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August 25th, 2013 
WHEN he was first approached to take on the immigration portfolio, Tony Burke thought he was being punished.
The Labor frontbencher has told SBS Television he initially suspected he was being handed the hot-potato portfolio because he had sided with ousted prime minister Julia Gillard during the latest Labor leadership spill.
“(Anthony Albanese) rang me when it was first mooted that I might get the portfolio and said, ‘I’m ringing to soften you up’,” Mr Burke recalled.
“I said, ‘Is this some form of retribution?’ … It’s not a job that anyone goes looking for.”
During a wide-ranging television interview on Sunday night, Mr Burke – who, before the Labor leadership contest in June, was on record saying he would quit cabinet if Kevin Rudd won – described how his relationship with the now-PM had shifted.
“Bizarrely, in the first term, Kevin and I didn’t have a functioning relationship,” he said.
“This time round, after we’ve each said what we’ve said about each other, the truth is, it’s been completely professional and completely functional.”
Mr Burke said he had tried to calm the asylum seeker debate in Australia.
He kept a piece of paper on his desk with the name and age of a little boy who drowned on his way to Australia.
“He was the first person to drown on my watch,” Mr Burke said.
“I think you have to take personal responsibility for the loss of life at sea that’s occurring.”
He defended the government’s policy of sending asylum seekers who come to Australia by boat to Papua New Guinea, accusing critics of double standards.
“I really have problems with the argument that says, well it’s okay for all of them (Papua New Guineans) to live there, but how outrageous that we could ever have someone from the northern hemisphere live there,” he said.
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