Albanese then and now

[Black Orchid]

Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese says he voted against his leader's plan on boat turn-backs because he himself could not turn back an asylum seeker boat at sea.

"I couldn't ask someone else to do something that I couldn't see myself doing," Mr Albanese told Insiders.

"If people were in a boat including families and children, I myself couldn't turn that around."

Anthony Albanese now:

Anthony Albanese has conceded that the Coalition’s policies “have stopped the boats”, and rejected calls to put a time limit on offshore detention, in an appearance on Sky News on Tuesday evening.

The senior frontbencher ... ruled out allowing refugees who came by boat to settle in Australia ...

Asked to address concerns about his position on border protection, Albanese said that “circumstances had changed” from 2015 when he opposed boat turnbacks.

“The government’s policies have stopped the boats,” he said. “They’re not coming, so the circumstances of rejecting boat arrivals has been achieved.”

Albanese said that the previous Labor government was wrong to believe that Australia’s border policies were not a “pull factor” for asylum seekers, which is why it changed tack when Kevin Rudd regained the leadership and reinstated offshore detention.

Not exactly a quick learner, is he?

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/blogs ... 1531381088

Does he just want the top job?

[Black Orchid]

Albanese said Labor in government would be “tough on people smugglers” without being “weak on humanity”.

Asked about human services spokeswoman Linda Burney’s call for a time limit on offshore detention, Albanese said he did not support a timeframe but he believed Australia could end “long-term indefinite detention” that has led to refugees taking their own lives and mental anguish.

He suggested making the program more humanitarian by increasing the refugee intake, working with the UNHCR, achieving faster third-party resettlement of refugees and offering permanent rather than temporary protection visas.

“The range of changes I’ve pointed out are there – but no change in terms of people who arrive by boat, they wouldn’t be settled in Australia,” he said.

Asked if he was planning a leadership coup in the event Shorten faltered at the byelections, Albanese replied: “Not at all.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... time-limit

Just what we need a higher refugee intake. Dump them all in Sydney and Melbourne and give them permanent visas. Way to go Anthony!