How can the Prime Minister think it is appropriate not only to refuse to sack a minister as incompetent as Andrew Giles, but to put him in charge of efforts to clean up the very mess he has created in his portfolio?
Is incredible.
The answer lies in the seven deadly sins that the Labor Party has committed, dictating its woefully inadequate response to a colossal government failure.
PRIDE
The number one reason the Prime Minister won’t sack Giles is pride. Albo does not want to give the Opposition a ministerial scalp, much less the scalp of one of his best friends in parliament.
He thinks doing so could cause more problems and make him look bad after being so embarrassed by The Voice’s failures.
So Anthony Albanese acts out of pride when he protects his immigration minister, rather than acting for the benefit of his government and the Australian people.
The saying goes that pride comes before a fall. If Albo doesn’t do the right thing and sack this incompetent minister, then Labor should find a new prime minister who will.
Pride before the fall? Anthony Albanese (pictured) is too proud to get rid of his friend and faction ally Andrew Giles.
SLOT
His failure to react to his department’s warning that Directorate 99 would be counterproductive was lazy in the extreme.
Giles was clearly warned beforehand that if he introduced these new rules chaos would ensue. That’s exactly what has happened. Instead, he now tries to blame the department for not keeping him up to date.
Giles’s lazy unwillingness to heed the advice and warnings of his own department is an important piece of the puzzle of how and why the Labor Party has made such a serious mistake on this issue.
GREED
Protecting a close ally and keeping him in the ministry also clouds the prime minister’s judgement.
His greed to keep the numbers around him. He covets by wanting his companions to enjoy the trappings of government. Greed in wanting to keep his close group of leftist factional allies on the front lines in positions of power.
It is an unedifying characteristic, especially for a prime minister who has long taken pride in his humble origins.
Pathological hate? Labor can’t hide how much it hates Peter Dutton (pictured), clouding the Prime Minister’s judgement.
GONNA
Labour’s hatred of opposition leader Peter Dutton is almost pathological.
That anger, directed at Dutton, is dictating the Government’s response to this crisis: dig in, not want to give Dutton a political victory, try to shift the blame to him through a contortion of illogical arguments.
It makes Albo look like he’s simply playing the blame game – the same criticism he used against Scott “I can’t take the hose” Morrison in the 2022 federal election.
You are making the Prime Minister look like a hypocrite.
ENVY
Labor has long been envious of the Coalition winning political campaigns with its “tough on border protection” mantra.
The Labor left in particular is always looking for ways to soften these policies. That’s exactly what Address 99 was designed to do: a policy change aimed at making it harder for Australian residents and visa holders to be deported, making it easier for them to stay here.
That is why Albo appointed his leftist colleague Giles to the portfolio.
The unintended consequence has been to allow rapists, child sex offenders and domestic violence offenders to hide behind their ties to the community – and incredibly ties to the very families they abuse – thus allowing them to stay.
Immigration Minister Andrew Giles (pictured) has tried to blame everyone but himself for his mistakes in preventing the deportation of rapists.
LUST
Bloodlust explains one of the most ridiculous defenses that Giles has deployed to try to retain his ministerial position.
When it came time to take office, Labor focused on Coalition appointments to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. He vowed to abolish the body and replace it with something better.
That bloodlust for bringing down an institution in the name of scoring partisan political points led Giles to think he could absolve himself of blame by simply attacking the AAT for making decisions to allow these criminals who committed horrific crimes to remain in Australia.
The only problem? The AAT is acting according to the rules that Giles changed and established, forcing them to reduce criminal actions for those who are being considered for deportation. Several AAT rulings explicitly point out this point.
GLUTTONY
The new prime minister indulges in praise. She loves it, she even feeds on it.
In this case, he wanted it from the now former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern. She had been highly critical of Scott Morrison for refusing to weaken deportation laws that would have allowed New Zealand criminals to remain in this country.
Feeding on a gluttonous dose of praise, Albo stood alongside Ardern and pledged to do what Morrison would not do by announcing the policy change that has caused all these problems. This was the unholy birth of the infamous Address 99.