Solution becomes a problem

IT was all supposed to be so neat and tidy.
A set-piece speech at a prestigious Sydney think-tank with a policy proposal that would take the opposition by surprise and neutralise a contentious political issue ahead of calling the forthcoming election. All followed up by a flashy photo-opportunity on board a border protection vessel that would signal her personal determination to stop the people smugglers.
Australian prime minister Julia Gillard and her political image-makers had devoted her second week to the politics of asylum seekers.
Last Tuesday, she proposed what has inevitably been labelled The Timor-Leste solution whereby asylum seekers, who set out for Australia by boat, would have their claims assessed at a newly-constructed regional processing centre located somewhere in Timor-Leste.
Inevitably, it has been likened to John Howard’s Pacific Solution, where asylum seekers were sent to detention centres on small Pacific islands – a policy slammed by refugee groups as uncompassionate and inhumane.
But, what she hoped would be a quick political fix is turning into an almighty policy mess, for although Gillard had discussed the concept with Timor-Leste president Jose Ramos Horta, she had not got the go-ahead from the government of Timor-Leste.
Nowhere near.
Indeed, the country’s deputy prime minister, Jose Luis Guterres, has said his country is “very unlikely” to accept the idea.
Julia Gillard has now denied that she ever specified Timor-Leste as the site of the regional processing centre.
“I am not going to leave undisturbed the impression that I made an announcement about a specific location,” she said, in the kind of convoluted language that eventually made people tire of her predecessor, Kevin Rudd.
But, in her speech to Sydney’s Lowy Institute, she spoke more clearly: “In recent days, I have discussed with president Ramos Horta of Timor-Leste the possibility of establishing a regional processing centre for the purpose of receiving and processing irregular entrants to the region.”
Rudd said he would not engage in a race to the bottom over the asylum seeker issue, but that is precisely what the Greens are accusing the Gillard government of doing.
Their leader, Bob Brown, has asked why the region’s richest country, Australia, should rely on the region’s poorest country, Timor-Leste, to process asylum seekers.
He has also claimed that Pauline Hanson-style xenophobia is “alive and well” in the asylum seeker debate.
Brown has also lashed out at the opposition leader, Tony Abbott, for describing asylum seekers as being part of a “peaceful invasion”.
“That’s not dog whistling,” Brown said. “Thats plain xenophobia.”
Rudd was roundly criticised for coming up with make-shift policies on the hoof in the hope of garnering a few good headlines the following morning and a few good polls the following week.
On the boat people question, the most paranoiac issue in Australian politics is: Is Julia Gillard doing the same?

*Nick Bryant is  BBC’s Sydney correspondent.