THE political stand-off over asylum seekers continues, with both sides playing tough.
Acting Prime Minister Wayne Swan is in Brisbane. He has a day of meetings ahead and no media appearances scheduled. Julia Gillard is on leave.
Tony Abbott is in Sydney. The Opposition Leader gave a long interview to Sydney radio station 2GB today, talking about the asylum-seeker impasse. Mr Abbott said the letter sent by the Prime Minister to him was "basically a press release" and that a "meeting without an agenda is basically a media stunt". He said the Coalition wanted to find common ground with Labor, adding "we'd be perfectly happy for people to go to Papua New Guinea".
First off: The impasse dominates front pages again today. The Australian leads off with a report that Immigration Minister Chris Bowen has attacked the humanitarian credentials of the Australian Greens. The Sydney Morning Herald leads off with a report that former immigration minister Philip Ruddock has said a compromise asylum deal could include Labor's preferred option of processing in Malaysia. Coalition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison spoke to ABC 7.30 last night about the impasse.
Front pages: The Australian; The Herald Sun; The West Australian; The Sydney Morning Herald; The Advertiser; The Age; The Daily Telegraph; The Courier Mail; The NT News; The Hobart Mercury; The Canberra Times.
Movements: Independent senator Nick Xenophon is losing his other senior adviser, Rohan Wenn. On Monday, Capital Circle revealed that Evelyn Ek was on her way to work for Finance Minister Penny Wong. Now we can reveal that Wenn will become national campaigns director for activist group GetUp! His first campaign will be a familiar one - poker machine reform. Wenn replaces Skye Laris, who had helped lead GetUp's climate change campaign. Laris, who is a former chief of staff to Environment Minister Tony Burke (report), is returning to the Hill to fill the vacant COS job in Employment Participation Minister Kate Ellis's office. In other moves, Kim Carr's science adviser, John Byron, has resigned. He'll finish up in late January.
Diary: Emergency Management Minister Robert McClelland will launch a new bushfire arson website at ACT emergency services headquarters at 10.45am. Mental Health and Ageing Minister Mark Butler will make an announcement about hearing aids for people aged 21 to 26 in Adelaide. Defence Science Minister Warren Snowdon will meet members of an Australian-US research team that have developed hypersonic flight capable of hitting 8600km/h in Melbourne today. HMAS Choules, the navy's newest ship, sails through Sydney Heads at around 9.15am today.
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Australian Immigration