For years under this government, what is now the Home Affairs portfolio has operated in a political culture of complete impunity, no matter how incompetently its officials have behaved, and no matter how many times it placed people at risk.
We’re now seeing the results of that absence of accountability in coronavirus illnesses and deaths that stem directly from failings by the Australian Border Force (ABF).
The history of what was Immigration and Border Protection, since the merger of Immigration and Australian Customs in 2015, and which became Home Affairs in 2017, is a history of remarkable bungling, documented in a long line of audit reports and parliamentary committee inquiries.
They include a billion dollar tender process repeatedly stuffed up, a lack of oversight of compliance by visa holders, a spectacular blowout in illegal entries via airports, asylum seeker detainees killed and dying from lack of treatment, the detention and deportation of Australians, persistent cybersecurity failings, the abandonment of the 457 visa program, and the use of the Federal Police against journalists and whistleblowers for political purposes.
But at no stage has the leadership of the portfolio accepted responsibility for those failings.
Instead, journalists, refugee advocates, the Australian National Audit Office, the PNG government and asylum seekers themselves have all been blamed by Minister Peter Dutton or departmental officials at some point for failures within the portfolio — or they failed to understand that the problems didn’t actually exist and were the product of misinterpretation.
Even when the government itself admitted the 457 visa program had “lost credibility”, this failure somehow seemed to have occurred without anyone being responsible.
The coronavirus crisis should have been a crisis tailor-made for management by Home Affairs. Not merely was Home Affairs charged with keeping Australians safe, but it had responsibility for Australia’s borders and Australia’s biosecurity, it houses our emergency management and disaster preparedness functions, it has a major network across the region gathering information, and it oversees the Federal Police.
And Home Affairs understands the particular biosecurity threat posed by cruise ships. “Cruise ships are subject to customs, immigration and biosecurity controls when entering and/or departing Australia,” according to the Australian Border Force website.
In early March, Australian Border Force commissioner Michael Outram told Senate estimates:
We have worked hand-in-hand with the departments of health, agriculture, education, skills and employment, foreign affairs and trade, defence and industry to coordinate a holistic approach to the health emergency. Specifically, the ABF have been focusing on travel movements at borders and ports … we have continued to successfully enforce these measures, minimising the impact on travellers where possible through regular and thorough engagement, including with airlines, ports, maritime authorities and the cruise-ship industry.
On March 16, Scott Morrison announced that:
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.
But Home Affairs bungled again. Three days later, ABF and NSW Health waved 2700 passengers, over 500 of whom were ridden with coronavirus, off the Ruby Princess and into the community.
Currently, more than 10% of all virus cases in Australia were passengers on the ship, as well about a fifth of Australian deaths.
With another bungle came more excuses and blame-shifting. Outram blamed NSW Health for the disaster, in contradiction of Morrison’s March 16 restriction (which made clear the federal government would stop foreign ships) and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s attribution of blame to ABF.
This morning, Dutton claimed that cruise ship lines were also guilty of “lying” about the state of health aboard their ships.
That marks quite a turnaround in attitude toward cruise ship operators: prior to the crisis, Home Affairs boasted of how it worked with cruise lines to develop a “trusted operator model” to expedite immigration clearance for cruise ship passengers.
A number of cruise ships remain offshore of Sydney, and one in Perth, refusing to depart Australian waters. The head of Carnival Australia is demanding that the Ruby Princess again be allowed to dock in Sydney, claiming cruise lines support 20,000 jobs.
The premier of Western Australia, Mark McGowan, is frustrated with the failure of Home Affairs to end a stand-off with a cruise ship that refuses to leave Fremantle.
Remember that this is the portfolio that had no qualms about repeatedly forcing boats of asylum seekers back to Indonesia when they tried to enter Australian waters.
Yet it is apparently powerless to force the boats of “trusted operators” away.
Less clear is how many cases will result from another debacle, at Sydney Airport last week, when returning travellers were crowded together to access Customs, with ABF personnel reportedly saying the need for social distancing measures was “not their problem”.
That was blamed on Sydney Airport, which used to be government-owned but which was privatised in the 1990s, meaning no one can be held to account for what might lead to another cluster of infections — a good example of how privatisation has allowed politicians and officials to evade responsibility for bungles that once would have led to resignations.
The entire point of Home Affairs — and the draconian and ever-increasing powers it wields — is that it was supposed to unify previously disparate security functions to improve the security of Australians, including biosecurity.
There would be no more fragmentation, no more silo thinking, no more miscommunication between agencies around protecting Australians — we would have a tough-as-teak, bespoke super-portfolio dedicated to the task.
Hundreds of virus cases and multiple deaths later, all we’ve got from them is excuses. But we shouldn’t be surprised — it’s how the department has operated for years.
“This morning, Dutton claimed that cruise ship lines were also guilty of “lying” about the state of health aboard their ships.”
It was reported that in January the MUA warned the NSW Ports Authority about the likelihood of ship’s Captains failing to report the true extent of infections/sick folk on board. Of course with the MUA being full of “lefty unionists” there was no way our LNP-run State and Fed. leaders would pay them any heed.
