August 7, 2024
GARY ADSHEAD: Is it embarrassing that four illegal fishing boats have been found at a bay north of Broome. How long they have been there, I do not know, I don't know a lot of the answers to the questions that I could pose but it seems to be embarrassing that they found these boats hidden amongst the mangroves, what does it mean about our border protection? Well, lets ask James Paterson, Liberal Senator and Shadow Home Affairs spokesperson. He joins me on the line. G'day James.
JAMES PATERSON: Good to be with you.
ADSHEAD: Oh, this is a bit of a revelation, because we know that a couple of fishing tour operators were involved in finding them and leading the Border Force people to them. Is that an embarrassment?
PATERSON: It certainly is an embarrassment for the government because once again, our borders have been breached. People have been missed. They've got through the net. And Operation Sovereign Borders has failed to identify people coming all the way to the Australian mainland. And it appears they only discovered them after being alerted by those local fishermen and tour operators that you referred to. But it's hardly a surprise. We've been warning for some time. Aerial surveillance on this government's watch is down 22%, and maritime patrol days are down 12%, so no wonder boats are sneaking through. And if an illegal fisher can come through, well so can a people smuggler. And they know it too.
ADSHEAD: Well, this is a flotilla of illegal fishers, I mean, if there's four boats, if they all made it here at the same time, you'd think that they would stand out a little bit more. But to be able to nestle themselves in amongst the mangroves, that seems to be the strategy?
PATERSON: Exactly right. It's much more normal when it's a people smuggling operation for solo boats to travel, because it's harder to detect a solo boat in transit. They very rarely travel as part of a group or a convoy. In this case, four boats getting through in one go without being detected until they were spotted by locals. It is a really stunning failure of OSB and, frankly, where is the Minister for Home Affairs, Tony Burke? Why hasn't he made this his number one priority? We've been warning for a long time, but since the election, there has been 19 attempted people smuggling ventures. Three of them have reached the Australian mainland or territories, dropped people off and returned again without being detected. And so this is only just a matter of time, and it will keep happening unless they fix that aerial surveillance and maritime patrol days.
ADSHEAD: Well, the details are pretty sketchy on this. We've been actually trying to speak with one of those tour operators, about what they could see, because what we don't really know is whether fishermen have been found with them. To be honest, we can't really confirm that at this stage. What have you heard about that?
PATERSON: I wish I could shed further light on it, but I'm in the same boat as everyone else. Only the Minister and Border Force will know, and I think there is an obligation on them to be more transparent. It is not usual for Australia's borders to be breached this often. It's actually very rare event in the history of border protection that boats make it all the way through. Normally they are detected, they're intercepted at sea and they are usually turned around under the Operation Sovereign Borders policies of the previous government. But we know this government has watered them down, they have abolished temporary protection visas, and that has sent a very bad signal of weakness to people smugglers. And frankly, I think so has appointing Tony Burke to the portfolio. I mean, this is a guy who was only minister for short time, 80 days, but he packed a lot in in those 80 days. 83 boats arrived on his watch in the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era, carrying 6634 illegal arrivals.
ADSHEAD: Now, one of the concerns, of course, is the traditional owners up there and one of the traditional owners was actually part of the job with a tour operator of directing the Border Force people to where these fishing boats were in the mangroves. Now, he says that the biggest concern they've got is the biodiversity issue. I mean, you know, we all know that when we are coming or going from Australia, the sort of rigmarole we have to go through in terms of throwing out an apple or a banana, in a bin. But these boats that have come from who knows where, with people who we do not know the condition of or the health of, I mean, that's a major issue, isn't it?
PATERSON: They're absolutely right to be concerned about that. I'd be concerned about that, too, if I was them. And I think we should all be concerned about the impact, on our fisheries as well. The reason why we regulate the amount of fishing to be done is so that it can be sustainable. If you have people from other countries coming in violation of that, then you are going to have overfishing and it's going to deplete the stocks, and that hurts all of us. So this really is a serious security breach. It shouldn't happen. And if adequate resources and support was provided to Operation Sovereign Borders and the Australian Border Force, it wouldn't be happening. But this government has failed to deliver what the previous government was able to do.
ADSHEAD: Can I just ask you, if you don't mind, throwing you to something else and that’s have you been surprised by what Dominic Perrottet has had to come out within the last 24 hours in relation to the mandating of vaccines, around the states. Has that surprise you that he says that was now a mistake? He believes.
PATERSON: No, it doesn't surprise me at all, Dom Perrottet I think was a great Premier who did an excellent job during Covid, but he's also a very honest person and a reflective person and is someone who is driven very much by his values. And I think a lot of things were done in the pandemic that challenged the traditional values that a lot of Australians hold about freedom and autonomy and I understand exactly why he has come to that conclusion. I think we now all look back at that and think, why were people denied the opportunity to work, particularly in industries where we've got skills shortages, were we are desperate for police and firefighters and nurses and others? Why were they denied that, because they made a choice not to be vaccinated?
ADSHEAD: Does he open a can of worms though? Because there's been legal cases, here in Western Australia and other places around people being stood down from their role as police officers, for example, because they wouldn't have the jab. What do you think?
PATERSON: Yeah. I mean, this is kind of a technical answer, but things that are said in Parliament can't be introduced in court as evidence. So it would be exempt in a technical legal sense. But I think he's right to call attention to this issue. I mean, I'm fully vaccinated, in the pandemic I encouraged people to go and get vaccinated too, because that was the key to lifting the restrictions and returning our country to normal again. But I think it is important that people have the right to refuse medical treatment if they want to. I think they have a right to do that.
ADSHEAD: Just finally, I don't know if you saw in the Oz, that story in relation to Home Affairs suggesting or the Home Affairs bureaucrats suggesting that one of the reasons that we need to, curb the number of overseas students coming in to the country and of course, that's got the universities very upset that there's caps going to be introduced in relation to that. There were rorts and organised crime involved in getting students here under the pretense of the student visa, and then to throw them into illegal trades, for example sex trade here in Australia. Do you buy that, that one of the reasons to cap the number would be to stop those sort of rorts?
PATERSON: Look, I'm sure that's a factor, but I think the overriding consideration is that in the last two years, this government has brought in almost a million people. And at the same time, they've only built 240,000 houses. And it's no wonder that we have a rental market in crisis, that we have first home buyers that can't get into the market. And a big proportion of that intake, about half a million people, is international students. That is too much. It's putting an enormous strain on our country and its services and its infrastructure, and it does need to be reined in. The problem is that the government recognised this problem far too late and a lot of damage has already been done. It's going to take a lot of time to get it back to normal levels.
ADSHEAD: All right. James Paterson, thanks very much for your time this morning.
PATERSON: Thanks, Gary.
ENDS
