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A secret immigration scramble · The Front

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  Speaker 1: You can listen to the Front on your smart speaker
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  Speaker 1: the news from the Australian. From the Australian, here's what's
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  Speaker 1: on the Front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Tuesday, August thirteen.
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  Speaker 1: Chatbots will be writing lesson plans and assignments in a
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  Speaker 1: new Education Department trial, even as teachers are warned to
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  Speaker 1: check the bot's answers. Australia could be left high and
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  Speaker 1: dry on the nuclear submarine deal, with new treaty documents
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  Speaker 1: revealing the US and UK can pull out with just
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  Speaker 1: one year's notice if they decide it threatens their own
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  Speaker 1: defense plans. That's an exclusive live now at the Australian
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  Speaker 1: dot Com dot u. The government released dangerous non citizens
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  Speaker 1: into the community with no visas and no way to
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  Speaker 1: monitor them, and then misled the public about it. That's
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  Speaker 1: an exclusive in The Australian Today and Today's Deep Dive
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  Speaker 1: on the Front.
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  Speaker 2: This is the issue that Anthony Albanez you wanted to
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  Speaker 2: have off the agenda, but it is back to haunt
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  Speaker 2: the government and the new Minister for Immigration and Home
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  Speaker 2: Affairs Tony Burke.
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  Speaker 1: The issue is illegal immigration, boat people, border security, and
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  Speaker 1: it's the soundtrack to the Labor parties nightmares.
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  Speaker 3: Elements in the coalition's plan to stop the boats finally
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  Speaker 3: and fully stop the boats, stopping the boats now, I'm
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  Speaker 3: interested in stopping the boats. And why I'm interested in
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  Speaker 3: stopping the bats.
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  Speaker 1: We have to have the will we are going to
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  Speaker 1: stop the boats. Ever since they lost the twenty thirteen
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  Speaker 1: election to Tony Abbott in large part because of a
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  Speaker 1: surge in unauthorized maritime arrivals, Labor has a long term
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  Speaker 1: case of the hebegbs about border integrity coming back to
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  Speaker 1: bite it, and in November twenty twenty three it really did.
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  Speaker 1: The immigration laws have been shaken up by a High
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  Speaker 1: Court ruling.
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  Speaker 4: For the last twenty years, the Australian government has been
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  Speaker 4: able to detain non citizens who don't have a valid
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  Speaker 4: visa or any prospect of deportation, but the High Court
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  Speaker 4: has ruled that process is unlawful.
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  Speaker 1: The test case at the center of that monumental High
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  Speaker 1: Court decision can be named only as enz Yq. He
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  Speaker 1: arrived by boat aged about sixteen in twenty twelve, at
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  Speaker 1: the height of the influx of boat Enzedyq is from
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  Speaker 1: Myanmar's persecuted Rohinja community. After arriving in Australia and being
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  Speaker 1: granted a temporary visa, he sexually assaulted another Rowhinja refugee,
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  Speaker 1: a ten year old boy. Enzedyq has served a prison
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  Speaker 1: term for that offense, but on his release from jail,
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  Speaker 1: the government deemed him not a legitimate refugee. He had
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  Speaker 1: committed a serious criminal offense, which deemed him ineligible for
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  Speaker 1: Australian citizenship, but when they tried to send him back
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  Speaker 1: to Myanmar, he refused to go. The government held Enzedyq
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  Speaker 1: in immigration detention at Sydney's Villawood Center, and the High
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  Speaker 1: Court ruled that was illegal. The court said if a
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  Speaker 1: non Australian citizen is refusing to go back to their
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  Speaker 1: country of origin, Australia cannot hold them in indefinite detention.
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  Speaker 1: That decision also freed another one hundred and fifty detail
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  Speaker 1: and ease, including some serious offenders, murderers and rapists. For
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  Speaker 1: most of the year, it's been a rolling disaster in Parliament.
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  Speaker 5: Being an immigration detainee and child sex offender released by
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  Speaker 5: the High Court. Has been arrested in Dandignong, accused of
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  Speaker 5: using social media to contact children.
