It looks a bit worrying doesn't it?
Warning - The words below come from The Guardian (not the UK one).
The price of opportunism
Reports have now surfaced that the Australian Navy fired shots into the air in order to force at least one asylum seeker boat to return to Indonesia. On January 19 it was also revealed that Navy personnel had been stripped of normal workplace safety protection and obligations. That is normally only done when the country is on a war footing.
That initiative removes the obligation of Navy personnel to defend themselves publicly against accusations of abusing asylum seekers. As General Hurley stated, Navy personnel would “not face individual criminal sanctions under the Act for giving effect to government policy.” It would also help minimise public scrutiny of the policy.
Secondly, although we’re obviously not at war, the Australian Navy may well find itself in military action as a result of border incursions. Last week the Indonesian government demanded an end to the turn-back policy and warned it intended to use a frigate to patrol its coastal waters.
Their anger is well justified. The “turn-back” initiatives actions followed hard on the heels of revelations that Australia spied on the Indonesian government, and even tapped the private phone calls of President Yudhoyono and his wife.
On receiving news of the lifeboat escapade Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natalegawa commented icily: “It’s one thing to turn back the actual boats on which they have been travelling, but another issue when they are transferred onto another boat and facilitated and told to go in that direction”.
The Abbott government’s implementation of its asylum seeker policies has been characterised by deception, lies, bullying, cowardice and recklessness. The worst aspects of the Howard government’s failed policies have now been replicated under the Abbott regime, together with a horribly augmented “Pacific solution”, cruel temporary visa arrangements, and a failure to process applications for asylum.
