Imagine stopping the boats the centrepiece of your entire political platform for 10 years, and then failing to stop the one boat that actually fucking mattered.
The above comment is from ‘matthewdavidjohnson’ in his blog.
From John Menadue
Following in the footsteps of Immigration Ministers Morrison and Dutton, Mike Pezzullo ordered the Australian Border Force at its inauguration to ‘man the ramparts’ to protect our borders.
The ABF in their black uniforms allowed 2700 passengers from the Ruby Princess to disembark in Sydney on March 19 without check. Many of them spread the Corona Virus around Australia. The ABF then proceeded to blame others for its failure.
Almost a third of Australian deaths due to the Corona virus are linked to cruise ships.
The Coalition did not stop the boats and now is showing that it is not able to stop cruise ships either.
What a sorry story of political hypocrisy and incompetence.
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
12 responses to “Stopping the boats but not cruise ships.”
excerpt from the PM’s media relase 16/03/2020
“To help stay ahead of the curve, the Australian Government has imposed a universal precautionary self-isolation requirement on all international arrivals, effective as at 11:59pm Sunday 15 March 2020.
This means that all people – whether they be citizens, residents or visitors – will be required to self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival in Australia. Enhanced screening for arrivals will remain in place to identify anyone arriving sick or with symptoms of COVID-19.
Arrangements will be made for passengers transiting through Australia to the Pacific Island countries or transiting after arriving off of cruise ships. Limited exemptions will apply for flight crews, who will be expected to monitor their health and practice social distancing while they are in Australia.
The Australian Government has also banned cruise ships from foreign ports (including round trip international cruises originating in Australia) from arriving at Australian ports for an initial 30 days, effective as at 11:59pm Sunday 15 March 2020.
This restriction will help avoid the risk of a cruise ship arriving with a mass outbreak of the virus and putting significant pressure on our health system.
Arrangements will be made for certain cruise ships already in transit to enable Australian citizens and permanent residents to get off those ships.”
…excuse me while I lift my nose to the scent of LNP mates on those certain cruise ships, that wanted off asap, that were more important than “the risk of … a mass outbreak of the virus”. Or am I too generous, they are actually grossly stupid, incompetent and careless.
1. How is ‘self-isolation’ enforceable?
2. Which ‘enhanced measures’ were used on the passengers of the Ruby Princess? If any were used, did they detect that 120 passengers had COVID 19?
3. Why was the Ruby Princess not subject to the ban mentioned above?
4. Did the Ruby Princess fall within “Arrangements will be made for certain cruise ships already in transit to enable Australian citizens and permanent residents to get off those ships.”? If so, why? If not, why was it allowed to dock?
John – would you please consider whether “The Guardian” or the ABC or both could hold a “virtual Question Time”, given that Parliament is locked down until at least August?
The above would be an appropriate set to put to Morrison &/ Dutton.
If Peter Dutton, Mike Pezzullo and Michael Outram have any conscience at all, they would voluntarily step down and take their black shirts with them. These unrepentant group will be remembered by history as being responsible for the death of some of the coronavirus victims who got it from the 2,700 passengers from the Ruby Princess. Professions who caused death are usually legally responsible and sometime prosecuted, but it seems that the politicians escapes such responsibility.
I suspect there will be enough blame to go around, such that nobody misses their fair share. Having said that, if you want to make a virtue out of something you have done, it behooves you to do it well. Stop the boats? To paraphrase another slogan – which boats? I guess the answer is – the boats whose passengers are not white.
John,
This was an absolute fiasco by a totally incompetent so called Border Force. I have seen them in action myself …NOT IMPRESSED-SACK ALL OF THEM!!
I sent the following letter to Peter Dutton on 26 March:
Dear Mr Dutton,
I am angry. The serious and appropriate response of our governments (state & federal) to the COVID-19 pandemic, exposes your response to the plight of the asylum seekers and refugees in PNG and Nauru to have been a political sham. The cruel and unusual treatment of this cohort of people who arrived by boat after 19 July 2013 was nothing more than a political game designed to embarrass your political opponents.
I know that there was a genuine policy underneath the loathsome politics, which saw you implement measures to stop the arrival of boats, but that in no way excuses holding people for over 6 1/2 years without hope of resettlement.
The US refugee option is off the table for the foreseeable future. The New Zealand option (which you in any case refused to adopt) is off the table for the foreseeable future. With the press coverage of the pandemic dominating the news, now is the time for your government to quietly move the refugees in PNG and Nauru to Australia and move the Tamil family in Christmas Island back to their home in Biloela. To be very frank, it sorts out a mess of your own making.
I am not interested in the politics of this issue. I am interested in the welfare and futures of refugees who have been in limbo for 2,443 days.
This intolerable situation must be ended now.
I agree it’s intolerable. They must be sent home immediately.
The LNP has a lot of humble pie to eat, what with the boats saga and their raucous dismissal of the 2009 stimulus package by the Rudd government, which they alone were too blind to ideology to recognise. Of course all that will happen is that they drop that line and focus on their own version today.
Good on them for that, although ideology died hard and we lost 2 valuable weeks.
Amazingly [not] Labor has failed to say anything as no doubt they got caught up in the same ideology. I just hope they remember enough to shred any unfavourable mention of the Rudd stimulus and get their act together. The Greens are still neoliberal.
But…but…they were DECENT people on that cruise ship…people with money and aspirations and a god-given right to destroy the planet in order to assuage their precious boredom!
Sack the minister, break up the department. They’ve had long enough to show the concept is faulty.
When this catastrophe is over, the three heads on plates I demand are those of Peter Dutton, Mike Pezzullo and Michael Outram. Not just sacked from their current jobs but out of everything – parliament, public service, whatever. Maybe charged with criminal offences, tried and gaoled, like Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald. The crimes of these three are even more serious than the crimes of those two.
How did Scomo escape your razor? But you are correct, the entire Border Farce is ridiculous.