Last updated: December 29, 2014    Cruelly exposing a failure in
policy  A GOVERNMENT is in policy trouble when asylum seekers in
miserable circumstances in Indonesia can debunk spin.  The way
the government has implemented its "no advantage test" for boat
arrivals is a big advantage, as the people waiting to board
boats have now revealed.  A gift worth a party, they say, and a
dangerous boat journey just as the deadly monsoon season rolls
in.  After Australian detention centres filled up, all future
capacity of Nauru and Manus Island was exhausted and the boats
kept coming, the government said last month it would release
thousands threatened with offshore processing into the
Australian community. It was tough, the government said, because
there would be "no advantage".  Asylum seekers could stay years
on bridging visas and wait for their permanent protection visa
for as long as they would if they had remained in Indonesia.
Except by comparison to the misery an asylum seeker faces in
Indonesia or in camps ar