Australia has many natural advantages: great weather, rich resource deposits and the ultimate moat – a vast ocean full of great white sharks.
Otherwise known as girt by sea.
And we should make the most of those advantages, whether through a world-class tourism sector, a powerhouse mining industry or a God-given national security border.
In recent history, border control has been a feature of our political debate.
At various points, people smuggling has been a lucrative enterprise – and whenever one of those points overlapped with a Labor government, the outcome was invariably woeful.
This issue largely fell off the front page under the Howard and Abbott governments because they pulled the rug out from under the people smugglers’ business model.
The Coalition’s tough stance on illegal migration ultimately culminated in a policy called Operation Sovereign Borders, which consisted of a three-pronged approach: boat turn-backs, offshore processing and Temporary Protection Visas.
And it worked a treat.
When Labor returned to power in 2022, there was immediate unease that the free for all would return despite Labor’s quiet assurances that it would retain the policy.
Except it didn’t retain the policy in full.
Temporary Protection Visas were scrapped almost immediately.
Remove a leg from a tripod and it will wobble.
And wobble it has.
We’ve seen a few instances of illegal arrivals in northern Western Australia.
And it has now come to light that Labor has quietly green-lit the restart of the human trafficking trade to Australia by issuing 30,000 Resolution of Status visas to people on Temporary Protection Visas and Safe Haven Enterprise Visas – a pathway to permanent settlement and even citizenship.
This is a serious problem.
The cornerstone of Operation Sovereign Borders was simple: if you attempt to enter Australia illegally by boat, you will never settle here permanently.
That is now being dismantled by Labor.
To be clear, it is not illegal to seek asylum in a country that is party to the Refugee Convention, but it is illegal to enter a country without correct documentation other than via a formal point of entry.
The left loves to muddy this water, but these are two entirely different concepts and should be treated as such.
The Resolution of Status visa was unveiled by bleeding-heart Immigration Minister Andrew Giles in 2023.
The government initially flagged 19,000 eligible applicants, but – as with everything this government touches – it has ballooned to an unacceptable 30,000.
Opposition immigration spokesman Jonno Duniam rightly criticised the government for seriously weakening Operation Sovereign Borders, particularly the principle that illegal entrants would never permanently resettle in Australia.
So, who is applying for permanent settlement?
Mostly those who arrived illegally between 2009 and 2014; for most of this period Australia was run by the Rudd–Gillard–Rudd governments.
The largest cohorts of Temporary Protection Visa and Safe Haven Enterprise Visa holders are from Iran (6513) and Afghanistan (4573).
And those people who arrived illegally during that time?
Well, they are finally being rewarded for treating our borders and national security with total disrespect.
They’ve managed to outlast Operation Sovereign Borders and will now get to stay.
What’s telling is that the Immigration Minister’s office and the Department of Home Affairs initially refused to disclose how many Resolution of Status visas had been issued.
No surprise there.
Overshooting the budgeted number by 58 per cent is the kind of doozy this government would’ve loved to keep under the carpet.
The Department only released the details after The Australian lodged a data access request.
Pretty poor form.
The Department claims Resolution of Status visa recipients must meet health, character and security requirements. Yet the data shows the Department is issuing around 30 of these visas per business day, so one can only assume the security checks are a bit loosey-goosey.
And the cherry on top: a departmental spokesperson insisted the government remains committed to Operation Sovereign Borders.
That statement alone is beyond contempt.
It’s rank mockery that Yes Minister couldn’t fathom.
This was a policy that worked and Labor has torn a limb off it and run over the rest of it with a steamroller.
To suggest Labor is committed to Operation Sovereign Borders is farcical in the extreme.
Labor is committed to this policy in the same way someone is committed to a diet – right up until they’re smashing a whole cheesecake at 10pm.
Labor’s ingrained soft-on-borders ideological bent has always been problematic, but in today’s world it is truly reckless.
At a time when Australia is still bruised from the Bondi massacre terrorist attack, as global geopolitics grows more unstable and other nations tighten their migration numbers and lift their standards, this Labor government talks tough on immigration while quietly giving a wink and a nod to the restart of the people smuggling trade.
And that’s because Labor can’t hold its breath any longer on border protection.
It’s incapable of putting the country’s interest first on this issue long term.
And so, begins the slide back to the border dysfunction of old – at a time when our society can least bear it.
Caroline Di Russo is a lawyer with 15 years of experience specialising in commercial litigation and corporate insolvency and since February 2023 has been the Liberal Party President in Western Australia.
Read related topics:Australia’s Immigration CrisisHome Affairs and Immigration Minister Tony Burke