as they dragged a blanket from their pack, gathered the children close under cover and stared ahead at the long grey horizon of uncertainty.
12. CANBERA
Mulaney ceased pacing when the doorway was filled by the huge bulk of his defence minister. “Morning, Prime Minister!” Woolley boomed. “What’s on your mind?”
“Morning Brett,” he replied. “I was wondering what’s on yours?”
“Give me men around me who are fat,” he whispered, smiling, as he waved Woolley to the chair facing his desk.
Woolley beamed as he eased his bulk into the chair – it was safer to boom and beam – but then he realised Mulaney was expecting a response and the beam faded.
“Pardon?”
“I asked if there was anything on yours.” He smiled mirthlessly. “Your mind.”
“Oh, I see,” Woolley laughed. “Yes, well, we have Jakarta on heat over East Timor again, and with oil topping three hundred and rising, I guess they’re wondering if they should have another grab for The Gap! They didn’t like losing that little puddle of wealth when ET went.”
“That’s not what I wanted to see you about, but now that you mention it, what’s your assessment? Will they have a go?”
“Well, they’ve never been backward in grabbing what they want before. Their press is playing the North-South Wealth Divide game again. They usually do that before invading…”
“Yes, yes!” interrupted Mulaney. “I know all that. We’ve got the new facilities in place now, and we’re sending up Hornets and FA18s within the week. I let that out in half a dozen press releases. They couldn’t miss that in Jakarta. I mean, I can’t see them having a go just yet. Can you?”
“No, not yet,” he allowed. “But I’m not sure that will hold them for long. There are other problems building; like Malaysia is pissed off because we won’t take more refugees and there are hundreds of thousands of Afghans and Arabs still clogging up their camps. With them we’re more than usually on the nose but they aren’t flash points yet, so it’s OK for now.”
The PM appeared to change the subject. “What’s the latest on those aircraft orders?”
“Well, there’ve been a few hiccoughs with delivery.” He noted the PM’s frown. “I was intending to bring that to the attention of cabinet at the next meeting.”
“Tell me now,” he demanded.
“OK, they don’t come up to performance specs, but the Yanks are pushing us to take them anyway.”
“Should we?”
“Not unless we’re desperate; we still have a hundred operational Strike Fighters. That should be enough to make Jakarta think twice.”
“So we’re basically fully committed at the moment. We have no capacity to meet a major flare-up.”
“That’s right, but Defense Dynamics say they can fix the performance problem in six months or so.”
“That’s OK, but will they still have the range?
“Well, it’s a trade-off. Specs speed but shorter range. We need range, so I say we tell them to shove it. No specs, no deal. Look,” he reasoned, “the new Euro Consortium plane will be available in just over a year and it suits us better. Then again, DD needs the cash, so if we hold out, they may drop the price and they’re still a damn good plane. We can afford to wait. It’d be different if we faced an immediate threat.”
Th e PM stared at him for a moment, then picked up a document from his desk and held it in his hand while he again contemplated Woolley’s porcine face.
“OK, let’s talk about that.” He indicated the document. “We do have a threat. Illegals.”
“Illegals?” Woolley knew more asylum seekers had been arriving of late, but that was not his portfolio. He waited.
“We have every facility chock-a-block,” Mulaney said, opening the document. “And every day we seem to be finding another ten boat loads. Even off shore processing and settlement in Papua New Guinea seems to have lost its bite. They’re coming anyway and we just can’t process that many people. They’re breaking us.”
“Well, there’s nothing more I can do, PM,” he said, puzzled at why he was being briefed on the matter. “Unless the rules of engagement are changed, if they can’t or won’t turn back, all I can do is board their boats and bring them in. We’ve no alternatives to detention and we can’t stop them coming.”
“I know your view. You’d have Immigration issue them all with protection visas and let them loose. You know you’re not supported. I don’t want to go there and neither do the Australian people. That’s one reason they got rid of Labor.”
“I know, but you can’t keep locking them up. Nauru is full, Manus is full; everywhere is full. There are just no more facilities and more arrive every day.”
“I know,” agreed Mulaney. “My constituents are banging on one door demanding we send them home and the damned Greens are banging on another door demanding let them loose. Idiots!”
Woolley was anxious to get away from distressing matters that should not be his concern. “Well, they still have some clout in the Senate. But anyway, immigration policy is hardly my area of responsibility.”
Mulaney smiled mirthlessly as he closed the document and held it out to Woolley, just far enough out of reach to force him to lift himself out of the chair to take it.
“What’s this?” he grunted, as he sat back again.
“This was supposed to go to you but you couldn’t be found at 3AM so they woke me. It’s the latest on people smuggling. Makes interesting reading. Look on page two at the satellite images and the explanatory notes on page three.” He waited while Woolley read, noting with satisfaction as his expression changed from genial fat man to horrified everyman.
“Well, Brett,” smiled the PM, “what do you think now?” He laughed. “Still not your concern?”
“This can’t be right,” he almost shouted. “There’s thousands of the bastards on the way, bloody thousands! I can’t believe this.” His eyes appealed for correction. None came, so he rechecked the figures and whispered, “Could be hundreds of thousands!”
The PM took the document back and dropped it onto the desk, his decision made.
“Look, Brett,” he said. “This is no longer a refugee situation; this is an invasion.”
He stared at Woolley, demanding agreement. “And we have to treat it accordingly.”
“That’s a big call, PM,” he said doubtfully. “I would have thought an invasion was by armed people threatening to …”
“It’s an invasion all right,” said Mulaney. “They come uninvited and won’t take ‘no’ for an answer. And, they’re armed with alien ideas that are un-Australian.”
“I’m
