Why one boat sparked a political storm

Sam Hawley: On Friday, a group of men managed to do what so many asylum seekers have tried before: arrive on Australian shores after what would have been a perilous journey from Indonesia. And while it’s just one boat, it’s become a political headache for the government that’s been accused of reducing surveillance of our borders. Today, the ABC’s national political lead and Insider’s host, David Spears, on why it remains such a heated issue and if anything really needs to change. I’m Sam Hawley on Gadigal Land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily.

Speersy, you’ve been around politics for a pretty long time now, so you must get a sense of déjà vu when you see the arrival of a boatload of suspected asylum seekers dominating the headlines.

David Speers: There is a sense of déjà vu, Sam. Look, we are a long way from the temperature this issue reached about a decade ago in Australia. But even one boat arrival clearly is enough to trigger a political brawl.

News Report: A battle over borders.

Peter Dutton, Opposition Leader: There’s just no question about the fact that Operation Sovereign Borders is not supported by the Albanese government.

Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister: By definition, Peter Dutton’s arguments are absurd.

Nick McKim, Greens Senator: Peter Dutton just salivates when a boat arrives and of course he salivates because politically he feeds on people’s suffering.

David Speers: This time 39 men turning up in the remote north-west coast of WA. Worth noting though, we have nothing like the scale of the problem being faced right now in countries like the United States or the United Kingdom when it comes to asylum seekers. But the history of this issue in Australia shows it can be a powerful political weapon.

Sam Hawley: So what do we know about these arrivals? Who are they?

David Speers: Well, we know the group of men claim to be from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India and they were found by locals in the tiny indigenous communities of Beagle Bay and Pender Bay in the north-west of WA.

News Report: We just took them home and gave them a feed and water and a shower.

David Speers: They had to wander through mangroves and scrub. It wouldn’t have been easy. They were in two groups, about 21 discovered early on Friday and a further three close to midday. Then another 13 men were discovered later on Friday, about 30 kilometres to the north at the Pender Bay campsite, which is run by a local indigenous family. They told locals they’d arrived by boat from Indonesia. Exactly where in Indonesia they departed from, how long they were at sea, we don’t know. They were all pretty hungry. Some had some minor injuries and the locals gave them mangoes, hot chicken and some first aid to look after them.

Sam Hawley: We can imagine it could have been quite a perilous journey. So where are they now, Speersy?

David Speers: Well, the men were promptly flown to an offshore immigration detention centre in Nauru on Sunday. They join about 12 others in Nauru who were sent there after arriving by boat in November. So it means there’s just over 50 in total now on Nauru where their claims for refugee status will be processed and efforts no doubt will be underway to find a third country to take them.

Sam Hawley: All right, well, let’s now go to the politics of this. We know, as you mentioned, around the world this is a really vexed issue, and the coalition, I think it’s fair to say, is trying to make huge political mileage out of it. The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, says the PM first heard about these arrivals through the media. Is that right?

David Speers: Yes, well, it seems so. The Prime Minister was asked on Friday afternoon as this news was breaking, he appeared at a media doorstop and said that he’d been in the car, wasn’t aware of the details.

Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister: So I’m not, I haven’t been advised about that.

David Speers: Peter Dutton argued he should have been across it.

Peter Dutton, Opposition Leader: Clearly there’s been a catastrophic failure in the system here because this boat has arrived undetected.

David Speers: I think the opposition leader’s more substantive points, though, are about funding for Border Force and the removal by Labor of temporary protection visas. Now, just on the funding, Peter Dutton’s argued that there’s been a $600 million cut in funding to border enforcement.

Peter Dutton, Opposition Leader: They’ve ripped a cumulative $600 million out of Operation Sovereign Borders.

