A May election defeat is looming and some MP's are jumping ship early.

ANALYSIS

A direct flight from Canberra to Christmas Island covers just over 5000km and you don’t do it on a whim.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison arrived on the island today and he had a mission — an archly political one.

It was to re-energise chatter about border protection and provide a suitable backdrop to a press conference.

It wasn’t to inspect the island’s primary medical facilities where the very ill asylum seekers sent on doctors’ advice from those two other border protection islands, Manus and Nauru, might be treated.

The Christmas Islanders know those facilities are 2600km to the southeast in Perth. That’s where they have to go for substantial attention for such problems, like mental illness.

And it wasn’t to cast a prime ministerial eye over the shuttered detention centre, which might be reopened as part of a $1.4 billion emergency spend over four years. There is no one there.

Prime Minister Morrison wanted to reheat debate about border protection and relive some history.

He argues strongly the medical transfer legislation parliament passed last month could refloat the people smuggler flotillas and replay the days when Christmas Island housed asylum seekers in their thousands.

The only reason that hasn’t happened already is because he is still in charge.

But if Labor’s Bill Shorten won the election in a May … well, that could apparently change everything.

“So I just want to be very clear about what the purpose is here,” Mr Morrison said, getting to the nub of the first visit by a serving prime minister to our most distant dependency.

“This facility under Labor got to a point where more than 3000 people were on this island. That’s how bad it can get when Labor runs to borders.

“I think it is important that we reflect on that when we stand here on Christmas Island. This centre was closed under our Government and it reached well above its capacity under the Labor Government.

“That is a clear contrast, I think, for Australians to observe. Again, I want to thank those who have been involved in standing up this facility. I thought it was important for me personally to come here and see that the facility was ready.”

Related story: Prime Minister Scott Morrison stokes fears of Labor ‘recession’

It was a long way to go to see a facility that isn’t really ready to receive up to 600 very ill people.

Not everyone was impressed by the visit.

The island’s administrator from 2012-2014, Jon Stanhope — a former Labor Chief Minister of the ACT — called it bizarre and doubted there would be a rush of asylum seekers.

He likened Mr Morrison’s trip to the “stunt” by US President Donald Trump should has declared a national emergency over undocumented arrivals across the Mexican border.

Senate independent Tim Storer joined the criticism and accused the Prime Minister of wasting taxpayer money.

And he suggested the visit was premature: “No people have been moved from Nauru or PNG (Manus), indeed none have even been assessed.”

The Prime Minister was following a separate timetable — that of the election.

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