As Australia absorbed more grim news from Nauru - another asylum seeker setting themselves on fire - the ABC's Q&A pondered the morality of refugee policy, and even the question of whether the nation has been "out-Trumping Trump" in its bi-partisan border control efforts.
In a budget-eve program focused on political reform and how well politicians represent the voters, the extremism of Donald Trump - the likely Republican nominee for president in this year's US election - came up more than once - with author, broadcaster and journalist George Megalogenis questioning the damage being done to the country's reputation by harsh asylum seeker policies favoured by both sides.
"It doesn't matter how many boats come or don't, if one person a week is setting themselves alight, sooner or later it is going to target our consciousness that we're holding hostage hundreds of people because we can't sort this out," he said.
"I think in the long run, the world, when it pays attention to Australia, wants to see a good citizen because we are quite well off, we have been able to manage prosperity better than any other society over the long haul, and when we start playing other games, trying to be the nastiest country in the region, trying to be the nastiest - out Trumping Trump before Trump had even been invented in terms of asylum seeker policy - I think it's only a matter of time before our luck runs out."
Fellow panellist James Fallows, the American writer and one-time speechwriter for former US president Jimmy Carter, said: "Australia does not look good at the moment with this policy, either side of the debate, but no one looks good right now. Angela Merkel is having terrible trouble in Germany because of a relatively liberal policy. The rest of Europe is splitting itself apart.
"We have Trump in the United States and I think that this is an example of a problem of human inequality, of combat, of cruelty around the world that will make all of our countries look and be bad until … the actual sources that are making people flee around the world are addressed."
The panel also debated whether Australia might see the rise of an "anti-establishment candidate" such as Mr Trump; whether Australia had become too "selfish and spoiled" to have the stomach for social and economic reform; and whether Australian politicians were too scared to take a stand on divisive issues.
