Decisions, decisions...

In just under 5 weeks we get to elect a new federal parliament.

Normally I have a fairly clear idea of which of the big two I want to win (as in, I know that the minority party candidate I'll vote for probably won't so who do I dislike least out of Labor or the Coalition). This time I can't say I can see any real difference between the two.

On the one hand we have a 3 week PM who sided with unelected power brokers to unseat the previous PM as leader of the elected party. On the other side we have someone who has promised not to bring back, within the first term mind you, a policy that got their party kicked out at the last election. But then, this is the same party that gave us 'core' and 'non-core' promises (now there's something I call 'un-Australian').

Then there's the issue of asylum seekers. Despite the fact that most asylum seekers who enter this country come by aeroplane*, all both parties can think of is to turn those who are more likely to be genuine refugees**, into the bogeyman.

The current PM has come up with the equivalent of the 'Pacific Solution' - the 'Indian (Ocean) Solution'. She can't use the existing facility on Nauru (Pacific Ocean), despite the offer from the government of Nauru, because that would just show up her policy for the rehash of the previous government's policy that it truly is. No, instead she's wooing a small, under-equipped nation in the Indian Ocean+ to show that it really has no connection, none at all, to the 'Pacific Solution'.

Quite frankly, she had a wonderful opportunity to ridicule the Opposition's stance; to educate the Australian public about the number of asylum seekers who arrive by boat rather than through airports and the relative proportions of arrivals through each entry method who qualify as refugees. Instead, she has joined the Opposition in a race to the bottom to see who can do a bigger job of vilifying a small section of society for political gain.

I hope I have a choice of more candidates than just the big two parties. Sigh.


* and ** from http://www.news.com.au/national/asylum-seekers-arrive-by-plane-not-boat/story-e6frfkvr-1225790981775
"A total of 4768 "plane people" - more than 96 per cent of applicants for refugee status - arrived by aircraft in 2008 on legitimate tourist, business and other visas compared with 161 who arrived by boat during the same period, the Sunday Telegraph reports.

And plane people are much less likely than boat people to be genuine refugees, with only about 40-60 per cent granted protection visas, compared with 85-90 per cent of boat people who are found to be genuine refugees."

+East Timor lies between the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean.