Not a moment too soon, Malcolm Turnbull has delivered a pathway to end the suffering of more than 1600 refugees who have spent more than three years in tormented limbo on Manus Island and Nauru.
The details are unclear, but the take-out is not: this is the beginning of the end of a shameful chapter in this country's history, where vulnerable people have knowingly been subjected to all manner of human rights abuses in order to deter others from attempting to come to this country
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Turnbull's refugee resettlement deal
The PM announces a one-off refugee resettlement agreement with the United States. Courtesy ABC News 24.
The key point, despite the deliberate equivocation of Peter Dutton during the announcement, is that it applies to those who have been found to be refugees on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea as well as those on Nauru.
This would have been unlikely without Turnbull recognising that the damage to refugees in both Nauru and PNG has to end before more tragedies unfold.
It is all very well to talk about prioritising women and children and families on Nauru, but what about those who were teenagers when their incarceration on Manus began, whose vulnerability and emotional decline has been assessed by independent experts?
For all the talk about Turnbull being Tony Abbott in a nicer suit, this has been Turnbull's project, one that was not on the agenda when Abbott was toppled in September last year. It is this Prime Ministers' achievement.
It is also a victory for the very few Coalition MPs who have been quietly pressing the case and a wonderful parting gesture by the Obama administration that Donald Trump is unlikely to try to unpick (though who would predict what Trump will do?).
Unanswered questions
Yes, there are many unanswered questions, the most pressing being whether the agreement covers all refugees on Manus and Nauru.
The main reason for optimism is that Turnbull says the resettlement will be "administered" by the United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, whose opposition to the "immense damage" being done to asylum seekers on Manus and Nauru could not be clearer.
While Dutton suggested the agreement may not cover all on Manus and Nauru, and explicitly excluded those in PNG who have already left the transit centre, the UNHCR is likely to have a far more compassionate and pragmatic view.
As the agency said when it welcomed the deal: "UNHCR remains gravely concerned about the fate of all vulnerable individuals in Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Appropriate solutions must be found for all of them."
The truth, of course, is that the vast majority of the relative few who have been "resettled" in PNG live in such perpetual fear, with no prospect of building meaningful lives, that their emotional decline has continued unabated.
Applications reassessed
It is also apparent that those who have had their claims rejected should have their applications reassessed because of the doubts about their veracity, and that those who have refused to be processed because they were taken to PNG against their will should now have the opportunity to present their case. Among them is Benham Satah, the eye-witness to the murder of Reza Barati.
Then there is the plight of those with family members in Australia. If, because of the obsession sending tough messages to people smugglers, it is decided they cannot be reunited here, the family members in Australia should be part of the deal.
Finally, there is the situation of those who came to Australia for medical treatment and the babies born to mothers transferred from Nauru. Turnbull and Dutton gave different signals yesterday, but one would hope that common sense will prevail and decisions will be made on what is in the best interests of those involved.
The best way of assessing the Prime Minister's true position on asylum seekers and border protection is to strip away the politics and focus on what he does (or doesn't do), rather than what he says.
Maritime surveillance
Turnbull has announced the agreement with the US and a massive scaling up of Australia's maritime surveillance and response capacity in anticipation of an inevitable push by smugglers to market the one-off deal as a softening of policy.
That is prudent. But all the rhetoric about fixing Labor's mess and the need to legislate the life-time visa ban on any who are resettled in America is sanctimonious drivel.
Back in 2012, it was suspected Turnbull had grave reservations about the Coalition's decision to scuttle Labor's people-swap agreement with Malaysia that might, just might, have prevented the huge number of arrivals that followed. That decision, and the constant undermining of Labor's efforts, made the Coalition complicit in Labor's failures.
As for the life-time visa ban, it isn't part of the deal, it is opposed by the UNHCR, it has nothing to do with permanent settlement and it should be rejected by the Senate.
Rather than seek to wedge Labor for domestic political advantage, more than two years out from an election, the Coalition should be seeking a unity ticket on the things that matter: robust border protection, the opportunity for those on Nauru and Manus to rebuild their lives, and something neither side has ever pursued with the necessary vigor: a regional-protection framework.
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