The Albanese government’s election promised a new way of politics, but its hardened stance on immigration has raised the ire of critics.
For a government that has to all appearances fashioned itself as the direct antithesis of the politics of division and hate, critics say the return to full parliamentary business on Tuesday was an unedifying day laden with dashed hopes, disappointment and hypocrisy.
The Albanese government was scarcely halfway through the second parliamentary sitting day of the year when it suppressed debate over offshore detention, pitching itself as one with the former government’s hardline immigration policies and, in the process, raising the ire of the crossbench.
Rising to oppose the gag motion, independent MP Andrew Wilkie told the House the move was a lost opportunity to reckon with several years of failed, inhumane refugee policies under governments of all persuasions.
Read more about the crossbench reaction to the debate being shut down.
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