Fucking Awesome - Tony Abbott Tried to Advise Europe on Asylum Seeker Policy

"I suppose we must grieve for the lost, but at the same time we must resolve to stop this terrible problem and the only way you can stop the deaths is to stop the people smuggling trade. The only way you can stop the deaths is, in fact, to stop the boats."
– Prime Minister Tony Abbott, earlier this week

Finding common ground in politics and social issues is always difficult. Particularly if the whole premise of the other person's argument is built on a fundamentally incorrect premise.

Think of the televangelists who think Jesus would somehow support the idea of them becoming vomitously rich of the backs of their followers, which was pretty much the opposite of His whole thing.

Think of Mitt Romney running for President in 2007, responding to a question about increased security measures infringing upon citizens, saying "The most important civil liberty I expect from my government is my right to be alive". He said that in New Hampshire, by the way, where the state motto is "Live free or die", which is essentially the opposite of what Romney thinks civil liberties are.

Think of former Prime Minister John Howard saying in reference to asylum seekers that "We will determine who comes here and the means by which they come", suggesting the real problem we have to deal with is people turning up unannounced and their manner of transportation. It's the basis upon which this whole scare campaign has flourished.

So when 800 people died in the Mediterranean on the weekend trying to get to Europe, current Prime Minister Tony Abbott had no choice but to weigh in.

"The only way you can stop the deaths is to stop the people smuggling trade," he said. "The only way you can stop the deaths is in fact to stop the boats.

This has been Abbott's greatest catchcry, and is profoundly incorrect on nearly every level no matter how many times he says it. "A lie told often enough becomes the truth," said Josef Goebbels, and the way you know he was right is that he didn't actually say it, but enough people have attributed it to him, so here we are.

Does stopping the boats actually stop the deaths? Or does it just stop them happening near your home? The migrants who died at sea were en route from Libya, where ISIS is thriving. And with new reports of Ethiopian Christians being beheaded by ISIS in Libya as they were preparing to make the trip to Europe by boat, it pretty much confirms that all stopping the boats does is stopping the deaths happening at sea.

It's not a position of empathy, but one of sovereignty. It's Robert Frost's "Good fences make good neighbours" writ large, without the comprehension that the whole point of Mending Wall is that approach is all bullshit.

"Stop the boats" makes no sense if you're going to pretend to care for the well-being of the refugees. And "pretend" appears to be increasingly accurate.

"I suppose we must grieve for the lost," said Abbott. It's the "I suppose" that's the most telling, a startling caveat that reveals the true lack of empathy at the heart of all this bluster.

What Abbott is saying is that he does not view people drowning at sea as the problem, but as a symptom of the problem. The problem is diminishing sovereignty, and that is what all of this is about.

Abbott's continuing reliance on parroting "stop the boats" as the cornerstone of his achievements has, increasingly, appeared to be the lone surviving remnant of his campaign promises that he has been able to follow through on. He clings to it. Like a lifesaver, if you will. But it's more than just sloganeering: this is something he believes, and it's something he believes he's done well.

As many see the revelations of abuse and mistreatment on Manus and Christmas Islands and Nauru as a sign that the policy has failed, Abbott sees it as a sign of success. It's an arms race of who will treat you worse.

If you arrive in Australia illegally, you will be returned by Australia, directly into the hands of the authorities you were trying to flee from. Your 16-year-old daughter may throw herself off a building rather than face further alleged sexual assault. Your five-year-old daughter may attempt suicide when faced with more time in detention.

What many see as a monstrous failure of democracy, the Abbott Government sees as a warning to those who are preparing to get on a boat. This is a warning.

The UN said that Australia's detention of asylum seekers and children in dangerous and violent conditions was a violation of human rights. Tony Abbott said Australians were sick of being lectured to by the UN.

But apparently Europe isn't sick of being lectured to by Australia. UK columnist Katie Hopkins wrote an opinion piece for The Sun suggesting that the UK adopts Australia's refugee policies, referring to asylum seekers as "cockroaches" and "feral". It's an "other-ness" we've seen perpetuated throughout history, removing the humanity of a whole group of people to help demonise them.

"Any other government, I suspect, would quickly succumb to the cries of the human rights lawyers," Abbott said earlier this month. The people on these islands being sexually abused and imprisoned indefinitely and without trial are not people. They're a political tool used by lawyers to beat the government around the head with. This is the mindset of our country's leader.

Of course, Abbott has not stopped the boats. He's just turned them back , using the Navy to intercept them earlier (often breaching Indonesia's territorial waters to do so). As a moral approach, it's monstrous. As a policy, it's an objective failure.

If Europe follows Abbott's lead, they'll have to go a long way down this terrifying road to look like an unappealing alternative to ISIS. Meanwhile, those seeking a better life will continue to riskily climb into boats in the hopes of finding a little common ground.

Follow Lee on Twitter: @leezachariah