Dig deeper again Hairyback and you'll find the extent to which Tony Abbott exacerbated the regional management of asylum seeker issues that Julia Gillard had to deal with:
"Prime Minister Julia Gillard has backed an independent report on asylum seekers, saying the government will move urgently to restart offshore processing on Manus Island and Nauru. ..."
"... An expert panel led by former Defence chief Angus Houston has recommended that Australia process asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru, and that the Malaysia people swap should be "built on further" before anyone was sent to Malaysia. ..." http://www.smh.com.au/federal-polit...erts-asylum-seeker-report-20120813-24417.html
IMO the inconvenient truth for Abbott back-slappers is that as Opposition Leader, Abbott's destructive negativity exacerbated the management of asylum seekers for his own political ends.
What a relief it is that we now have a much more compassionate and rational PM acting in the national interest rather than his own political interest.
