How can you tell Pacific solution from Timor one?

Cut and Paste's cut-out-and-keep guide to competing offshore processing policies

Tip One. Michelle Grattan hates the Pacific solution. The Sydney Morning Herald, September 3, 2001:

JOHN Howard's overreaction to the Tampa crisis is painting Australia as a country that believes the end of stopping these people touching our soil justifies the most extreme and outlandish means. Instead, it has gone to desperate lengths to cobble together a solution to keep the asylum-seekers at bay. The cost will be Australia's reputation. Mature countries don't behave like this.

But she loves the Timor solution. The Age yesterday:

JULIA Gillard is devilishly clever. Her asylum-seeker policy is a masterstroke of improvisation. The core of Gillard's policy is a proposed regional processing centre in East Timor. The "Dili solution" is a three-star version of its one-star "Pacific solution" cousin. But the bottom line of the two "solutions" is the same: install a deterrent by taking all boat arrivals to another country. Coming from a party that condemned John Howard's approach, Gillard's Dili solution would make a lesser leader blush. But as this election nears, shame is a missing ingredient.

Tip two. The PS was a cruel con job. Chris Evans on Sky News yesterday:

LOOK, the Pacific solution was about, one, punishing people, telling them they couldn't be recognised as refugees, sending them off to a sort of a desert island, and secondly it was about conning the Australian public. It's what Tony Abbott's trying to do now, con them that somehow there's an easy fix.

While the TS is pragmatic and workable, Jason Clare tells Sky a few moments later:

THE policies of the two major parties are 95 per cent the same. The key is developing policies that are effective and practical and will work. This is a practical solution.

Tip three. The PS was knee-jerk politics. Gillard on March 12, 2002:

THE Pacific solution was an expensive charade designed for an election campaign.

But the TS is far-reaching international diplomacy. The PM yesterday: WHAT I'm seeking to achieve through an open conversation with regional partners is a regional change in how we deal with irregular people movement.

Tip four: The PS was invented by Pauline Hanson. The One Nation MP on October 15, 2001:

I AM pleased to see they have listened to what I've been saying. A lot of people are actually saying I'm John Howard's adviser because he's picking up a lot of the policies and issues I have raised and spoken about.

While the TS was invented by John Howard. Geraldine Doogue on Radio National Breakfast yesterday:

JOHN Howard's Pacific solution has surely become Julia Gillard's Pacific solution.

Tip Five. Taxpayers have paid dearly for the PS. Kim Beazley on Channel 10's Meet the Press, June 17, 2006:

WE will get rid of Howard's so-called Pacific solution. It's a massively expensive, silly thing.

While taxpayers will pay dearly for the TS. Andrew Bolt in The Herald Sun yesterday:

RATHER than use again the detention centre at Nauru, which we've already built, Gillard will spend a fortune on a new one in East Timor, provided its government ever agrees to a plan it's not yet seen in detail.

Ashleigh Wilson on Page 1 of The Australian on Tuesday:

ALL paintings, fine art, coin and stamp collections, racehorses, exotic cars, boats, antiques, wine and golf club memberships sitting in any of the nation's 423,000 self-managed super funds will have to be sold.

The SMH twigs yesterday:

SELF-MANAGED super funds would no longer be allowed to invest in collectables or personal use assets, including racehorses, boats, exotic cars, antiques, coins, stamps, wine, jewellery and artworks.


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