It is understandable that, when a governing party is faced with downward opinion polls, that they may attempt to throw a dead cat. Immigration is always a good target these days, even for a country built on immigrant labour (how quickly we forget). But Peter Dutton, as Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, managed to create a new three-part paradox when he claimed that asylum seekers would be simultaneously innumerate and illiterate in the own language, take the jobs of locals, and join unemployment queues.
Naturally enough, when one actually checks the facts the claims of the Minister seem to be a bit contrary to his assertions (couched as they were), and they were quickly condemned by example and by ridicule. In a more enlightened time a minister who made comments like Dutton's would have been sacked on the spot. Instead the Prime Minister (who once campaigned for a more humane approach for asylum seekers), defended the Minister's comments. In all this of course, nary a whisper that Australia's indefinite detention policies have been declared illegal, as has the entire facility on Manus Island