Major parties hadn't done enough

Such was the tone that Pauline Hanson, on the front page of this newspaper, came out and endorsed the Labor prime minister's comments.

Hanson said she warned years ago that importing foreign labour would be unpopular in the community but became necessary because the major parties hadn't done enough to develop the Australian workforce.

"Now we haven't got the skilled labour in Australia and we need to rely on migrants," she said. "That's why we are where we are now."

The fact that the previous Labor government had drunk from this well was overlooked by many of those who spent this week jumping ugly on Immigration Minister Peter Dutton for his remarks about refugees being illiterate, innumerate and coming here to lollygag on the dole while, incongruously and simultaneously, steal Aussie jobs. All, of course, as part of some devious Labor/Greens plot stitched up by the CFMEU.

Missed the point

While not disputing the point Dutton was trying to make, key Liberals readily concede he over-egged it. Not only did people stealing jobs while remaining unemployed make no sense, the linking of illiteracy to laziness crossed a line. "He went too far," said a senior Liberal strategist.

As usual, the group of conservative commentators who scramble like Spitfire pilots to defend the government every time it exposes itself to criticism, even when legitimate, missed the point.


None of them winced at Dutton's language because few, if any, like those they defend, have an ethnic heritage and have never been called "wog" or "chink" in their life. Unlike those whose forebears came here unable to read, write or speak English and with bugger all else but they built businesses, raised families, sent their kids to university and never drew a welfare dollar in their life as a point of pride and gratitude.

This same pack of social science geniuses, none of whom would ever have been called "boong" or "coon" in their life, sought to lecture Adam Goodes last year that he needed to toughen up.

Immigrant ethos rocks

Turnbull spent two days cleaning up after Dutton by explaining the point he was trying to make. It costs a lot of money to settle refugees and help them assimilate and there are cultural issues that need to be balanced and that is why you just don't quadruple your intake in one fell swoop.Otherwise multiculturalism and the immigrant ethos rocks.

Overall, the Coalition was buoyed because whenever border security is the issue, it wins. That's why it started talking about it at the start of this week. And it it will keep talking about it, despite the odd distraction such as Australian Federal Police kicking in doors and gifting Labor with a whole day to remind people of what it says is the shemozzle Turnbull made of the NBN while communications minister.

What took Labor by surprise was how quickly the switch to boats occurred.

"We knew it was coming but nine days into an eight-week campaign?" said one ALP campaign strategist.

As this paper reported on Thursday, polling by veteran John Scales and his company JWS research showed the government, despite its strong focus in the first week, has failed so far to sell the budget, which was the very economic platform for its re-election. The company tax cuts and the super changes rate at the bottom in terms of support for individual measures and not many have quite grasped the theme of it being an "economic plan".


Turnbull was chipped by his own side for not mentioning boats (or the carbon tax), during the debate on Friday last week with Bill Shorten. On Monday, the PM came out swinging, as did Scott Morrison.

Shoulder to shoulder

Up in the marginal Queensland seat of Herbert to spruik the business tax cuts, the Treasurer was introduced by the local member, Ewen Jones and the home builder, Martin Locke.

Before taking questions, Morrison said: "Now, the other thing I want to thank Ewen for in particular is when I was immigration minister, I needed the support of my team to be able to stop the boats and the support I got from Ewen Jones day in, day out, when people said it couldn't be done, when people said this policy wouldn't work and all the rest of it and there were the nay-sayers, Ewen Jones stood there, shoulder to shoulder with me and the prime minister, Tony Abbott, at the time, day in, day out."

The Coalition is entitled to campaign on the issue. It is a proven vote winner and Labor's record in government was appalling.

It has not abandoned the budget or the economy but "broadened" its message to include boats. It says its internal polling shows, budget or no budget, that it has a comfortable lead over Labor in terms of economic management and it is now out to remind voters of the rabble Labor was just three years ago. Get used to the term "same old Labor". It is the Coalition's unofficial campaign slogan.

Australia has its challenges at the moment – the economy, environment and terrorism foremost among them. There will be a double dissolution election on July 2, called ostensibly because of the threat construction unions posed to the national economy. Apart from day one, the triggers for the election have hardly rated a mention.

The most important period of the political cycle spent the week focused on a problem that Morrison and Abbott fixed two years ago and is unlikely to ever recur, whoever wins, unless Labor is completely and utterly stupid, which it is not.

"This issue never been so important," Dutton said on Thursday.

If that's the case, we're all stuffed.