I deal with International Quarantine matters on a regular basis, & get AQIS training every 2 years as a result, & that claim of ship lines ‘Lying’ doesn’t really hold any water. In my training, I am taught to treat ALL incoming goods as potentially containing dangerous materials, even if the sender has assured me otherwise.
“Self Regulation At Work.”
Under a government of dead-ends that includes Dutton, Robert and Taylor with “Keep It Simple And Stupid” Scotty bestride all of them :- “The F**k Starts Here”.
“That was blamed on Sydney Airport, which used to be government-owned but which was privatised in the 1990s, meaning no one can be held to account for what might lead to another cluster of infections”
If no one can be held to account the is not a problem of privatisation. It is a problem inherent in the nature of the licensing agreement, lease clauses (it is on Crown land) or contract between the airport or the government.
I am no apologist for privatisation, but it’s a fact that public servants and their legal staff are timid, unimaginative, manipulable pygmies when it comes to setting up the terms of their relationship with suppliers.
I’m not a public servant but find the blanket accusation that public servants and their legal staff are timid, unimaginative, manipulative pygmies in any context offensive. It may be that they are hamstrung by the directives from their ‘mamagment’ or the owners of their ‘managment’ but whatever the reasons a derogatory all inclusive insult of that nature is simply unacceptable. I’m fairly certain that confronting an individual with an insult such as that would produce an interesting outcome. On the other hand having had recent dealings with some unimaginative bureaucratic people in private enterprise (large and small) who have serious questions to answer in regard to their technical expertise I’d suggest looking a bit further afield for someone to insult.
Agreed, it’s up to the politicians to dictate what regulations should accompany privatisation. Just about every major privatisation has been a disaster one way or an other for the rest of us, usually monetarily. It is clear they didn’t care a damn as long as they got their money.
@ Unimpressed.
Agree wholeheartedly with you !!
“but it’s a fact that public servants and their legal staff are timid, unimaginative, manipulable pygmies when it comes to setting up the terms of their relationship with suppliers.”
or it could be that with the creeping politicisation of the public service, the average grunt public servant knows that their superiors are political operatives, and it’s not good for your career to question the party line.
PUBLIC SERVANTS, THE AFP, NEWS CORP JOURNALISTS AND ABC MANAGEMENT , ALL SUBJECTS OF THIS POLITICALLY CORRUPTED COALITION GOVERNMENT AND SLAVISHLY DO AS THEY ARE TOLD.
Well said, bb!!
The politicisation of our public (and private?) institutions is complete…so we know who is at fault here!!!
“…. it’s a fact …”?
To quote Moynihan “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”
To put it more clearly in case you missed the point, ‘utter bollocks’ KeithT.
You have no idea how the public service works, or how it has been emasculated by the neoliberal forces.
Also, why all the pygmy hate?
If there was any justice in the world Dutton would resign. About the only thing his department manages to do is torment helpless refugees.
No , he would be sacked !! 🙂
Hung drawn quartered etc… not that I’d advocate violence!
Justice, fairness, integrity and honesty left this LNP regime a long time ago
The Minister has gotten away with misrepresenting things for far too long, remember the Sudanese gangs plaguing Melbourne let alone the au pair girls. It seems that this government will never do anything to address wrong doing of any kind on their part. In fact if you take into account actions such as our Prime Minister claiming as his mentor a person censured by a Royal Commission and trying to get that person into the White House (and that could mean that person repesents Australia in some manner), the sports rorts, paying for ‘overland water flows’ etc. etc. it would seem that this government celebrates wrong doing on their part and their financial policies would indicate that they arguably celebrate wrongdoing on the part of their owners.
But isn’t that their interpretation of what they were elected to (not?) do?
Isn’t that the message that too much of our failing acquiescent->complicit media is reinforcing for them?
I think this fairly well illustrates the problems with “super departments” – they are big and ponderous.
And the Home Affairs Department is especially so, and it is about as dim as the minister responsible.
There should be a royal commission into this when life returns to “normality”.
There should be a royal commission into the way this covid-19 is being handled. One of the questions should be why the federal govt hasn’t revised and continually reviewed the pandemic preparedness plan since 2008. This amounts to negligence leading to grievous bodily harm not only to thousands of Australians but to our economy as well.
Hey Wayne,
It is not the fault of all the officers of Home Affairs and ABF – they are not the dim ones, most are unbelievably hard working, swimming against the current. They are not the problem here. They are just the demoralised punching bags, shafted by the appalling senior leadership group, who include the majority of the Senior Executive Service – mostly imported into the organisation by Pezzullo – and everyone else in the executive food chain, all the way up to Dutton, Pezzullo and Morrison.
One day I hope someone does a PhD case study analysis of extremely poor leadership situations in Western Civilisations. Home Affairs / ABF should definitely be in there!!!!!
There needs to be two Royal Commissions after this. The first would be re the pandemic. The second should be into Home Affairs. Ruby Princess could be covered off in either.
There are many studies of this sort of failure. Irving Janis provides a perfect example with the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba by JFK’s administration, considered one of the brightest US administations ever. It brought “groupthink” out of fiction and into reality.