A welcome nail into the coffin of the Malaysia Solution

Harold Zwier, an AJDS Executive member, had this letter in The Australian 21/9/2011
NOW that Tony Abbott has put a welcome nail into the coffin of the Malaysia Solution, it’s time for Julia Gillard to address the nation. She should tell us that she failed in her bid to pander to the populism of using asylum-seekers as political weapons, rather than helping people in need.
She should confirm that she has no option but to embrace the hardest of political options: to accept that asylum-seekers who arrive here should be processed here. And she should sell the benefit of that option to all Australians. Our history amply supports the argument.
The Labor government has nothing to lose. It won’t lose one vote from being pushed into doing the right thing. And it will discomfort the opposition. It would benefit genuine refugees, our self-esteem and our reputation in the world.