For Labor's asylum seekers policy, there's only one solution

Years from now, Australians will look back at this sordid debate about 'boat people' and 'people smugglers' and be filled with shame. They will view it alongside the White Australia policy, and the criminalisation of homosexuality, and the dispossession of indigenous people - all of which were popular policies in their time - as a dark chapter in our history.

The High Court's decision has created a crisis for the Government, there's no doubt about that. But like all good crises, it's also given them an opportunity. They can end this shameful policy now, and adopt a humane and sensible approach.

They can return to the policies they implemented in 2008, but this time instead of doing it quietly, they can adopt a whole new narrative - one based on compassion, and human rights, and all the other things that make the Labor Party progressive in the first place.

Considering the parlous electoral state that the Gillard Government is in right now, it just might prove to be the best thing they ever did.