June 27, 2023
SHARRI MARKSON: Quietly emptying and upgrading its Christmas Island detention facility in anticipation of a flood of new arrivals. Well, that's according to an exclusive report in The Australian today. Experts are warning hundreds of asylum seekers could arrive on Australian shores very soon, just as they have in England, Greece and Italy. Home Affairs Minister Claire O'Neil says while offshore processing is a festering sore in Australian politics, that's her words. She says it will remain open and on standby if there are any new arrivals. Well, joining me now is the shadow home affairs minister, James Paterson. James, welcome to the program. If this report is right, why do you think there'll be a flood of new arrivals?
SENATOR PATERSON: Good evening, Sharri. Well, the minister might regard offshore processing as a festering sore, but in fact offshore processing was an essential and key pillar of the previous government's successful strategy to stop people smuggling vessels coming towards Australia. It was one of three principles, the other being temporary protection visas and boat turn backs. Now every one of those principles was opposed by Labor in opposition until we demonstrated that they were successful in stopping the boats. And now that they're in government,they've already abolished one of those pillars, which is the temporary protection visas. And they're now out there, in the Minister's own words,undermining support for a second of those pillars. Now the danger here is that people smugglers are watching this very closely and they're selling to their clients the story that a new government is in town, it's not as strong as on borders as the previous one and if you can get through the cracks, you might be able to settle in Australia. That's a very dangerous message if they believe that that's true, if they get on those boats again then we could very easily find ourselves back in that terrible world we were in under the Rudd-Gillard era where dozens of boats carrying hundreds of people arrived over many, many months and led to hundreds of deaths at sea.
MARKSON: So just to clarify, is this just a concern that you have or are you getting real information? And is there reason to believe that we could be about to see an increase in boat arrivals?
PATERSON:Well,before Senate estimates recently Admiral Jones, the commander of Operation Sovereign Borders, admitted that he's currently dealing with the highest tempo of operations that the operation has seen in a decade. It's so bad that the Navy has had to deploy two additional vessels to deal with what they fear is going to be a very significant increase. We've already had nine boats carrying over 200 people attempt to come to Australia since the last election, since the government changed and changed the policies. And my fear is we are only one geopolitical, environmental or strategic crisis in our region away from a very significant uptick in boats just at the time that the government is out there undermining the key pillars of Operation Sovereign Borders. Let's be very clear, if that happens, it will be the government's responsibility for weakening our policies.
MARKSON: So according to The Australian today, Christmas Island is virtually nearly empty,that most of the people who were on it have been resettled to New Zealand and the United States and other areas. What do you think of this strategy? It seems to be a bet half way, Labor's keeping it open reportedly at a cost of $350 million a year. But so is keeping it open but emptying it, is this working as an incentive or disincentive to people smugglers?
PATERSON:Well,as you say, the numbers have reduced significantly in Christmas Island. They're down to virtually zero, or soon to be down to zero in Nauru. And the concerning thing about that is that that may be misinterpreted by people smugglers and their clients, that these are just very efficient stops along the journey to ultimately finding refuge in Australia or another country like Australia,whether that's New Zealand or Canada or the United States that's a very attractive prize. And we shouldn't be using these offshore processing centres like a quick stop, a quick holiday on the way to a first world country settlement. Because if that's how they're seen, then they'll be very attractive places to get to rather than the deterrent they were intended to be under the policies of the previous government. Now, no one does this just for the fun of it. It was necessary because of the human tragedy that was unleashed by the previous Labor government's policies. And it seems like the Labor Party has learnt no lessons. They are obviously under very serious pressure from the left of their party who are running rampant at their national conferences, who are out there chipping away at these policies just like they did last time. And if it ends up with the consequences of last time, they'll have no one to blame but themselves.
MARKSON: All right, James, before you go, I just want to ask you about Russia. We've seen today comments that because Vladimir Putin is now more vulnerable after the attempted insurrection on the weekend, he could be more dangerous, more reckless. What are you expecting from the Russian dictator?
PATERSON: Sharri,I was leading an intelligence committee delegation to Washington D.C. and London in the weeks after the invasion in 2022. And it was very clear within the first few weeks of the invasion when Russia failed to capture Kyiv as they set out to do, that this was not going to be as easy as Vladimir Putin thought it was. And once that was clear, I said at the time and I still believe today, that the clock started ticking on his leadership. Now, the attempted coup or insurrection or mutiny by the Wagner group in the last 48 hours is another piece of evidence that Putin's hold on leadership in Russia is not secure, is not certain and will not last forever. We know it is going to come to an end at some point, we just don't know how far away that could be. And that offers an opportunity to Ukraine and therefore an opportunity to Ukraine's friends and allies around the world to come to their assistance with meaningful packages of assistance, not like the disappointing one we saw from the Australian Government this week.
MARKSON: Yeah, and look, we'd celebrate the end of Putin's rule if it comes to that. If there was a better option, someone who had values more aligned with our own but it doesn't look like there is anyone of that nature. James Paterson, shadow home affairs minister, thank you for joining me this evening.
ENDS
