Lib loyalists round on asylum rebels

[RFKHumphreyObama]

Liberal MPs have urged their rebel colleagues to support the Federal Government's controversial migration bill, with one MP saying a vote against the laws would be indefensible.

The Government is facing a backbench revolt over proposed laws to have all illegal boat arrivals processed in offshore detention centres.

Liberal moderates are worried the laws would dismantle a key concession they won from the Government last year - keeping children out of immigration detention.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/lib-loyalists-round-on-asylum-rebels/2006/08/09/1154802928381.html

There are too many people in the Liberal Party today who seem to think that good government is about marching lockstep behind your beloved leader and never questioning his all-knowing judgment and policy decisions. It used to be a proud Liberal Party tradition that you could cross the floor on principle –but the majority of today’s MPs are such pathetic wimps that they don’t realize that there is another alternative to just meekly simpering up to vote whichever way your leader wants no questions asked. I have never seen so many morally bankrupt and vapid MPs before. So many of them seem to have the North Korean “we must not question our dear leader” mentality.

Cameron Thompson, just because people like Bruce Baird, Judi Moylan and Petrou Georgiou are smarter in one second of their life than you will ever be in a lifetime, doesn’t mean that you feel the need to show your inferiority complex by attacking them. Show some intelligence and good judgment for once

[Matilda]

1. An online petition was circulating last week against this bill.

I signed it when it had been circulating for just over 24 hrs, and they already had 35,000
signatures towards a proposed total of 50,000. I hope that it sent a clear message to MPs that
not many people are in favour of a return to the ugliness of the Tampa and children overboard
days.

Also in the pipeline is a bill that will force Northern Territory Aboriginal communities to sign
away the rights to their land for 99 years in return for funding for schools and housing - which,
as Australian citizens, are theirs by right anyway.

This government is going quickly from disgusting to downright abhorrent.

[Matilda]

2. It's over, dead in the water.

The PM has pulled the migration bill, knowing that he can't get it through the Senate.

"Mr Howard says it was clear that the legislation was going to be defeated.

"In those circumstances I recommended at a special Cabinet meeting that the Government not proceed
with the legislation," he said."


http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200608/s1714296.htm


It's good that some MPs have belatedly discovered their spines and stood up to Howard. And I don't
doubt that a lot of it is due to community disquiet - Howard miscalculated on this one.

[oscarmitre]

3. I heard a report on ABC radio

that Howard is saying that there should be no retribution visited on the dissident Members/Senators. Were I one of those dissidents I would be working out how I could stand as an Independent when I was refused Liberal Party nomination before the next election.