Time to put the small 'l' back into Liberal

When Georgiou and Western Australian senator Alan Eggleston called for a limit of 30 days' detention, rather than 12 months, at a party-room meeting recently, their colleagues rounded on them, with one apparently even proffering the view that the Howard government's tough asylum seeker policies had saved lives!

Turnbull and his advisers need to act now to ensure the Liberal Party takes a more humane and sensible approach on asylum seekers, and does not revisit the cruel policies of the Howard years, which caused enormous mental and physical harm to those affected by it.

There is an opportunity now for Turnbull to rein in the populists in his party and for him to affirm his moderate credentials. He needs to affirm that while the Liberal Party supports strong border protection, it is opposed to mandatory detention of asylum seekers, and is committed to ensuring that the resources are available so that processing can be undertaken speedily and humanely and that asylum seekers are not left in limbo about their future for months and years.

And while he is at it, perhaps Turnbull might like to remind his colleagues that despite the viciousness of the treatment meted out to asylum seekers by the Howard government, the vast majority of these individuals and their families were accepted as genuine refugees and have settled into our community.