Frank wrote on Jan 10
th, 2025 at 10:43am:
Albanese made big promises on national security. Almost everything he promised has come to nothing. One of his commitments was to Australia having a commercial fleet, a merchant navy. In emergencies governments can requisition ships that carry their national flag.
When Labor came to office there were two Australian-flagged international merchant ships. Now, at the end of a full term, there are none. There has of course been a review. There are of course future plans.
But more important than what governments say is what they do, and here we have nothing. There are a few modest vessels that chunter between mainland Australia and Tasmania but none that work internationally. Union power means we’ll never have such a fleet. In the contest of union power versus national security, the Albanese government abandons national security.
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The government decided to give Palestinians from Gaza wishing to come to Australia visitor visas. It should have announced this, and told the public what it was doing and why. Instead the information had to be dragged out of it piecemeal. When the government was talking to a national security audience the subtext was: we’re doing almost nothing, so there’s nothing to see here.
When it was talking to its own activist base, or Muslim voters in southwest Sydney and elsewhere unhappy that the government has shown even a schmick of sympathy for Israel, its message was: look, we’re rapidly advancing visas categories for Gaza Palestinians, so much more generously than the other guys would.
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The government made things a million times worse by verballing Burgess in his description of the security checks applied to Palestinians wanting to come to Australia. The government claimed Burgess said ASIO was involved in the processing of every applicant. In fact Burgess had said that if certain triggers were established, then ASIO got involved.
That’s a huge difference. For the Prime Minister to claim otherwise is just absurd.
However, Burgess has also created a very big problem for the government. On the Insiders program, Burgess said some moderate degree of support for the Hamas terror group would not be The government made things a million times worse by verballing Burgess in his description of the security checks applied to Palestinians wanting to come to Australia. The government claimed Burgess said ASIO was involved in the processing of every applicant. In fact Burgess had said that if certain triggers were established, then ASIO got involved.
That’s a huge difference. For the Prime Minister to claim otherwise is just absurd.
However, Burgess has also created a very big problem for the government. On the Insiders program, Burgess said some moderate degree of support for the Hamas terror group would not be an obstacle to someone wanting to come to Australia, so long as that person did not share the Hamas ideology.
In 45 years of professional journalism I can never remember any previous minister or official saying it was OK to support a terrorist group, provided that support was just verbal or some such. Even less is this all right for someone seeking to come to Australia. Is it OK to give verbal support to al-Qa’ida, or Islamic State, or even the Ku Klux Klan?
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Moral and political leadership is the province of government, and the political process more generally. It’s not the province of security chiefs.
It’s a sign that a government is bankrupt of moral authority when it tries to conscript the apolitical authority of an institution such as ASIO to serve its political cause.
Hamas is not only a terrorist organisation. Its charter contains the most foul and vicious traditional anti-Semitism. The government must clarify what it means to say some degree of support for Hamas is no problem. The opposition would be failing its duty to the nation to leave this matter unresolved.
Greg Sheridan
Well - Burgess is not an 'insider', you understand - nobody really pays much attention to him, being as he is an anointed mouth-piece for the government and not a true national security functionary. He is there to provide mis and dis information and obfuscation... squid's ink to cloud the realities.
**now you know why I was on the road to 'being there' when I fell gravely ill with heart trouble... they simply don't have the staff to properly scrutinise applicants - which is a worry - and immigration etc VERY often 'out-source' such things to 'tame' co-countrypeople of those seeking to get in.
You work that one out for yourself... who guards the immigration guy while the immigration guy guards you and your borders? It was bad enough with affirmative action to 'speak-a da lingo', and divided loyalties and dual+ citizenships - now it is worse ... much worse.... and Australia is in dire need of good people and true to come to the party and defend the realm.
It's one thing to employ a Musso to do the rounds AS a Musso amongst the Mussos - it's another to be able to fully trust him/her. When you play that game, the lines can become blurred, and never more so than with a fanatical religion involved.
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Why Labor cannot be trusted with national security (Read 4363 times)
