With the possible exception of Myanmar, Cambodia would be the most poorly equipped country in the region to resettle the refugees Australia refuses to help.

Signing an agreement to ship asylum seekers to third world countries is an appalling aberration of Australia’s humanitarian responsibilities in the first place, but to try and sell the idea that Cambodia is an appropriate destination is ludicrous.

Cambodians are a warm and friendly people trying desperately to improve their lot. Unfortunately theirs is a country weakened by the genocide of Pol Pot and ravaged by war, extreme poverty and endemic corruption.

Powerful elites with links to the military, having exploited the national forestry reserves decades ago turned their attentions to the tiny nation’s mineral wealth.

A country with few assets, millions of people living in poverty and huge numbers of rural dwellers drifting to the cities in search of work has more than enough problems of its own.

It cannot hope to provide any reasonable life for refugees. To expect Australian aid dollars earmarked for supporting refugees resettled there from Nauru to have some vague trickle down effect for the general population is absurd.

At home Mr Morrison’s solution to overcrowded detention centres is only marginally better. A new regime of temporary protection visa will see some asylum seekers released to work in regional communities but neither they nor their children born here have a secure future.

While the Abbott government has rightly earned international credit for its reaction to the shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine and has been prepared to support the United States and other nations in the fight against the butchers of Islamic State, it loses all moral direction when the consequences of international unrest and conflict wash up on its shores.