Can Libs change direction?

Writing in The Age, Shaun Carney ponders whether Costello can wring changes in Liberal Party strategy and whether he will seek asylum on the backbench. Is the current debate on mandatory detention a fingerpost to a new political landscape? If strategists on both sides of the political fence are not reading the tea leaves on mandatory detention I would be surprised. Following is an excerpt from Carney’s article:

“Before Liberal and National MPs discussed Petro Georgiou's mandatory detention bill on Tuesday of last week, backbencher Bruce Baird had some extraordinary things to say. Not in terms of the sort of things that are said across the community, but extraordinary as far as a federal Liberal MP - and, crucially, a member of a Government led by John Howard - is concerned.

"There's lots of myths that are associated with (mandatory detention)," he told reporters. "There's the myth that because we've been tough on asylum seekers that the boats have stopped; they've stopped around the world. There's the myth that the rest of the world is following us. Nonsense! I've been to seven countries and nobody follows the same policy we do. There's the myth that these people are just economic refugees. The fact is that most of them have been found to be genuine refugees."

Then Baird moved from the practicalities to the morality of the policy. "You cannot listen to the anguish of people who've been involved in long-term detention without seeing this is a matter of conscience. It's not a question of saying 'Look, this is a party policy' . . . this involves people's lives, this involves people's mental state, and you just can't stand back and say this is not an issue of conscience."


Spooner in The Age