Speechless

More Stupid Than We Ever Could Have Imagined

Just when you thought this government couldn't get any lower, any dumber, any deeper into the poo, along comes yesterday's gem of a cockup, Border Force. Lenore Taylor has the shortest, sharpest knockout here so let's defer to her for moment.

It began with a morning press release, announcing proudly that our new “border force” – a revamped and armed version of the frontline activities of immigration and the customs service that began operations in July – would be part of a big “crime crackdown” in Melbourne on the weekend. 

“ABF officers will be positioned at various locations around the CBD speaking with any individual we cross paths with,” said the border force regional commander in Victoria and Tasmania, Don Smith. 

“You need to be aware of the conditions of your visa; if you commit visa fraud you should know it’s only a matter of time before you’re caught out.” 

Immediately apparent to pretty much everyone except Smith, or whoever writes his press releases, was that this would require border force to “profile” who they questioned, or else uselessly question an awful lot of people out having fun on a Saturday night, that it would mean they were asking for documentation without any real reason to think the person had committed an offence and that – given all the pre-warning – anyone who really had a problem with their visa would probably be elsewhere. 

It was also pretty obvious this was border force establishing its paramilitary credentials as a law enforcer (it can now carry arms, detain people and gather intelligence) with a remit far beyond our borders.

Turns out there is a good reason to follow proper process when it comes to paramilitary and law enforcement type things – the kind of processes the actual military and police force often have.

By the time I heard about it on the ABC radio at midday, it was all ablaze. Public fury grew and by mid afternoon the goons had to back down. And so now we're picking up the pieces of the aftermath trying to figure out what kind mentation led to this escapade/fiasco.

It's most likely the fact that the Abbott Government can't come up with anything that wins the support of voters except banging on about security - so presumably they thought if they could bring that tough stance on immigration and terrorists and death cults like ISIS/ISIL to the street level, then people might be impressed. That they chose to unleash the stupidity in Melbourne CBD goes to show how tone deaf they are about just who might be impressed and who might be objecting. The last I looked, where they staged this 'Operation' is in the middle of Adam Bandt's seat - arguably the Urban Green Left hipster bastion of Australia outside Marrickville Council. Like, uh, hello is there anybody in there Mr. Abbott?

Others have dissected fully just how misguided and terrible this action was, so I won't go into it too deeply but I will suggest that this desperate stunt is surely a sign that Tony Abbott's time as Prime Minister is terminal. Surely the Coalition can't keep going with this; surely the Liberal Party cannot keep going with this; because the Australian public sure can't keep going with this stupidity. And if they can't replace him in a spill, the Governor General needs to step in and sack this government.