If Border Force acts like this in Melbourne, what do they do offshore?

Jeff Sparrow

Did the Australian Border Force seriously intend to address reporters in between Flinders Street’s bagpipe players and spotty-faced emo kids? Apparently so – but with social media in meltdown at the prospect of Peter Dutton’s black-garbed men accosting strangers and demanding their papers, the under-the-clocks press conference quickly descended into predictable chaos.

By 2pm, the steps were already occupied by chanting protesters, whose numbers steadily grew. A harried-looking press officer promised journalists the presser would still take place – but even she didn’t sound like she believed it.

Meanwhile, the department issued a hurried clarification.

Tony Abbott has denied his office had any knowledge of the cancelled Australian Border Force operation in Melbourne on Friday, and said people in Australia would never be stopped by immigration officials in the street checking for visa details.

We would never stop people randomly in the street demanding their visa details. 

The Prime Minister said an Australian Border Force press release that said officers would be "speaking with any individual we cross paths with" was a clumsy mistake, and did not represent government policy.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/prime-minister-tony-abbott-says-border-force-operation-fortitude-was-a-mistake-20150829-gjammd.html

Meanwhile:

Hence why this week Dutton, ex-policeman and current-potato-head was presumably responsible for the latest farce: Border Farce. The scare machine has got boring; no one cares about the ‘death cult’ anymore and the promises to bomb Syria are not having the desired effect of persuading Australians to back a war. Wars are a good way to pass the time in government, and to whip up fear, but when the electorate is just ‘meh’ about the whole thing, it’s no wonder Dutton and Abbott are keen to flick the idea around of perhaps having a civil war. Checking visas in the street is a good way to divide the masses into those who belong in Team Australia and those who don’t. It’s just a game to these crazy cats.

So, like a child who has many books, but hasn’t learned to read them, who has the attention span of a flea and has smashed up all their toys so they don’t work anymore, the Abbott government is so bored they’re playing games, fighting amongst themselves and are taking expensive helicopter rides to party fundraisers because, frankly, they have nothing better to do.

read more: http://victoriarollison.com/2015/08/29/bored-or-panicked/

Beware. Crazy bored cats kill little birdies...

Prime Minister Tony Abbott says those who 'demean' the role of the Australian Border Force should be ashamed

The border farce is doing a self-destruction job... It should be ashamed of having demeaned itself... It should be disbanded forthwith. Turdy should resign for overseeing such SNAFU... Dutton should resign as well for being illiterate since he did not read the Press Release. Go away. 

The heads of the Immigration and Australian Border Force (ABF) departments have apologised for their role in the botched Operation Fortitude, which triggered public outcry and protests in Melbourne.

The joint operation in August was cancelled just hours after Border Force issued a media statement suggesting its officers would be on the streets cracking down on visa fraud.

Department chief Mike Pezzullo told Senate estimates that the ABF had since conducted a comprehensive review of its media procedures and several officers had been formally counselled.

"It is clear that the media release issued that morning was very badly worded and gave rise to the impression that the ABF has general powers of questioning people in the street," he said.

"It does not, and I apologise for the impression that was wrongly created.

"We certainly don't rely on racial profiling at all."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-19/immigration-border-force-chiefs-apologise-operation-fortitude/6864982

Senior officials in the Immigration Department and Operation Sovereign Borders (OSB) have refused to answer questions on claims Australian authorities paid people smugglers to turn back a vessel last year.

Indonesian Police last year alleged that Australian officials paid thousands of dollars to people smugglers to take asylum seekers back to Indonesia.

Both Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and former prime minister Tony Abbott denied the claims at the time, but no comment was given today by Commander of OSB Joint Agency Task Force, Major-General Andrew Bottrell.

When questioned on the claims by a Senate committee, Major-General Bottrell said he was unable to either confirm or deny due to "public interest immunity".

"Any and all engagement that we undertake as part of a return, that may give people smugglers a sense that they have a better understanding of our tactics, will not be discussed today," he said.

Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection Michael Pezzullo also refused to either confirm or deny the claims.

"We're just not commenting on it today," he said.

An Indonesian police chief was last year quoted as saying the six crew members said they had each been given $US5,000 by Australian officials to turn back.

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-05/officials-refuse-to-answer-questions-on-people-smuggler-payments/7143162

Public-interest immunity (PII) is a principle of English common law under which the English courts can grant a court order allowing one litigant to refrain from disclosing evidence to the other litigants where disclosure would be damaging to the public interest. This is an exception to the usual rule that all parties in litigation must disclose any evidence that is relevant to the proceedings. In making a PII order, the court has to balance the public interest in the administration of justice (which demands that relevant material is available to the parties to litigation) and the public interest in maintaining the confidentiality of certain documents whose disclosure would be damaging. PII's have been used in criminal law against large organised criminal outfits and drug dealers where the identity of paid police informants could be at risk.

We now can assume 100 per cent that the payments were made but the Farce cannot divulge by whom.

The head of the Australian Border Force, Roman Quaedvlieg, has taken leave amid a probe into an undisclosed matter.

The justice minister, Michael Keenan, confirmed Quaedvlieg’s absence from official duties late on Monday.

“The ABF commissioner is on leave. A matter is under consideration by appropriate authorities,” Keenan’s spokeswoman said in a short statement.

The government is making no further statement about the matter.

Quaedvlieg, who has led the border force since its inception in 2015, has been quiet on social media in recent weeks. He last tweeted from the ABF commissioner’s official account on 25 May. Calls to Quaedvlieg on Monday were not returned.

Former department of immigration communications boss Sandi Logan drew attention to Quaedvlieg’s absence in Twitter on Monday.

Logan said Quaedvlieg’s “long absence” arose from an “external investigation into his ‘activities’”.

Logan did not specify the nature of the investigation but called upon the ABF to do so. The ABF did not respond to Guardian Australia’s questions on Monday.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jul/03/australian-border...

see also:

http://yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/30736

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Australian Border Force Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg has been sacked after helping his girlfriend get a job within the organisation.

• Interfered to help his girlfriend get a job,
• Misled the Immigration Minister about the relationship,
• Did not properly disclose his relationship to the Government agency in charge of security clearances,
• Did not reveal the relationship when the woman applied to work for Border Force.

Mr Quaedvlieg stepped aside from his $617,000 position in May last year so a review into his conduct with a younger female staffer could be completed by the Prime Minister's department (PM&C).

A second investigation was initiated by the Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity.

In an unprecedented move, the Federal Government has decided that his position should be terminated after the two independent reviews.

The Government said Mr Quaedvlieg failed to disclose a relationship with a woman who was seeking employment with the force when he was in a position to influence the recruitment decision.

It also found he made a false statement to the Immigration Minister about the relationship.

Mr Quaedvlieg has previously denied any wrongdoing.

In a statement this afternoon, he reiterated those denials and said he chose not to resign because doing so would be "tantamount to a concession of culpability".

The Government has described the sacking as extremely unfortunate, but necessary.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-15/roman-quaedvlieg-sacked-from-austr...

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