Right Pulse

From Piers Akerman and Rudd’s recent caving into a bunch of Sri Lankan illegal immigrants who refused to get off a Custom’s vessel – a bit of yes, no, yes, yeah, but no action from Rudd:

Rudd’s media friends are used to cleaning up after him but he has left too large a record in foreign affairs for all his mistakes to be swept under the carpet.

Even Paul Kelly wrote that Rudd is treating us all as ‘mugs’ if he expects us to believe that the Tamils were not given any special deals. PA again,

Last month, Rudd said he had come to an agreement with the Indonesian leader on the fate of the 78 people holding the Australian customs vessel hostage.

That agreement crumbled as the Sri Lankans refused to budge.

They won. Members of Rudd’s own staff were present when a sweetener was added to the deal guaranteeing the Sri Lankans a fast track to Australia ahead of other refugees, some vetted by the United Nations and awaiting resettlement from camps in Indonesia for up to five years.

Well Rudd has been arguing that his good intentions have been more important than outcomes. What are the state of his intentions now? Throw a bomb at SBY and then duck and cover. It is the first hard decision that Rudd has had to take personally since becoming PM and he has failed badly:

…former Howard government immigration minister Philip Ruddock said Mr Rudd had caved in under duress from the asylum-seekers by agreeing to fast-track the settlement of the 78 Sri Lankans.

“If you put this government under pressure, essentially our borders mean nothing,” he said. “One doesn’t welcome the circumstances in which we have responded to duress.”