It was lucky that I was in Queensland a couple of weekends ago when The Sunday Mail revealed to Australia shocking scenes of asylum seekers in our shopping centres buying our pizza and our Coke. Lucky because I got a snap of the front page to use as wallpaper on my iPhone.

A handy reminder to be on my guard at all times

A handy reminder to be on my guard at all times

Any idiot can tell that boat arrivals and asylum seekers are going to be a hot topic at this year’s election, and Kevin Rudd has pre-empted this and attempted to mitigate electoral damage by launching a national conversation about Australia’s size, announcing a new portfolio for population. The Liberals know what’s going on and have immediately started linking boat arrivals to population growth:

Kevin Rudd’s failure on border protection, as yet another boat arrives, means he can’t be trusted on population growth, according to Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Scott Morrison and Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection, Michael Keenan.

Of course, allowing the Liberals to talk about asylum seekers in terms of population growth lets them avoid talking about asylum seekers in terms of the kinds of people they are, which can come across as a bit mean and xenophobic. In a way, it’s sort of playing into the Liberals’ hands a bit. Why can’t Rudd and Labor just come straight out and argue much what Peter van Onselen did last week in The Australian?

BOTH of the main political parties are keen to display their toughness on border protection, so much so that they seem to have lost sight of the plight of the people who are trying to make their way here in rickety boats.

[...]

Why are we so concerned about the 4500 or so boatpeople who have attempted to seek asylum in Australia since the ALP was elected about 2 1/2 years ago?

Yes, the numbers are higher than they were during the Howard years, as the Coalition nauseatingly continues to point out. And the upsurge may well be a consequence of a softening of the assessment processes since the Pacific solution was removed from the political lexicon.

But these numbers hardly suggest we are being inundated. We should remember the much larger number of refugees flowing into parts of Europe and Asia because of their proximity to conflict zones. Australia’s refugee numbers will always be low because of something called the ocean.

The fact remains that the overwhelming majority of people who try to enter Australia illegally by boat are ultimately assessed to be legitimate refugees and are therefore included in Australia’s annual refugee quota of 13,750.

Everyone wants to talk about boat arrivals but without talking about boat arrivals; it’s all meaningless stats comparisons and smokescreens about population growth. Why can’t we just talk about the people on the boats and what we as a nation can and can’t, will and won’t do for them?