Does the PM really want refugees to love PNG?

By ABC's Tom Iggulden

Updated Sat Jul 20, 2013 10:20pm AEST

Photo: Can Kevin Rudd sell PNG as an island paradise to future asylum seekers? (ABC TV)

Kevin Rudd has message for asylum seekers: PNG is beautiful one day, perfect the next. Surely he's not serious, says Tom Iggulden.

Kevin Rudd's gut-wrenching lurch to the right on asylum seekers came with a breath-taking dose of spin when it was announced on Friday.

Papua New Guinea will be the final destination for asylum seekers who arrive by boat to Australia, even those ultimately judged to be refugees.

For anyone who reckons that's a bit harsh, Kevin Rudd offered the political equivalent of a travel brochure for Australia's northern neighbour.

"An emerging economy with a strong future" boomed the prime minister, extolling PNG's "robust democracy" and pointing out that it's signed the UN Refugees Convention.

For those still unconvinced, Papuan prime minister Peter O'Neill chimed in, pointing out the country's "blessed with a large landmass and a very small population", completing the picture of a tolerant, tropical paradise.

Close your eyes and you can almost see the swaying palm trees and hear the gentle lap of surf on a deserted beach.

But as any experienced traveller will tell you, the glossy brochure only ever tells half the story.

It's always worth consulting the government's travel advice.

Here, paradise begins to fade.

Visitors to PNG should exercise a "high degree of caution ... because of the high levels of serious crime", according foreign affairs department advice issued in May.

It also notes a "general atmosphere of lawlessness" and that cholera is now endemic.

Refugees escaping religious and ethnic intolerance may find things less than improved if they're resettled in largely Christian PNG.

"They come with different mentalities, ideas, religion", a Port Moresby local told the ABC in the aftermath of the announcement. "We are developing country. We don't want these kind of people coming to stay here," says another.

Government travel advice offers little comfort about such sentiments.

"Ethnic disputes continue to flare up around the country," it notes. "Disputes can quickly escalate into violent clashes."

Women escaping repressive, fundamentalist regimes in the Muslim world may have the most to fear from being judged to be a genuine refugee.

"There has been an increase in reported incidents of sexual assault, including gang rape," notes the advice, adding "foreigners have been targeted".

Human rights activists are only too aware of what life's like in PNG, loudly pointing out the country’s many depressing deficiencies to any media outlet who'll listen.

Kevin Rudd won't mind being contradicted.

If asylum seekers believe his postcard version of life PNG, his new policy won't work.

The opposition's been calling on Kevin Rudd to "take the sugar off the table".

By doing so, the government hopes to extend the sugar hit his return to the leadership has given Labor in the polls.

Tom Iggluden is Lateline's political correspondent. View his full profile here.

Does the PM really want refugees to love PNG? - The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)