He may have got a bounce in the polls today, but the Prime Minister’s handling of the Oceanic Viking issue has been singularly inept.
Oceanic viking
Australia’s $1m asylum bill
Australia has spent more than $1 million in its stand-off with asylum seekers aboard the Oceanic Viking, with each additional day costing $42,500.
Allard: Humane, but definitely not tough
So much for “tough but humane”: the Government’s offer to resettle refugees aboard the Oceanic Viking has turned the whole saga into a farcical political pantomime, says Tom Allard. It will do nothing to deter people smugglers.
Rudd’s “secret plan” to increase Sri Lankan migration
The Government is looking to allow more Sri Lankans to emigrate legally to Australia in an effort to reduce the incentive for them to come via people smugglers.
Dear asylum seekers…
Read the letter given to asylum seekers aboard the Oceanic Viking, guaranteeing them resettlement if they get off the boat and are found to be genuine refugees.
Memo Rudd: an asylum solution
Bernard Keane offers the Prime Minister a few thoughts on how to resolve the Oceanic Viking stand-off.
Downer: The delight I feel watching Rudd mess it up
Alexander Downer is loving the schadenfreude of seeing Kevin Rudd battle Indonesia over asylum seekers. He should have learnt from Tampa that negotiating with Indonesia on refugees is never a good idea.
Rudd looks like a man who isn’t confident of his own policy
There’s no domestic policy reason why the refuseniks aboard the Oceanic Viking should not be taken to Christmas Island and processed like other boat arrivals.
Shanahan: Rudd’s moral compass has lost its direction
The only reason things aren’t looking worse for Kevin Rudd on asylum seekers is because the Opposition is such as shambles. Both are operating on outdated and flawed immigration ideas, writes Dennis Shanahan.
Grattan: Refugees hold Rudd hostage
Kevin Rudd’s ‘Indonesian Solution’ for the 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers has turned into a debacle with neither Indonesia nor Australian in charge, writes Michelle Grattan. Will they have to remove the refugees from the Oceanic Viking by force?
Crabb: Captain Kevin not steering the ship
Who’s even in charge of Oceanic Viking and the Sri Lankan asylum seekers aboard? We’ve become a leaky boat without a captain, writes Annabel Crabb. Kevin Rudd has become an expert in giving very vague answers about the saga.
Question Time fun: See Kevin run. See Kevin hide.
The pursuit of the Prime Minister over the Oceanic Viking made, inter alia, for a rather more interesting Question Time yesterday than we’ve had in some months.
Whaling surveillance: a multi-faceted stuff-up
While the Japanese whaling fleet operates in the Southern Ocean, Australia’s promised surveillance — made up of a ship, which hasn’t yet sailed south, and a jet that isn’t even cleared to carry out its intended mission — has failed to materialise, writes Ben Sandilands.
Government’s bargain basement apology to stolen generations
Kevin Rudd’s new Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, has put her head above the trenches for long enough to pour cold water on the possibility of compensation being paid to members of the stolen generations, subsequent to a government apology. Pretty disingenous, writes Graham Ring.
RAAF could be the key to monitoring whalers
The promise to add the Antarctic Division jet to surveillance by the chartered P&O polar cruiser the Oceanic Viking to dog the whalers was made on December 19. But since then nobody in government is saying anything coherent about the audacious plan, writes Ben Sandilands.
