THE Gillard Government has blood on its hands. Prime Minister Julia Gillard should resign.
The tragic drownings at Christmas Island are a direct result of her reckless boat people policies.
Again and again she was warned those policies - fatally relaxed in 2008 - would result in exactly this loss of life.
Indeed, she was warned people were already dying at sea, as people smugglers resumed the trade the Howard government had all but stopped in 2002.
Even before yesterday, up to 170 people had been lured to their deaths by the Government’s dismantling of John Howard’s “Pacific Solution”, scrapping temporary protection visas and softening mandatory detention rules.
In January last year, for instance, at least nine boat people drowned off Indonesia as they tried to sail here.
That April another nine died, in the South China Sea. Also that month, five Afghans died when they blew up their boat at Ashmore Reef. A month later, 19 more died off Halang Island.
Gillard’s response?
She pretended ignorance to the Opposition: “There is no evidence to support this figure.”
Even as she spoke, the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service realised another boat with 100 asylum seekers had left Indonesia for Australia, and vanished, presumably sunk.
Others also told the Government its laws were killing people.
Six months ago, the ABC interviewed Mohammed Taqi, an Afghan in Indonesia who said three more people died when his boat sank off Kupang. He added: “I know lots of my friends have died in the sea.”
The Government again pretended deafness and refused to change its policies.
So who drew up its deadly laws? “I was the substantive author of a policy paper which became Labor’s policy,” Gillard has boasted.
Who ignored the warnings it was costing lives? “There is no evidence,” said Gillard.
Who, since her election, not only failed to stop luring people to their deaths, but even increased the incentive, promising to rush more people out of detention? Gillard again.
Judge a policy by its effects, not intent. The bodies in the sea are the verdict on Gillard’s. Morally, she must go.