David Speers: This week, to really kill off this line of attack from the opposition, we’ve had the head of Border Force, the Border Force Commissioner, Michael Outram, issue a statement in which he very clearly says Border Force funding is currently the highest it’s been since its establishment in 2015. And in the last year, Border Force has received additional funding, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars to support maritime and land based operations. So that appears to have dealt with the funding argument. As I said, the other argument from the opposition is about the removal of temporary protection visas. And yes, the Albanese government has moved to give those who’ve been on these TPVs, as they’re called, a pathway to permanent residency. It says those who still arrive are going to be sent offshore or turned back. They won’t get a permanent stay. But again, the opposition says this is something of a pull factor, something people smugglers can market.

Sam Hawley: Right, yeah, because back in February last year, the government got rid of temporary protection visas and moved thousands of refugees who’d been here for something like a decade living in limbo onto permanent residency visas, or they gave them permanent residency. And the opposition really didn’t like it, and they still don’t like it.

Peter Dutton, Opposition Leader: I ran Operation Sovereign Borders. I know exactly how these people smugglers work. They will react to a weak Prime Minister and to a weak Minister. And if they see vulnerabilities, they will exploit them.

Sam Hawley: Just back on that issue of funding, though. So the opposition says there’s been a cut in funding, but the head of Border Force says there hasn’t. But it goes to surveillance, doesn’t it? So the opposition argues, and also the deputy Nationals leader, Bridget McKenzie, argues that there are not as many surveillance flights. So how do we know that that’s not the case?

David Speers: Well, we don’t, because while the funding may be there and may be increased, according to the head of Border Force, what’s actually happening operationally is something they prefer not to talk about. Now, whether patrols have changed, the pattern of patrols has changed, where their patrolling has changed, whether there was something on that day or that week that was different, we just don’t know. They won’t go into those operational matters. We know this is a huge border to patrol, and perhaps people smugglers have used a different route here to avoid detection. Boats used to turn up, as we know, on Christmas Island and Ashmoor Reef. It is unusual for a boat to make it to the mainland, but these sort of operational questions still remain unanswered.

Sam Hawley: Well, the Home Affairs Minister, Clare O’Neil, she says the argument coming from the opposition is totally unhinged. That’s her words, of course.

Clare O’Neil, Home Affairs Minister: I’ve heard Peter Dutton wandering around the country in a somewhat unhinged manner, telling what are easily disprovable lies about what is going on with Operation Sovereign Borders.

Sam Hawley: And the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, is arguing that the opposition is actually sending a direct message to people smugglers that the borders are now open. So he’s got the flip side to what the opposition is arguing.

David Speers: That’s right. So the government’s response to all of this has been, well, A, to defend the funding that has been provided, but B, to really go on the attack and suggest that Peter Dutton is a cheerleader or a cheer squad for the people smugglers, that he is trying to encourage them for his own base political reasons to send more boats to Australia.

Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister: Now, Peter Dutton needs to think very carefully about the role that he is playing. And I think it’s there for all to see, whether he’s interested in the national interest or interested in just playing politics.

David Speers: And this is an interesting argument. Is Peter Dutton simply calling out what he believes is a failure when it comes to stopping these boats? Or is he sending a message when he suggests that the government’s lost control of the borders that can be marketed by people smugglers to their clients?

Sam Hawley: Just tell me, Speersy, does the government always tell us when a boat has arrived, or is that something that’s kept secret normally?

David Speers: It’s a good question, Sam. Scott Morrison, you’d remember as Immigration Minister way back when, famously refused to give details about what he called on-water matters. Although he did publicise the arrival of a boat, funnily enough, on the day of the election that he lost as Prime Minister in May 2022. The prime minister broke with years of government policy, deciding to discuss the on-water matters.

Scott Morrison, former Prime Minister: There has been an interception of a vessel en route to Australia. That vessel has been intercepted in accordance with the policies of the government.

David Speers: Look, that was an ill-judged attempt, really, to suggest that people smugglers were anticipating the arrival of a Labor government and a boat had arrived. But look, these days, the Albanese government and Operation Sovereign Borders commanders prefer to keep as much of the operational details secret as possible. We aren’t told, for example, when a boat is intercepted or turned back. But it is pretty hard to keep quiet the arrival of a boat on the mainland when asylum seekers wander out of the scrub and into a remote community and then post for photos that soon appear on social media.

