I can’t let John Howard’s partial capitulation on Petro Georgiou’s reform of the detention of refugees go without comment.

First and foremost, we need to recognise it as a great victory. Georgiou’s private members bill was the tip of the ice-berg. The majority of the work has been done in the community through activism, support networks, letter writing, visits and so on. The issue has been kept alive which is a difficult thing to do in this day and age. However Georgiou and his fellow Liberal Members do of course deserve our praise for their remarkable bravery on the topic.

It was interesting to note that Vanstone was nowhere near the negotiations. As the minister for immigration that would piss me off. That said, it adds to my intrigue regarding Mandy’s role as the minister. I can’t pick if she is just a really nasty woman who genuinely believes what she is doing, or if she is someone who actually disagrees with the policy but enforces it with great rigor in order to please a prime minister who then publicly contradicts.

Following on from that it is interesting to note that Mandy’s powers have been extended. Flexibility is important because of the diversity of experience and the situation for the refugees is so diverse – no two cases are the same. However given my previous point I’m unsure if this is a good idea or not.

Finally we can’t forget that we still have a fight on our hands. The reforms are inadequate. Mandatory detention is a bad policy. So is the pacific solution. These people are still punished as ‘queue jumpers’ in their greatest time of need. There are viable alternatives and we do have a humanitarian responsibility to these people.

…as an interesting aside, Johnny is an opportunitist. He has obviously utilised this opportunity to his advantage. In Kyoto next?