This week, word emerges that
Morrison has directed
Department of Immigration and Border Protection staff to
change the language
they use to characterise asylum seekers who arrive by boat, and the department has duly relayed these instructions to its contractors in the immigration detention system.
Arguably the most important question here is how far the department’s staff will go to incorporate the minister’s preferred phrasing into their work. It is an early test of the independence of the public service under Tony Abbott. We may have an answer within the month.
Morrison’s instructions
include directing staff to
replace the phrase “asylum seeker” with “illegal maritime arrival”,
and to replace “client” with “detainee” (onshore) or “transferee” (offshore). Challenged about these instructions, Morrison has defended them as a step away from “political correctness”, in favour of “calling a spade a spade”.