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  Speaker 3: This is the reality of the High Court's decision. The
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  Speaker 3: government did not choose to be in order positions.
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  Speaker 1: Last month, Anthony Albanesi demoted the two ministers in charge,
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  Speaker 1: Home Affairs Minister Claire O'Neil and Albanesi's old friend, Immigration
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  Speaker 1: Minister Andrew Giles. The PM installed Tony Burke in their
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  Speaker 1: place to try and resolve this issue before the next election,
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  Speaker 1: due by September twenty twenty five.
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  Speaker 2: Claire Well, I think what it shows is that you
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  Speaker 2: can change your front bench, you can change the minister,
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  Speaker 2: but it doesn't mean the political problems go away.
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  Speaker 1: Joe Kelly is The Australian's National Affairs editor.
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  Speaker 2: So we've got a new minister in the Immigration and
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  Speaker 2: Home Affairs portfolio, and Tony Burke, but he still has
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  Speaker 2: to clean up the mess that Andrew Giles left behind.
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  Speaker 2: There are new questions about the government's response, and in
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  Speaker 2: particular some of its claims at the time that all
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  Speaker 2: the people who were released from immigration detention were subject
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  Speaker 2: to strict visa conditions.
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  Speaker 3: All of those who have been released from detention have
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  Speaker 3: been granted and are on visas with appropriate conditions.
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  Speaker 2: There are new documents which now question those claims and
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  Speaker 2: in particular some of the statements that mister Giles made
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  Speaker 2: to Parliament last November, just days after the landmark High
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  Speaker 2: Court decision, And now Tony Burke is left in the
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  Speaker 2: invidious position of having to deal with all of that.
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  Speaker 1: Labor suffers from a bit of intergenerational trauma on asylum seekers,
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  Speaker 1: boat people, border integrity. Their hearts must sink when they
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  Speaker 1: see questions on this topic coming from you Joe across
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  Speaker 1: their email.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's just a distraction for them at this stage.
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  Speaker 2: They really don't want to be talking about this. This
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  Speaker 2: is just bringing up negative stories from the past that
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  Speaker 2: they don't really want to have to deal with.
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  Speaker 1: Back in May, when the government was really floundering around
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  Speaker 1: on this issue, Andrew Giles, the then Minister, said this
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  Speaker 1: on Sky News.
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  Speaker 3: There is a quarter of a billion dollars that we've
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  Speaker 3: invested in supporting our law enforcement agencies to enforce that
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  Speaker 3: and that's enabled things like using drones to keep track
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  Speaker 3: of these people.
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  Speaker 1: We know where they are drones monitoring the people who'd
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  Speaker 1: been released by the High Court. Australia's military doesn't even
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  Speaker 1: have a functional drone fleet. Who knew the Immigration Department
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  Speaker 1: and had eyes in the sky appeering in the bedroom
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  Speaker 1: windows of High Court Amansipees. Turns out that was completely wrong.
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  Speaker 1: There were no drones, no drones at all, and Giles
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  Speaker 1: had to admit it.
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  Speaker 3: I relied on information provided by my department at the time,
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  Speaker 3: which has since which has since been clur of members
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  Speaker 3: on my land.
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  Speaker 1: Today Joe is revealing documents obtained by the Coalition under
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  Speaker 1: freedom of information laws that show what was really going
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  Speaker 1: on in the background as the Minister was on his
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  Speaker 1: feet in Parliament.
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  Speaker 2: What we have uncovered a number of documents under freedom
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  Speaker 2: of information laws and these are submissions that the Department
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  Speaker 2: made to the then Minister Andrew Giles. So we have
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  Speaker 2: eight submissions from the Department to Andrew Giles between November
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  Speaker 2: ten and November sixteen, and it's apparent from these submissions
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  Speaker 2: that there are individuals who have been released into the
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  Speaker 2: community following the NZYQ decision and are residing in the
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  Speaker 2: community as unlawful non citizens. And in each of these submissions,
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  Speaker 2: mister Giles is being asked to transition a cohort of
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  Speaker 2: people onto bridging visas. So it becomes clear that following
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  Speaker 2: the nzed YQ decision very quickly, large numbers of people
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  Speaker 2: were released from immigration to tens into the community at large.
