On the current polling trajectory and assuming the Libs don’t sign on to the UN Global Migration Compact, you would have to be an eternal optimist at best or naive and gullible at worst, not to think that because they’re already on board and wedded to it’s main goals, that once they have their feet under the desk, a Shorten Labor government won’t quietly and discretely dust off the agreement.
They will then proceed to short circuit our democracy, hit a home run around the Australian people and implement Labor policy by stealth with all the heavy lifting having already been done for them.
It’s all upside for Labor. It’s a win win and once signed it won’t be unsigned by either side as it allows them both, using the full authority of the UN, to bury a vexed political hot potato and file it under our international obligations.
Job done.
We only have to cast our minds back a few weeks and recall Julie Bishop’s quote when Tony Abbott was suggesting we walk away from Paris. Bishop said on that occasion: “Australia plays by the rules – if we sign an agreement we stick to the agreement” This will be no different.