Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

The first wave of ‘boat-people’ following the Vietnam war created a political crisis within Australia which it is yet to resolve, sustained through successive governments and social movements, engendering disillusionment across the polity and a state of apathy towards the political process. In the midst of this, minimal effort to disentangle the primary actors pertaining to this crucial policy arena and their influence on the policy cycle has been attempted, particularly in respect to actors outside the government’s inner circle. Ironically, the inability to deal with the political issue of asylum-seekers is the only consistency seen in this unusually tumultuous policy environment and it is the complexities underlying numerous policy failures, viewed through available theoretical frameworks, which we seek to understand here.

First, the paper presents a brief overview as to the structure in which the government operates and policies implemented in response to asylum-seekers arriving by boat. It then offers a critically assessment of the Malaysia Solution, introduced in 2011 following a leadership upheaval and a significant deviation to the policy in situ. Key actors are analysed in regard to their roles and interactions throughout the policy cycle process in which crucial points and causes of failure are considered, predominantly through the Advocacy Coalition Framework, so as to present an explanatory perspective as to how these outcomes came to fruition. The Malaysia solution, contextualised through media reports, government statements, and selected theoretical frameworks is not assessed as to the merit of the policy itself (as this is not the intention here), but is found to serve as a valuable insight into the Australian political process, the power of outside actors and an exemplar of balancing powers through distinct branches of government. This is considered to be generalisable within the Australian political sphere, and more broadly toward pluralistic liberal democratic environments, however extension beyond this would be treated with caution. Additionally, it highlights that application of alternative theoretical lenses provides a fuller appreciation and understanding of events surrounding a policy path - appreciably explaining the environment, history, primacy of beliefs and coalitions affecting policy formulation with greater clarity. Through more rigorous investigation we may eventually inform ourselves of the critical pressures and pitfalls which future policy making can circumnavigate, all the more important in an era of a weary citizenry, political stagnation, increasing influence of external parties and the rising prominence of coalition governments.