Sam Hawley: This is really tricky, isn’t it, for Labor? Because it has a history where it’s had to backflip on its own border policies under Kevin Rudd. Just remind me about that.

David Speers: Yes, so soon after Kevin Rudd came to power, Labor ended the Howard government’s offshore processing regime, and that led to an influx of asylum seeker arrivals. Yes, there were push factors as well at the time, given what was going on in Afghanistan and other parts of the Middle East in particular. But that pull factor was also there, a much easier path to settle in a high-wealth country like Australia. So we had many boats arriving over that period, and sadly, tragically, we had many people drowning at sea. Famously, boats, one in particular, that crashed into the rocks at Christmas Island, and people died in the water there.

News Report: Many did not have a hope. Massive waves pounded the rocks, launching debris and bodies 20 metres into the air. We saw a truly horrific event, a terrible human tragedy.

David Speers: So this really shifted the politics. It became as much about controlling the borders as it did about saving people from drowning at sea. And ultimately, Labor agreed to reinstate offshore processing.

Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister: If you come here by boat, you’ll be sent to Papua New Guinea. I also have a message for the people smugglers of our region and the world. Your business model is over.

David Speers: And even beyond that, in opposition, it then decided to also embrace the Coalition’s policy of turning back boats at sea, which had also been highly contentious. So in many ways, Labor has capitulated over the years to the Coalition’s hard-line policies on border protection.

Sam Hawley: Yeah, I was going to say, Peter Dutton’s line is pretty familiar, isn’t it? Because the Coalition has always taken a really hard line on boat arrivals. You know, we’ll forever know the slogan, stop the boats, right?

David Speers: Yeah, and it’s always been there are three main pillars, turning back boats, offshore processing and temporary protection visas. So it’s on that last leg, if you like, that there’s still an argument because Labor, given the caseload of people who’d been stuck drifting in limbo on these temporary protection visas, some for more than a decade, it’s moved to phase them out. Well, that is the one point of difference that Peter Dutton is pointing to and saying that that’s still a problem. Without those temporary protection visas, you’re going to be attracting boat arrivals.

Sam Hawley: So tell me, Speersy, how big a problem do you think this is for the government? Because after all, it is just one boat. And as a nation, we do owe protection to people fleeing persecution or war. Is this a major issue at this point for the government to deal with?

David Speers: I don’t think it’s a major problem right now. There was a boat arrival on the mainland in November and another just last week, the one we’re talking about, on Friday. Now, if there are more, clearly this does become a political problem. And you can make a safe bet the word’s gone to Operation Sovereign Borders to step up patrols and make sure there aren’t any further arrivals. But look, from time to time under the coalition, we had the odd boat arrival on the mainland as well. If it’s kept to that, I don’t think this becomes a major political headache for the government. But it really just depends. If more boats do get through and we see an upsurge in asylum seekers and people smuggler activity out of Indonesia in particular, then yes, that could become a problem for the government.

Sam Hawley: And if that does happen, would it need to then tweak its policies again to deter these journeys here?

David Speers: I think that’s going to be hard for Labor to do. I don’t think reversing its position on temporary protection visas is something it would want to do or thinks would make any difference. Because as I say, anyone who does come by boat either gets turned back or sent to Nauru for processing. So it’s not like they’re being offered a visa here in Australia anyway. So it’s hard to see how Labor can strengthen its policy at the moment. As I say, I think it would be more a focus on trying to beef up those patrols where it can.

Sam Hawley: David Spears is the ABC’s national political lead and host of the Insiders program on ABC TV. This episode was produced by Bridget Fitzgerald and Nell Whitehead. Audio production by Sam Dunn. Our supervising producer is David Coady. I’m Sam Hawley. ABC News Daily will be back again tomorrow. Thanks for listening.