ALP, asylum seekers, Chris Bowen, detention centres, EMC, Federal Labor Government, immigration, Immigration minister, Julia Gillard, Labor, peter lewis, The Drum
First Published on The Drum 26/10/2010
If political progressives want to stop the ALP from drifting to the Right, energetically backing the decision to move women and children out of immigration detention looks like a good place to start.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Immigration minister Chris Bowen took the new minority government’s first truly brave decision last week, yet all they got was a sullen acceptance from a Left still acting like jilted lovers after the disappointments of the election campaign.
approach to asylum seekers, asylum seekers, Federal Labor Government, Greens, Labor, Liberal
Q. Do you think the Federal Labor Government is too tough or too soft on asylum seekers or is it taking the right approach?
| This week | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | 12 July 10 | 4 April 10 | ||
| Too tough | 7% | 9% | 3% | 28% | 10% | 6% | |
| Too soft | 63% | 49% | 83% | 33% | 56% | 65% | |
| Taking the right approach | 18% | 31% | 7% | 30% | 21% | 18% | |
| Don’t know | 12% | 10% | 7% | 9% | 13% | 11% |
63% of respondents believe that the Federal Labor Government is too soft on asylum seekers (up 7% since the last survey in July), 7% think they are too tough and 18% think they are taking the right approach.
Only 31% of Labor voters and 30% of Greens voters think the Government is taking the right approach.