lev@levlafayette.com <lev@levlafayette.com> wrote:
The story is here, along with a pretty unflattering shot of my mug.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-25/melbourne-man-lodges-gillard-grievance...
This is good strategy on Lev's part; I hope that more people associated with the ALP will do the same. The most interesting analysis that I have heard of why the leadership of the Labor Party supports off-shore processing of applications for refugee status was given by a commentator who summarized the situation as follows. According to ALP polling, a certain proportion (10%)? of voters are overtly xenophobic. A much larger proportion has xenophobic tendencies that can be exploited by the Coalision - these include people who voted for the ALP in the last election but who could switch their votes partly or entirely in response to this issue. Then there is another small proportion (10%?) who favour more humane treatment of refugees - but these people tend consistently to vote for the Greens, so they aren't strategically relevant to the Labor Party's electoral prospects. The strategic conclusion is that it lies in the government's interests to adopt similar policies to the Coalision in connection with asylum seekers; the High Court's interpretation of the Migration Act and the desire of the ALP to distinguish itself from the Coalision's policy has resulted in its pursuing legislative changes that are at least as extreme as what the Coalision would introduce. To be totally clear on this point, I am strongly in favour of the rights of refugees and asylum seekers and opposed to any policy that would diminish those rights or exacerbate the suffering of people who are already vulnerable and who have lived with the experience, or at least the well-founded fear of persecution. I do not support either off-shore processing of claims or mandatory detention; and I don't vote for the Labor Party either.