Manus Legal Challenge Is Bad News For Canberra
By BEN ELTHAM - New Matilda The difficult art of government has many challenges, and its practitioners know many failures. But there is something about asylum seeker policy that seems especially corrosive to Australian democracy. If you need a recent example, look no further than the legal challenge being brought by Papua New Guinea opposition leader Belden Namah to Australia’s immigration detention centre on Manus Island. Namah plans to challenge the legality of the centre in PNG’s Supreme Court. He argues that the PNG Constitution protects individuals against detention without charge, and that asylum seekers being held there have not been charged with any crime. The Gillard Government has already lined up to attack Namah, describing his challenge as political. Labor Cabinet Secretary Mark Dreyfus told Sky News today that "I think when you’ve got the Opposition Leader in Papua New Guinea bringing a proceeding in the Supreme Court in Papua New Guinea, it does smack of politics to