Image – www.gympietimes.com.au

There is not a lot complimentary that I can say about the Opposition spokesperson on Immigration matters, Scott Morrison. At best I consider him lacking in humanity and at worst I consider him to be a man with no good intentions. His attitude towards human beings coming here seeking asylum is far from humanitarian in my view. However, I will concede that Morrison is also one of the more popular shadow ministers in the coalition.

Leaving that popularity aside, I would have to say that the Boat Buy Back part of the Coalition’s Border Protection policy certainly takes the cake. To be fair, that policy is a part of a much larger regional processing policy that the coalition has released.  It is, however, the part of the policy that has raised the most attention for its sheer idiocy. To give it some perspective, here is the actual policy statement as outlined on the website of the coalition:

“…a capped boat buy-back scheme that will provide an incentive for owners of decrepit and dangerously unsafe boats to sell their boats to government officials rather than people smugglers…”.

Even as we speak I can see the Indonesian owners of unsafe boats lining their boats up to be purchased by the Australian government scheme. Already there are a number of comparisons being drawn to the failed Labor policy of “Cash for Clunkers” that died a very early death some years ago. Interestingly the commentary from the Coalition at that time was derisive and included Andrew Robb’s comments that said “Labor’s reckless spending is continuing unabated and this joke of a program will result in further wasteful spending and the distortion of both the new and used car markets,” Mr Robb said. “This program will inevitably result in the price of pre-1995 used cars going up by $2,000, making it even more difficult for people on tight budgets to buy a cheap car. It will price people, such as students, out of the market. Consequently, a Coalition Government would not proceed with Labor’s Cleaner Car Rebate program, ‘cash for clunkers’, and will instead use this $394 million to help retire debt.”

Now why would the Boat buy back scheme not result in exactly the same distortion to the market for “unsafe” boats in Indonesia? The Coalition has a philosophical disposition against any market intervention. Yet it is prepared to set aside that philosophical disposition to artificially manipulate the market in Indonesia in trying to deny entry to people seeking asylum in Australia.

The other questions that come up in regard to the boat buy back scheme are:

• What is the cap on the scheme?
• Will the expenditure of this money be taken as part of the foreign aid budget that Australia commits to?
• Has this approach worked anywhere else in the world?

As indicated earlier the boat buyback policy is a part of a much broader asylum seeker policy. Hopefully, there will be critical analysis of the rest of the policy before the federal election on September 7^th.

The writer of this article, Suresh Rajan, declares an impartiality conflict of interest as a Senate candidate for The WikiLeaks Party in the federal elections. Suresh is a former president of the Ethnic Communities Council WA.