I believe that Labor had that in place before the LNP came in. Labor started sending everyone off-shore and the numbers dropped drastically in the final months of the LAbor leadership. The LNP were in place to take credit for it.
It's as much about perception as anything - if you think there's no chance, you don't try. I haven't seen numbers of arrivals month by month leading up to the election, but nevertheless rhetoric is effective it would seem
The point is sound, if we are turning boats back, then the boats haven't stopped. We only find out about turnbacks via other means such as reporters going to Indonesia, the RI police talking about smugglers being paid to turn back, etc. The govt refuses to talk about "on the water matters", which then means the Australian voter cannot say either way whether the boats have actually stopped or not. This is not to criticise any particular policy, this is simply to analysis what is and is not happening.
Pharma, to your last point where you evidence Europe as a horror show that brings to light the scourge of people smugglers, you seem to have been selective of the information you use. Yes, there are horror stories of boats going under and babies on beaches. However, there are also stories of hundreds of thousands of people making it to safety and being allowed in to developed countries where they can be safe and look for work.
You also decide that people smugglers are heartless crims, however evidence says that there are also large networks of people in the transit regions that are helping for free due to moral and religious reasons.
Lastly, what is the option for parents, to stay in their homes and risk destruction, to stay in camps in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon where they can't earn money, don't have proper shelter, can barely educate their children, have little to no access to healthcare and just hope for the best? Is that what you would decide for your family, after seeing hundreds of thousands making it to safety and a new life? Don't answer. You cannot know how you would act in their situation and I cannot say how you or I would act either because we have not had those extreme experiences.
However, what we can say is that it is very likely that many, many people will try desperate measures in desperate times. The evidence is on our TV's every night. As a planner this is what must be considered and views from high horses that run along lines of "should, shouldn't" etc., are pointless when creating a strategy to deal with such matters. All you can think can consider is can, cannot, likely, unlikely.
Again, I don't have an opinion about any of the policies of the Aust govt and neither do I pass judgement on those in Europe or the Mid East. I do, however think that one must consider the complexity of these issues and the many perspectives before having a firm position.
