December 8, 2023
The Liberal Party has maintained its focus on boats and border protection, releasing a new advertisement today.
The advertisement includes audio and video of Kevin Rudd and Bill Shorten committing themselves to turning back boats. “Same old Labor,” the ad says. “Labor can’t be trusted on boats.”
The Liberal Party has seized on dissension in Labor ranks over offshore processing of asylum seekers.
The ALP candidate for Melbourne, Sophie Ismail, went on the record today as favouring bringing asylum seekers to Australia and processing them here. Melbourne is held for the Greens by Adam Bandt.
The Liberals released the advertisement shown below. It quotes Ismail and other comments by retiring WA MP Melissa Parke and Tasmanian Senator Lisa Singh. The repeated “our policy is clear” comments from Opposition Leader Bill Shorten are taken from his media conference today where he was questioned about Ismail’s comments.
This is a statement on immigration detention and children, issued by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.
The statement was issued by the Secretary of the Department, Michael Pezzullo.
Later in the day, a further statement was issued, following criticism of the third paragraph’s statement that “suggestions that detention involves a ‘public numbing and indifference’ similar to that allegedly experienced in Nazi Germany” were offensive.
Both statements are shown below.
Statement from Michael Pezzullo, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.
Immigration detention and children: separating fact from fiction
Consistent with the law of the land, and under direction of the government of the day, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection operates a policy of keeping children in detention only as a last resort, and releasing those children that might be in detention as soon as reasonably practicable.
This is a very contentious area of public policy and administration. Sometimes emotions rise and facts gets distorted. For the reputation of my Department and its officers, it is crucial that I set the record straight: the Department and its uniformed operational arm, the Australian Border Force, does not operate beyond the law, nor is it an immoral ‘rogue agency’.
Recent comparisons of immigration detention centres to ‘gulags’; suggestions that detention involves a “public numbing and indifference” similar to that allegedly experienced in Nazi Germany; and persistent suggestions that detention facilities are places of ‘torture’ are highly offensive, unwarranted and plainly wrong – and yet they continue to be made in some quarters.
The federal government is to create an Australian Border Force in 2015 to “protect the border and facilitate the lawful passage of people and goods”.
The Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Scott Morrison, made the announcement today in a speech to the Lowy Institute for International Policy.
He said the Australian Border Force would be established as part of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. It will be led by a Commissioner with the same standing as the Commissioner of the Federal Police, the Chief of the Defence Force and the Director General of ASIO. The Commissioner will report directly to the Immigration Minister.
Prime Minister John Howard has attack Opposition Leader Mark Latham, describing him as ‘weak’ on border protection.
Speaking in Sydney today, Howard said Latham was weaker on border protection than either Kim Beazley or Simon Crean.