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Page One at Last

Friday, 16th June, 2006

The national daily has at last acknowledged that John Howard's troops are in revolt and has even gone as far as giving comfort and succour to them to continue!

It might have just been a small box on page one of The Australian this morning but the coalition backbenchers opposed to planned changes to the future treatment of refugees will be heartened by the editorial inside. And on page two of the paper there was a full and fair report of the stalled attempts by Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone to get her opponents to change their mind.

"Labor immigration spokesman Tony Burke is right," the paper says in its editorial. "John Howard has traded Australian sovereignty in order to placate Indonesian fury over our granting protection to 42 Papuan asylum-seekers in March." In a calm and analytical manner the editorial continues to demolish Mr Howard's attempt to argue that the immigration changes are necessary to prevent the return of people-smuggling.

It is now getting increasingly difficult for the Government to find a way out of this impasse.

If he withdraws the Migration Amendment (Designated Unauthorised Arrivals) Bill 2006 he will look weak. If he pushes ahead and gets beaten in a Senate vote because one or more Coalition members cross the floor he will be a Prime Minister who lost his political judgment by kow-towing to Indonesia in the first place. Should he dragoon the would-be rebels into abandoning their principles he will be a leader who will go to any lengths to appease our northern neighbour.