Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Gillard's East Timor Solution for Asylum Seekers

After all the dog whistle doom and gloom around Julia Gillard and asylum seeker policy, the last thing you would have expected today was the Refugee Council of Australia praising her on the midday news.

"Refugee Council of Australia president John Gibson says Prime Minister Julia Gillard's plan to process asylum seekers in East Timor is a positive policy change."
Video interview here.

The announcement of a proposed regional processing centre in Timor-Leste left a lot of people flat-footed:

JULIA Gillard has held talks with East Timor's leader to establish a regional processing centre for asylum-seekers on Australia's doorstep.

The Prime Minister revealed today she has also spoken to New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and the UNHCR about a regional centre.

Ms Gillard said she would not oversee a return to the Pacific Solution and warned there was no quick fix to the problem of deterring asylum-seekers.
Gillard in talks with E Timor leader to establish processing centre for asylum-seekers

It took the longest headline in memory to catch up with the latest. Strange there were no leaks or scoops.

Not everyone has been as please as the Refugee Council. Bernard Keane at Crikey called it "unedifying". Not the harshest of criticism from a master of invective.

So it appears to be 2-0 Gillard v. Abbott. That would be a winning lead in any of this year's World Cup matches. She said 'game on' and meant.

Steady on! The election hasn't even been called, despite Joe Hockey's wrong call.

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