The Coalition's one-liners and slogans don't make for a credible refugee policy. Neither does recycling failed policies of the past, like Nauru, which was a failure at the time and cannot be repeated.
The Howard Government policies did stop the boats, but asylum seekers continued to come by air at a rate of about 4000 per annum. In the last 10 years, 76 per cent of asylum seekers coming to Australia came by air.
The trend of asylum seekers to Australia in the 2000s followed very closely the trend to other OECD countries. What drove the numbers of asylum seekers was the ebb and flow of persons fleeing from Iraq, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. The Howard Government policies had little influence on the outcome.
The Nauru 'solution' cost $1 billion over five years and all but 45 of the 1637 asylum seekers imprisoned on Nauru, who were found to be refugees, finished up in Australia or New Zealand.
The Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship has said very clearly that what meagre success Nauru may have had in the past, it cannot be repeated.
Further, Nauru can play no part in an essential regional arrangement. It is not a transit country as Malaysia is.
The Coalition again proposes temporary protection visas. But these visas resulted in the past in families risking their lives because the holder of the temporary protection visas could not sponsor family. The result ten years ago on SIEV-X was the drowning of 288 women and children.
The Coalition says it will turn the boats back to Indonesia. Indonesia will not accept this and the RAN says that it is too dangerous and will give priority to rescuing people at sea.
The Coalition has said that 'the more boats that come the better'. This cynicism has been reflected in two recent statements by Scott Morrison. The first was to criticise the meagre Government support for vulnerable asylum seekers in the community and second, by suggesting that asylum seekers were bringing infectious diseases to Australia. Surely we are a better country than this.
The High Commissioner for Refugees has warned Australians about 'populist explanations ... and fears that are overblown'. He clearly had the Coalition in mind.
One-liners and slogans don't make for a policy that is humane and also protects our borders.
John Menadue is a founder and Board Director of the Centre for Policy Development. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Immigration in the