoid a race election. This time there is no Labor opposition to his plans. Capitulation of principle, in the end, guarantees defeat. As the costs rise and the race hate builds and the unworkable, self-defeating new scheme unravels, Labor will be mute.
On One Nation, the Western Australian branch of the Liberal Party, which, you'll recall, was all set to preference One Nation, last week decided to put One Nation last. The votes are in the bag.
In the course of Howard's second term, he has adopted Hanson's boat people policy in full. Temporary visas - Hanson wanted a five year one, the government plumped for three. Send them back and wave goodbye - John Howard delivers pre-election, and will only have to back down after he wins.
We've come such a long way since Hanson's maiden speech in 1997, so far that the tables have completely turned. Howard can put One Nation last because he'll get its preferences anyway, and probably many One Nation voters will desert Pauline for Honest John.
Labor wins nothing. It loses everything.
How short a time ago it was - in 1998 - when Pauline Hanson recommended a five-year temporary visa for refugee boat people and that we turn the ships away and wave goodbye. All parties condemned her. Now, since Iraqis and then Afghanis took to boats, Labor and Coalition are at her side.
One last point. Celine Dion wears her gold crucifix and belts out God Bless America. We go to church to pray for the fallen in New York. We call on the Christian God to support our endeavours in war, as His chosen people.
At the same time we ignore the pleas of the Churches and the teachings of Jesus Christ and deny safe haven to the persecuted.
Email: mkingston@mail.fairfax.com.au
Margo's web diary - www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/webdiary/
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