Tony Abbott has been at it again, this time in London, claiming that he stopped the boats and that Europeans should follow suit. It is an oft repeated untruth that he stopped the boats. His one-liners are not supported by the facts. But the lie is deeply imbedded.
Last month, Peter Hughes and I posted two articles on ‘Slogans vs Facts on boat arrivals’. Part 1 was entitled ‘How Tony Abbott helped to keep the door open for people-smugglers. Part 2 was entitled ‘Tony Abbott did not stop the boats’
Let me briefly summarise a few facts from these two posts.
First, the Coalition decision to oppose legislation in September 2011 to implement the Malaysian Arrangement gave the green light for people-smugglers to expand their business. People arriving by boat increased from 319 in September 2011 to 4,230 in July 2013. By opposing the implementation of the Malaysian Arrangement the Coalition showed that it did not want to stop the boats, but for political reasons wanted to stop Labor stopping the boats.
Secondly, the rapid decline in people arriving by boat began in July 2013 when Kevin Rudd announced that in future no people arriving by boat would ever be settled in Australia. As a result people arriving on 47 boats fell from 4,230 in July 2013 to 355 on 7 boats in December 2013 when Tony Abbott’s Operation Sovereign Borders and boat turn-backs commenced. By the time OSB came into effect, boat arrivals had turned into a trickle. The game was almost over. Tony Abbott made a quite marginal contribution to stopping the boats. With boat arrivals down to 7 in December 2013, turn-backs were possible. They would not have been possible if they had been running at 47 a month as they were in July 2013.
I often ponder why the untruths about boat arrivals have become so embedded and accepted in public discourse. I suggest there are three main reasons.
First, Tony Abbott was able to effectively exploit xenophobia. He was very successful with his one liners in many areas. He did not bother to look at the facts, but successfully prosecuted a successful public relations and political campaign. Perceptions counted more than facts.
Second, the ALP has been reluctant to argue that its hard-line policies had in effect stopped the boats. It was fearful of offending many of its traditional supporters who favoured a more generous approach to asylum seekers.
Thirdly, under-resourced journalists didn’t bother to check the facts and they locked themselves in to uncritical acceptance of government propaganda. They now find it hard to accept that they were conned.
The facts are clear. In September 2011 Tony Abbott’s policies gave a green light to people smugglers. The dramatic fall in boat arrivals commenced many months before Abbott’s Operation Sovereign Borders came into effect.
John Menadue is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Pearls and Irritations. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Ambassador to Japan, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and CEO of Qantas.
Comments
2 responses to “John Menadue. Abbott lectures London on how to ‘stop the boats’.”
Yes John. It has been a desultory failure of Australian politics, diplomacy and media.
The political context, and there always is one, was put into motion when Howard too hastily accepted the boatload of Papuan asylum seekers, some political activists threatening RI’s territorial integrity, others who’d bought a passage. Jakarta retaliated. Overtly, they recalled the Ambassador. Covertly, they practiced minimal cooperation under the terms of the ensuing Lombok Treaty, allowing people smuggling to flourish.
When the late Alfredo Reinado had brought East Timorese asylum seekers across the ditch on the Tasi Diak, Keating and Evans assuaged Suharto by inventing a new class of visa – a TPV – especially for that group. Had Howard done the same with the Papuans, this whole unedifying saga may not have happened, nor lives been lost. That it did is a stain on Howard’s judgement and legacy.
In retrospect, many of us may regret not having sent Reinado back at the time.
Readers may remember Abbott’s first presser, when he performed an extraordinary kowtow to Jakarta. Aware that the Howard Gov, in which he’d served, had loosed the dogs of Indonesian retaliation by hastily accepting the Papuans as genuine refugees, Abbott declared that henceforth Papuan Independence supporters would not be allowed to use Australia to threaten Indonesia. Abbott had no intention of turning boats back at that stage. Why? Because Jakarta was cooperating in ‘handovers’ of asylum seekers at sea. We were already turning them back, discreetly transferring them to Indonesian Customs and SAR vessels for return. Our challenge was to cajole Jakarta into further extending these ‘handovers.’ The calculus in Canberra only changed when Jakarta cancelled this cooperation in the wake of the Snowden leaks.
Now we have a semi permanent OSB and turnback policy, Jakarta has comprehensively achieved their strategic goal. Can you imagine another Aust Liblab Gov accepting another Papuan boat? Nopex3.
Our media, Left and Right, have spun their biases and misinformed the public. European leaders should not be fooled by Abbott’s spin.
Thank you for filling in some of the historical blanks left by political cowards and lazy( or captive to editor) journalists. Why is there not more interest from trained and independent historians to present the facts which are the tools for community education?