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  Speaker 2: They were not placed on appropriate visas with strict conditions
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  Speaker 2: and the Government had to subsequently, after the fact of
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  Speaker 2: their release, transition them onto bridging visas.
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  Speaker 1: Joe asked the government detailed questions about this, and New
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  Speaker 1: Minister Tony Burke said simply, the Government doesn't want these
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  Speaker 1: people in the community at all and will put restrictions
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  Speaker 1: on them to the maximum extent allowed by the law.
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  Speaker 1: Burke didn't explain why they only granted the visas after
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  Speaker 1: allowing the detainees out of custody. The consequences of the
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  Speaker 1: High Court decision are still flowing. An Eritrean man who
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  Speaker 1: was convicted of violent stabbing, assaults, threatening to kill and
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  Speaker 1: arson is now in the High Court seeking to avoid
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  Speaker 1: the surveillance conditions. Lawyers for the man say wearing an
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  Speaker 1: ankle bracelet and having a nightly curfew are an infringement
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  Speaker 1: on his liberty. That stories live now at the Australian
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  Speaker 1: dot com You so will Immigration decide yet another election
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  Speaker 1: will be back after this break? So Labour's dealing with
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  Speaker 1: today's crisis in immigration as well as a rolling disaster
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  Speaker 1: where it's been trying and failing to deport other non
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  Speaker 1: citizens who commit crimes here in Australia. So I asked Joe,
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  Speaker 1: Labor just keeps taking the hits on immigration and border protection.
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  Speaker 1: The party has done years of soul searching on this issue.
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  Speaker 1: Where does Labor actually stand now?
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  Speaker 2: I think that there's been a bit of a road
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  Speaker 2: to Damascus moment for Labor over the last fifteen years.
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  Speaker 2: On border protection, we had the dismantling of the Howard
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  Speaker 2: government's tougher position under the former Rudd and Gillard governments
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  Speaker 2: where we saw so many boats coming to Australia, and
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  Speaker 2: of course the tragedy of that was that so many
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  Speaker 2: people unfortunately lost their lives. So I think there was
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  Speaker 2: a debate over what truly is the most compassionate and
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  Speaker 2: humane policy. I think Labor initially thought we need to
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  Speaker 2: have a compassionate and humane policy and we're not going
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  Speaker 2: to agree to these tough border protection measures. But I
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  Speaker 2: think what essentially we've seen when Labor was trying to
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  Speaker 2: get back into government that they decided that actually it
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  Speaker 2: is humane, it is compassionate to have a tougher approach
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  Speaker 2: on the borders, because we're essentially stopping people risking their
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  Speaker 2: lives coming to Australia in these leaky boats. And so
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  Speaker 2: one of the political questions that arises from that, clear
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  Speaker 2: I think, is is this road to Damascus moment for
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  Speaker 2: Labor on border protection genuine or is this just something
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  Speaker 2: that they said and they're going through the motions with
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  Speaker 2: because they knew they needed to do that to win
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  Speaker 2: and stay in government. So there are questions about Andrew
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  Speaker 2: Giles as true convictions in this regard, also to an extent,
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  Speaker 2: Anthony Albanezi as well. So it's a tricky issue for
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  Speaker 2: them and obviously there's a lot of people in their
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  Speaker 2: base and on the left wing of the party who
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  Speaker 2: don't like this move to the center that Labour's undergone
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  Speaker 2: over the last several years on this particular issue.
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  Speaker 1: The other big trial raging at the moment is, of course,
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  Speaker 1: Linda Reynolds versus Brittany Higgins in the WA Supreme Court
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  Speaker 1: on Tuesday. Scott Morrison's in the witness box. You can
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  Speaker 1: follow it live at the Australian dot com dot Au