Indonesian or Pacific?

KEVIN Rudd has told Parliament he does not expect any difficulty in extending the official clearance for the Oceanic Viking to remain anchored off the coast of Indonesia if the standoff with local authorities and asylum-seekers continues. If he had left the the Pacific Solution stand he wouldn’t be in such a bind. Admittedly the Left would hate him but they are going to hate him anyway as Caroline Overington explains;

Now, keen consumers of news will remember that Barnaby Joyce was last week keen to portray himself as the nation’s leading asylum-seeker. But if (Foreign Affairs) Smith is speaking the truth – if it’s now government policy to send boatpeople back to Indonesia, where military police will use force against women and children to get them into detention – it won’t be only Barnaby seeking safe haven. It will be the Left of the Labor Party, not least from the people who put them in power.

So now we just delete Pacific Solution and insert Indonesian Solution and Rudd and Smith spin it as humane and compassionate with just a touch of ‘tough on illegal immigrants’ and we are expected to swallow it? Dig yourself out of this one Rudd. UPDATE: Perth ABC report another boatload of 40 Illegals has just been detected off Ashmore Reef. Might be time to admit that the ALP are accepted as a soft touch by Lifestyle Shoppers posing as refugees.