Michael Gordon is the political editor of The Age.
Amir never had a birth certificate, or a passport, or anything else that provided proof of who he was until he received his P-plate driver's licence after being released from immigration detention on a bridging visa while his claim for refugee status was assessed.
Gillian Triggs has urged Malcolm Turnbull to move quickly to bring asylum seekers who have been held on Nauru and Manus Island to Australia and embrace a suite of new policies to ensure the people smuggling trade does not resume.
The cost of stopping the boats has been calculated at more than $9.6 billion since 2013, and will be another $5.7 billion over the next four years, according to a study by Save the Children and UNICEF.
Malcolm Turnbull's own backers fear they are witnessing the unfolding of a tragedy as epic as the one that destroyed Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.
Albert Einstein is generally credited with asserting "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results".
Bill Shorten presented himself as a champion of reform but how could he be taken seriously if he was seen to condone Sam Dastyari's bewildering stupidity?
Bill Shorten has stumbled in his defence of Sam Dastyari, Dastyari has crashed in defence of himself and the Coalition has mightily over-reached in its attack.
Paris Aristotle, the pre-eminent adviser to both sides of politics on refugee issues over the past two decades, says Australia should be among the countries considered for resettling refugees from Manus Island and Nauru.
The plot was hatched under their noses, but they didn't see it coming. Not the ministers, who left the Parliament in blissful ignorance. Not the MPs, who did the same, or the party whips whose task is to instil discipline. And not the Prime Minister or his chief tactician, Christopher Pyne.
They don't often sing songs from the public gallery in the nation's parliament, and speakers don't usually wear kangaroo skin cloaks, and politicians from opposing sides don't normally hug, shed a tear and pledge to work together.
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