PETER VAN ONSELEN: How Anthony Albanese and his best mate Andrew Giles committed the seven deadly sins in their latest balls-up
- Albanese and Giles both responsible for Direction 99
- Turned out to be a colossal mistake
- READ MORE: Albo backflips on controversial law
How can the Prime Minister possibly think it is appropriate to not only refuse to sack a minister as incompetent as Andrew Giles, but put him in charge of efforts to clean up the very mess he has created in his portfolio?
It beggars belief.
The answer lies in the seven deadly sins Labor has committed, dictating its woefully inadequate response to a colossal failure of government.
PRIDE
The number one reason the PM won't sack Giles is pride. Albo doesn't want to give the Opposition a ministerial scalp, much less the scalp of one of his best friends in the parliament.
He thinks that doing so could cause further problems and would be a bad look after he was so embarrassed by the failures of the Voice.
So Anthony Albanese is acting out of pride when he protects his immigration minister, rather than acting in the best interests of his government and the Australian people.
The saying is that pride comes before the fall. If Albo won't do the right thing and sack this incompetent minister then Labor should find a new PM who will.
Pride before the fall? Anthony Albanese (pictured) is too proud to dump his friend and factional ally Andrew Giles
SLOTH
The failure to react to the warning by his department that Direction 99 would backfire was slothful in the extreme.
Giles was clearly warned, in advance, that if he introduced these new rules chaos would ensue. That is exactly what has happened. Instead he's now trying to blame the department for not keeping him up to date.
Giles' slothful unwillingness to heed the advice and warnings from within his own department are a major piece in the puzzle of how and why Labor has bungled this issue so very badly.
GREED
Protecting a close ally and keeping him in the ministry is also clouding the PM's judgement.
His greed to maintain the numbers around him. Greed in wanting his mates to enjoy the trappings of government. Greed in wanting to keep his close band of left-wing factional allies on the frontbench in positions of power.
It is an unedifying characteristic, especially for a PM who has long prided himself on his humble origins.
Pathological hatred? Labor can't hide how much it loathes Peter Dutton (pictured) which is clouding the PM's judgment
WRATH
Labor's hatred of Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is almost pathological.
That wrath, directed at Dutton, is dictating the Government's response to this crisis: digging in, not wanting to give Dutton a political win, trying to turn the blame back on him via a contortion of illogical arguments.
It makes Albo look like he is just playing the blame game - the very criticism he used against Scott 'I don't hold a hose' Morrison at the 2022 federal election.
It's making the PM look like a hypocrite.
ENVY
Labor has long been envious that the Coalition wins political campaigns with its 'tough on border protection' mantra.
The Labor left in particular is always looking for ways to soften these policies. That is exactly what Direction 99 was designed to do: a policy shift aimed at making it harder to deport Australian residents and visa holders, thereby making it easier for them to stay here.
That is why Albo appointed his left-wing mate Giles into the portfolio.
The unintended consequence has been allowing rapists, child sex offenders and domestic violence abusers to hide behind their ties to the community - and unbelievably ties to the very families they abuse - thereby allowing them to stay.
Immigration minister Andrew Giles (pictured) has tried to blame everyone but himself for his mistakes stopping rapists being deported
LUST
Blood lust explains one of the most ridiculous defences Giles has rolled out to try to keep his ministerial job.
When it came to office, Labor targeted Coalition appointments to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. It pledged to abolish the body and replace it with something better.
That blood lust for taking down an institution in the name of partisan political point-scoring led Giles to think he could absolve himself of blame by simply attacking the AAT for making the decisions to let these criminals committing horrific crimes stay in Australia.
The only problem? The AAT is acting according to the rules Giles changed and laid out for it, forcing them to downgrade the criminal actions of those being considered for deportation. A number of AAT rulings explicitly make this point.
GLUTTONY
The new PM indulges on praise. He loves it, feeds off it even.
In this case, he wanted it from now former New Zealand PM Jacinta Ardern. She had been hyper-critical of Scott Morrison for refusing to weaken deportation laws which would have allowed criminal Kiwis to stay in this country.
Feeding on a gluttonous dose of acclaim, Albo stood next to Ardern and committed to doing what Morrison wouldn't by announcing the policy change that has caused all these problems. This was the unholy birth of the infamous Direction 99.
