Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide

They, together with the rest of the region, look askance at the dumping of already distressed individuals on the hell holes of Manus and Nauru. No amount of gold medals will sweep away those negative perceptions of Australia and nor should they.

The defence department on legal advice should withdraw from operation sovereign borders. Not from their sea rescue and patrolling activities but from refoulement of asylum seekers to Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.  Morrison’s actions are illegal and defence should not be associated with them. Defence should withdraw before it is completely sucked into the Morrison vortex. It is supremely disheartening to watch a senior army general helping to trash Australian democracy by going along with the charade of not informing the Australian people, through the media, of what is being done with respect to vulnerable asylum seekers in their name.

Defence should also be wary of being forced into a position of having to defend deaths in detention, particularly of children.

Officials in Immigration should be now giving frank and fearless advice because when the fan clogs up it will be them that Morrison seeks to blame for his transgressions. He will not go quietly.

The Opposition has nothing to crow about. There is no moral ground in and around Parliament House for them to climb upon. They are just as much architects of this dreadful policy as the Government. Their only course is to come up with a sound and morally based policy that has at its core joint processing with Indonesia, providing of course that such an arrangement can be negotiated.