Doomed to fail

In the last two days nearly every politician in both the House of Representatives and the Senate have had the opportunity to voice their opinions about the current asylum seeker legislation that has been before the parliament since yesterday lunchtime. All three major parties, the ALP, the Liberal National Coalition and the Greens have different views, with many individuals not willing to compromise on the details. Last night the House of Reps passed Rob Oakeshott's bill, and the PM hoped that today it would pass in the Senate. Throughout the day members from both chambers of parliament have given press conferences, each reiterating their opinions and stances on the issue with many political commentators commenting, that the likelihood of this bill passing was next to zero. This comes after Greens MP Adam Bandt voted with the Coalition last night, however speculation was only to be silenced late this afternoon when the Senate negated the bill 29/39. Although this is a blow to the government, Prime Minister Julia Gillard this evening gave a joint press conference with Immigration Minister Chris Bowen outlining a commission that she had just set up. She announced that the commission would be headed by Angus Houston, who was a consultant to John Howard when he was Prime Minister and has assisted the incumbent PM at times. Ms. Gillard said the idea behind the appointment and the commission will be to look at the best solutions for Asylum Seeker policy and are expected to release their findings before the parliament resumes in August. It is doubtful that politicians will come to the senses and decide on a solution, the best solution, when the government holds an opposing view to the opposition and the Greens (especially in the Senate), but until a policy is agreed upon the boats will keep coming and the chance of people dying at sea will continue to grow. The governments Malaysia Solution has been fiercely opposed by both the Greens and the Opposition but Tony Abbotts Nauru option, and the Greens amendments to Oakeshotts bill have also been voted against. In reality the Opposition wants the government to agree to only have off shore processing in countries that have signed the convention that ensures rights to refugees and asylum seekers.  This would mean the government needing to do a back flip on their Malaysia solution, as it is not a signatory to the convention. The greens on the other hand, as was seen in Senator Hanson-Young’s speech earlier today, hold the view that under no circumstances should offshore processing be a legitimate answer. And so it shall be an interesting time as we watch MP’s away from parliament for the next 6 weeks and wait until parliament resumes for real action to take place.