Isn’t it funny how the best humanitarian outcome is seen as a government defeat? (See PM concedes defeat in asylum stand-off ) It could have been so different, with government leadership taking a principled stand rather than letting the opposition,  a fear frenzied section of the population and empire building bureaucrats seize control of the discourse. What many of us have been advocating all along – community based processing of refugees regardless of how they arrive, is now more likely to become the default standard for a while. Let’s hope asylum seekers are not punished by freshly conceived draconian measures as a result.