Piers Akerman
The Daily Telegraph
January 24,2014
FORCED to face the collapse of their repeated pre-election prediction that the Coalition's border protection policy would be unworkable, the ABC and Fairfax are now doing their utmost to undermine the national effort.
In many countries the activities of these media outlets would be regarded as traitorous.
In 1946 William Joyce, known to the world as Lord Haw-Haw, was executed for treason after spending the war years broadcasting propaganda from Berlin on behalf of his Nazi hosts.
The actions of the ABC this week, notably through its ill-gotten Australia Network, which broadcasts into Indonesia, rival Joyce's disgraceful deeds.
How the ABC and its Fairfax supporters can believe that reporting allegations of accusations of torture by Australian service personnel without a shred of corroborating evidence is in line with sound journalistic practice and principle is beyond belief.
Before the election, both media outlets noisily protested that the Coalition's plan to stop the boats would fail. In the face of the indisputable success of Operation Sovereign Borders, both have been forced to recalibrate their politicised campaign of attack on the Coalition.
Producing an asylum seeker with a burnt finger or two hardly constitutes evidence of torture on the high seas.
Not surprisingly, the ABC and Fairfax are clamouring for an inquiry. So, too, are the people-smugglers - because an inquiry would tie up the naval resources that are damaging their businesses.
The ABC constantly claims Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has imposed a blanket of secrecy over the anti-people-smuggling operation. Secrecy was a prerequisite of the military involved in the operation, as it would be in any military exercise.
The attempts to smear Morrison don't stop there. The ABC and Fairfax try to make him the scapegoat for every action taken by the Immigration Department, even when nothing more than due process is being followed, so intent are they on pursuing their own dubious political agendas.
Earlier this month the organisations prosecuted the cause of a homosexual man who was in Australia unlawfully.
They, and the Twitterati, claimed Morrison was somehow reluctant to act because the man was in a same-sex relationship.
They agitated for Morrison to ignore the process that applies to all individuals applying for protection visas, be they heterosexual or homosexual, and grant the man residency immediately - same-sex relationships take precedence in their alternate world.
Every day these organisations take up political cudgels in the hope of damaging the government.
Occasionally, the ABC's broadcasts generate a response from Indonesia and some minister is obliged to increase the rhetoric even though the political reality dictates the cessation of the people-smuggling trade would benefit both Indonesia and Australia.
Once the boats are stopped, the issue is dead and the countries can get on with more important issues beneficial to both.
But the ABC and Fairfax want to keep the issue alive and they ignore the international precedents for the Abbott government's actions.
Here is the mission statement from the US Coast Guard on illegal boat arrivals: "The Coast Guard conducts patrols and coordinates with other federal agencies and foreign countries to interdict undocumented migrants at sea, denying them entry via maritime routes to the United States, its territories and possessions.
"Thousands of people try to enter this country illegally every year using maritime routes, many via smuggling operations. Interdicting migrants at sea means they can be quickly returned to their countries of origin without the costly processes required if they successfully enter the United States.
"When successful, illegal immigration can potentially cost US taxpayers billions of dollars each year in social services. In addition to relieving this financial burden on our citizens, the Coast Guard's efforts help to support legal migration systems.
"Primarily, the Coast Guard maintains its humanitarian responsibility to prevent the loss of life at sea, since the majority of migrant vessels are dangerously overloaded, unseaworthy or unsafe."
It could just as easily describe the Abbott government policy.
People-smugglers, the ABC and Fairfax have a vested interest in keeping this issue alive in the hope there will be sufficient public outrage to bring about a review. Despite all the indignation, it isn't going to happen.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has given his full backing to the operation and expressed total support to the naval and customs officers on the frontline.
Speaking in Davos, Switzerland, he said: "These are just claims without any apparent facts to back them up. I fully support the statement of the minister on this subject and I have complete confidence in the decency, the humanity and the professionalism of Australia's navy and customs personnel, who I commend for a magnificent job - a job which is increasingly effective and successful.
"While I'm not saying this problem has been entirely resolved, the fact is we have gone many weeks now without a single boat arrival in Australia and the last time we had this kind of an outcome was back, from memory, in 2008.
"I think people making allegations should be able to produce some evidence. There is no evidence to back them up. Who do you believe? Do you believe Australian naval personnel or the people who are trying to break Australian law?
"I trust Australia's naval personnel."
FACTS That the Insurgents apologists and facilitators don't want you to know.
No boat in five weeks vindicates Prime Minister's tactics
Patrick Lion
The DailyTelegraph
Jamuary 24,2014
AUSTRALIA has not recorded an asylum seeker boat arrival in five weeks - the first time in five years there has been such a quiet stretch without more people filling detention centres.
The Abbott government last night said Australia was now back close to the "starting line" in its bid to eliminate "the border chaos" that had started under Kevin Rudd in early 2009 and continued under Julia Gillard.
The reduction comes as relations between Australia and Indonesia over asylum seekers soured further yesterday with our closest northern neighbour warning that Australia was "reachable" by its fighter planes.
The development comes as the population of asylum seekers at Christmas Island has also dropped below 2000 for the first time since February last year.
"We have our foot on the neck of the smugglers and we are not going to give them any relief," Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said. "We are going to keep applying the pressure."
The last boat arrival of asylum seekers was transferred to Australian authorities on December 19, a period of 35 days, or five weeks, without an arrival.
While the government has declined to comment about "on-water" incidents, citing operational reasons, Indonesian authorities have confirmed several boats have been turned or towed back in that time.
The federal government does not count them as arrivals requiring transfers because the people returned to Indonesia instead.
According to the government, the last time a similar period of no transfers occurred was between January and March of 2009 when the Rudd government started relaxing border protection measures.
Mr Morrison last night said he had increasing confidence his policy measures were working, even though he conceded there was more work to do.
He said over the first 100 days the Coalition had pushed down arrivals to about 300 a month - close to the level of the 2010 election - and had now wound back the arrival numbers to the early Rudd era.
"This takes us back close to the starting line on boat arrivals, with it being five years since there was such a period of time with no arrivals," Mr Morrison said.
"Between January and March of 2009 was the last time there has been a longer period with no arrivals. That was when things started to ramp up.
"We are repairing the damage - that means getting us back to what it was like before Rudd and Gillard's border chaos wreaked havoc."
Although the government is aware arrivals do slow during the monsoon season, there were 357 people who arrived on five boats in the first 23 days of January last year.
The population on Christmas Island yesterday was 1909 people, the first time it has been under 2000 people since February last year when monthly reports began and the total was 1224 people.
In March last year, the total rose to 2251 detainees and had stayed above 2000 since.
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