The Choice Is Between the Miserable Conservatives and Spineless Labor

One of the more depressing things about living under a conservative government is realising just how miserable the conservative side of politics can be.

What's even more depressing is just how ineffectual the Federal Opposition has become.

Both these points were illustrated by a news story reported on the ABC's AM program this morning.

PETER CAVE: The Federal Government is facing a potentially huge compensation payout to hundreds of people who've been deported.

The claims, which could run into millions of dollars, follow the decision of the Federal Court to overturn a ruling by Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone, to deport a 31-year-old man back to Sweden despite the fact that he had spent all but four weeks of his life in Australia.

The court decision, which is being appealed by the Federal Government, found that apart from the dire punishment of the individual involved, the deportation decision presumed that Australia could export its problems elsewhere.

Andrew Fowler from the ABC's Investigative Unit reports.

ANDREW FOWLER: Few people would say that Stefan Nystrom was an ideal citizen. He was serving jail for a serious criminal offence.

But his biggest problems started before he was born.

Nystrom's parents migrated to Australia from Sweden in 1966 and took up Australian citizenship. But in 1973 his mother, in the late stages of pregnancy, visited her parents in Sweden, where she gave birth.

Dr Glenn Nicholls is a Researcher at the Swinburne University of Technology's Institute for Social Research.

GLENN NICHOLLS: She was advised not to travel so heavily pregnant and gave birth to him in Sweden, returned to Australia shortly thereafter, he was a matter of weeks old and as I said lived his, effectively his whole life here.

ANDREW FOWLER: But when Nystrom committed a serious criminal offence and was jailed for more than a year, the Immigration Minister, Senator Amanda Vanstone, revoked the transitional visa he'd been living on since he first entered Australia as a child.

Nystrom was detained by DIMIA (Department of Immigration and Multiculturalism and Indigenous Affairs) and placed into immigration detention where he remained for nine months until the Federal Court decision in July this year ruled he be released.

The judges argue that DIMIA was using the barest of technicalities in an attempt to deport a long-term Australian resident.

Well ... hello! Is there a political party out there who once believed in social justice? A party that once stood up for the down-trodden? One that would like to convince the voters that they're a viable alternative to the sad sods that now inhabit the Treasury Benches?

Here's a guy who was not an Australian citizen because his parents didn't get around to doing the paperwork. He's lived here his entire life, and is now under the threat of deportation because he committed a criminal offence, one for which he has already served a prison term.

He is, in all but the paperwork, and Australian citizen. The courts recognised this when it threw out the government's case. Yet another DIMIA stuff-up, but not one word has been heard from the Federal Labor Party about this issue.

When will Labor grow a spine?

On its current performance, the Labor party does not deserve to be considered as an alternative government.