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AUSTRALIA RIGHTLY regards itself as a liberal democracy. What distinguishes “liberal” democracies from “illiberal” ones is their adherence to the view that all individuals have fundamental moral rights, of which even a political majority cannot deprive them. The notion of universal human rights was in a real sense born of liberalism. Unfortunately, it is not always easy for a government to be true to liberal values in a democratic society. Sometimes, as the Rudd government is presently discovering, it can be extremely hard.
In the period 1 January to 27 October 2009, thirty-six boats carrying about 1800 asylum seekers have arrived in Australian waters without prior authorisation. As the Rudd government has been at pains to emphasise, this is a miniscule number when compared with the numbers of asylum seekers who have entered European countries without authorisation in the same period. Nevertheless, the Coalition parties have attempted to gain political mileage by arguing that Australia is experiencing a larger number of arrivals now than it did in the latter years of the Howard government because policy reforms instituted by the present government are operating as a “pull factor.”
