Prime Minister Anthony Albanese needs to lead with conviction. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
There is a sense of crisis gripping the Albanese Government and it’s all their own fault.
Primarily it’s due to the knee-jerk response to the High Court decision on indefinite immigration detention and another looming decision that’s not likely to go the government’s way.
The attempted rushing through of draconian deportation powers foundered in the Senate, where an opportunistic Coalition teamed with the Greens and crossbench. This only fed the impression that the government was all at sea.
A gun-shy Labor has abandoned all principles to try to appear as hairy-chested on immigration, terrified that the ghost of Tampa will come back to haunt it at the next election.
It appears it will do anything to neutralise the issue at the expense of the rule of law, basic freedoms and people’s lives.
This has nothing to do with keeping Australians safe. It’s all about keeping Labor safe.
Some of the detainees freed as a result of the High Court decision have committed crimes, some serious. They may not be nice people.
But prisoners are released back into society from jail every day after serving their time, some for violent crimes.
Should we expect them to be indefinitely detained or wear electronic bracelets because of the possibility of them reoffending?
If so, that’s a radical redrawing of our criminal justice system.
Let’s not forget that there are still asylum seekers languishing on Manus Island in PNG and on Nauru.
The government has succumbed to the hysteria whipped up by the Opposition, egged on as usual by its media mates in News Corp, which has a naked agenda to destabilise it.
Its daily headlines have only gotten more strident this year, creating the impression that the government is reeling from one crisis to the next.
No matter what position the government takes, the bad headlines keep coming.
This is no surprise. News Corp always tries to corral a government, especially a Labor one.
The tragedy is that Labor seems more intent on managing the news cycle than articulating policy or arguing its position with any force.
It’s as if the media advisors throw the papers onto the PM’s desk in the morning and immediately go into damage control.
It’s not just immigration.
Across the policy spectrum from climate change and energy to cost of living, the Albanese Government is being shoved this way and that by powerful interest groups masterful in media manipulation.
Even the no-brainer of revising the Stage 3 tax cuts took an age.
Some might say this is the business of politics, adjusting to conditions, bending when the wind blows and compromising where necessary.
But the impression is that the government does not know whether it’s coming or going, so the headlines become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
No wonder voters are confused about what Anthony Albanese and his government stand for, and the polls are tightening.
It’s time for the PM to grow a spine, show some conviction and put the nation’s interests ahead of the baying mob.
The alternative is an ebbing of public confidence, which could see the return of an unrepentant Coalition, which would only deliver more wasted years.
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