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You’ve got to hand it to Anthony Albanese: only he could replace a disastrously failed immigration minister with another disastrously failed immigration minister. Say what you will about Labor, at least they’re consistent.
The recently sacked Andrew Giles was always an immigration disaster waiting to happen. Giles made his career as a boat-chasing ‘asylum seeker’ lawyer, whose first big gig was shilling for a shifty bunch of Tamils who hijacked the ship that rescued them and tried to strong-arm the Howard government.
To the surprise of absolutely no one, Giles’ tenure was a disaster, marked by the release of hundreds of dangerous foreign criminals from immigration detention.
Disaster, did I say? Meet the new immigration minister: Tony Burke.
Mr Burke last served as immigration minister from July 1, 2013 until the election in September that year. He averaged more than one unauthorised boat arrival per day during his tenure – the highest of any of his predecessor Labor ministers.
The last few months have already seen warning signs that the boat trade is about to fire up again. The apparently undetected arrival of at least one load of illegal immigrants is as unsurprising as that it’s happening under a Labor government.
As Mr Burke headed to Indonesia for high-level security talks, new figures revealed surveillance flying hours for Operation Sovereign Borders fell a further 2 per cent last financial year after a 20 per cent drop in 2022-23, while maritime surveillance hours were down 7 per cent after a 12 per cent fall the previous year.
OSB commander Brett Sonter said surveillance was “key” to the agency’s mission, and he was filling the gaps with Australian Defence Force assets, including submarine-hunting P-8A Poseidon jets and C-130J transporters.
OSB’s latest update confirms three people-smuggling boats carrying a combined 49 people were intercepted in June. The official figures don’t yet include interceptions in July, during which Australian Border Force personnel turned back more than 70 people from at least two people-smuggling ventures.
As the opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson points out, there have been 19 boats since Labor won the last election.
“If people smugglers keep breaking through, we will only get more of them.
“Tony Burke knows exactly what that’s like from when he was last in the job in the disastrous Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era, when 83 boats carrying 6634 illegal arrivals showed up in just 80 days on his watch. We can’t afford a repeat of his failures.”
Burke’s new role also throws a harsh light of hypocrisy on to Labor’s sneering at former PM Scott Morrison as “Minister for Everything”.
Mr Burke, alongside the home affairs portfolio, has been given immigration and multicultural affairs, cyber security, and arts, while retaining his position as leader of the House.
That’s a whole lot of jobs to screw up, but never underestimate the Albanese Labor’s ability to well and truly cock up anything and everything.
