Albanese’s asylum policy is almost identical to the Coalition’s – Dutton’s attacks are manifesting a crisis

‘It is fair to observe that the biggest difference when Labor is in government is that the opposition leader holds a megaphone and says the prime minister and his (substantially identical) policies are weak.’ Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

After a week of the immigration minister, Andrew Giles, being pummelled for Labor’s handling of releases from immigration detention the arrival of a boat of asylum seekers was obviously bad news.

But the job of journalists is not to tally whether events are good or bad for the government and the opposition leader, Peter Dutton.