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The right of the Coalition needs to be doused

By Fotis Kapetopoulos - posted Wednesday, 23 February 2011


The gut-wrenching scenes of the nine-year-old boy weeping at the funeral of his father - one of the victims of the Christmas Island asylum boat sinking - will be hard to forget. His mother and siblings were lost at sea and that little boy waits daily at the gates of Christmas Island detention centre for their return. They will never return.

Thankfully, the Federal Immigration Minister Chris Bowen agreed to allow the boy to be united with his cousins in Sydney, rather than be subjected to the indignity of detention on Christmas Island. It should be remembered that there was significant pressure for him to do so, and that there are an additional 1500 children in detention - this is an appalling situation!

In an attempt to harness racist fears of refugees and Muslims, the Coalition Shadow Immigration spokesman, Scott Morrison, questioned the Federal Government paying for the flights of the bereaved from Christmas Island to Sydney to attend the funerals of their families.

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Opposition leader Tony Abbott and Senator Barnaby Joyce also questioned the cost of flying those relatives to the funeral. But, Morrison quickly understood that Australians, regardless of their political allegiances, are not inhuman so he began a sorry retreat, apologizing for his 'insensitive' comments.  Shadow Minister Joe Hockey, stood against his own colleague on the issue revealing the fissures between the right and left of the Coalition.

Abbott, sensing the wave of popular disapproval, tried to present Morrison as some one with the 'guts' to admit he was insensitive. But there is nothing even remotely gutsy in admitting such an appalling lack of humanity.

Things got even worse for the Federal Opposition when internal leaks revealed that Morrison, in a Shadow Cabinet meeting some months ago, wanted anti-Islamic sentiment to be exploited for electoral gain. Finally, Andrew Robb, the Coalition's architect of the Howard year's wedge politics, clumsily tried to qualify Morrison's alleged anti-Islamic position by saying that the leaks did not reveal the strategic context of the comments.

The One Nation party, like the political scavenger it is, was quick to leverage from the mess by emphasizing that the Coalition has been stealing their policies. And it is here that the problem lies with the Opposition and, up until last Tuesday's multicultural policy announcement, with the Labor Government.

The fear of Howard 'battlers' has, since 1996, facilitated disastrous dog whistling on race among the Coalition and hand-sitting by the Labor party. It should be noted that the asylum seeker detention centres were Labor Government policy developed by Gerry Hand as Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs in the Hawke and Keating Ministries. But, their transformation into major political tools was a Howard event. 

Currently, the callousness and racism of Morrison and Abbott were reminiscent of the Howard Government's darker moments during the Children Overboard crisis. Peter Reith, the then Defence Minister, lied about asylum seekers throwing their children overboard to be saved by the navy. By lying he compromised the integrity of the Australian Defence Forces for political gain.

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Last week the levy may have broke on wedge politics when the Government’s Immigration Minister Chris Bowen announced his support for multiculturalism as policy. In doing so, he referenced the bipartisan support for multiculturalism since the Whitlam/Fraser/Hawke/Keating years. In response, Nicholas Kotsiras, the Victorian Minister for Multicultural Affairs, came out in support of the Federal Minister's announcement – (albeit he cheekily tried to take some credit for having a multicultural policy before the federal government).

As  importantly, another Coalition wet, backbencher Judi Moylan stood up in parliament and rejected a new attempt by Morrison to make asylum seekers an issue, by arguing that Temporary Visas should be limited to asylum seekers who enter Australia illegally.

For Tony Abbott the time has come to understand that Australia's multiculturalism is a positive and unique policy, and one to be sold to the public in the spirit of bipartisanship.

The right wing of the Coalition should be very wary, Australia is not the same as it was in 1996, and the left of their party are more emboldened as the Federal Government announced its multicultural policy and seeks bipartisanship. The Coalition’s right flank may need to concede defeat soon.

The pandering to hard right values is not in concert with the Liberal Party but an advent of a small section of it. The Federal Liberal Party has drifted so far from its 'liberal' moorings, no doubt many real liberals will continue to find it increasingly difficult to vote for the federal party.

Abbott, Morrison and Robb must understand that the reason the Federal Coalition did better in the last federal election had more to do with the backroom assassination of Kevin Rudd and  Julia Gillard’s slogan riddled campaign than an  adherence to Howard's ideological views.

Had Prime Minister Julia Gillard not questioned the validity of a larger Australia - a subtle dog-whistle to Western Sydney and had she been more forthright in supporting a multicultural Australia, perhaps not so many of Labor's constituents would have migrated to the Greens and independents.

Australians are generally a compassionate bunch and as tax payers most of them had no problem in assisting these poor people in expressing their grief last week. Many still long for bipartisanship on issues such as refugees and immigration, particularly as Greeks who were once equally maligned.

The Federal Coalition would do well to seek advice from their Victorian Liberal counterparts - liberals, who have been able to marry liberal values with success in gaining government.

It seems that Tony Abbott and Morrison are so brazen in wedging they had no moral compunction in playing politics with these pained souls grieving for their loved ones. But, as social researchers cautioned recently, the Coalition should "not [be] overplaying its hand on asylum-seekers or race and religion."

In The Australian, Rebecca Huntley from IPSOS Mackay "warned politicians against equating public demands for a tough line against asylum-seekers with wanting tough treatment for asylum-seekers who arrive on Australian territory."

The time has come for the Federal Opposition to end its allure to One Nation policies.

The dog whistling which characterised John Howard in the 1980s and assisted his electoral success in 1996 needs to end. Equally, the time has come for the Labor to stand up for cultural diversity and for human rights and not fear Western Sydney and a slither of marginal votes. Leadership and vision, so painfully lacking in the federal government on issue such as immigration, multiculturalism, ecology and education, must be reignited. They must forget their advisors, focus group analysts and begin to lead with well articulated policy and visionary gusto. Maybe last Tuesday's announcement in support of multiculturalism is the beginning.

Labor and the Coalition must keep reminding themselves that Malcolm Turnbull lost the Coalition leadership only by one vote to Tony Abbott.

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About the Author

Fotis Kapetopoulos heads Kape Communications Pty Ltd a cultural communications consultancy. He was Multicultural Media Adviser to Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu and former editor of Neos Kosmos English Edition. He lectures in communication and marketing at various academic institutions and will be undertaking a PhD at the University of Canberra.

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