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Armchair_Politician
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Our ABC, and Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, choked the pre-election airwaves with wild predictions that the Coalition's turn-back-the-boats policy was unworkable.
Now the evidence is in that a number of boats have been successfully turned back, both the national taxpayer-funded broadcaster and the Greens immigration spokesman are conducting their own reversal of sorts - they are now noisily protesting that the boats should not have been turned back.
Hanson-Young, who appears to have been given a permanent news slot at "our" ABC, is competing with the cicadas for cacophany.
The Senator flippantly shrugged off any Greens responsibility for contributing to the deaths of about 200 people who tried to enter aboard an illegal people smuggler boat in December 2011 with the astoundingly superficial comment: "Tragedies happen, accidents happen."
Hanson-Young is now dismayed the Australian naval personnel may be responsible for saving lives at sea.
Speaking to "our" ABC after Indonesian authorities reported at least two illegal people smuggler boats had returned to Indonesia (there have been more), the pointless South Australian said the people-smuggler passengers "could have drowned".
Her stupidity was in marked contrast to the measured words of the Indonesian police chief Senior Commander Hidayat on the island of Rote, who explained to Indonesia's Antara news service why the Australian navy provided the passengers with life vests and communication equipment before sending them back into Indonesian waters.
"The Australian Navy knows the local ship crews will usually put leaks in boats that aim to enter Australian waters, thus they took the initiative to anticipate it," Hidayat said.
It is obvious from the Indonesian media reports that the Abbott government's policy of permitting the Australian military to oversee Operation Sovereign Borders in concert with its Indonesian counterparts is bearing fruit.
Unlike the Rudd government's unsuccessful policies, supported by Hanson-Young and her Greens colleagues, the new approach has already discouraged hundreds, if not thousands, of people from risking their lives attempting to enter Australia illegally.
Indonesian military commander General Moeldoko has said the Australian government's decision to turn back a boat carrying would-be migrants attempting to reach its shores was "justifiable" as he had made an agreement with the Australian Defence Force.
He said both countries had agreed to the action: "Following (our) halted military co-operation with Australia, (Australia's) defense force chief (General David Hurley) called me to discuss several issues, including how to deal with the boat people.
"He told me Indonesia should understand if Australia drove back undocumented migrants attempting to enter the country using Indonesian boats or if any Indonesians were found aboard. I have agreed. Therefore, we don't need to feel offended."
General Moeldoko would be bemused to learn his clarity of thought would enrage Hanson-Young and those at "our" ABC, who have worked so hard to undermine Australia's national interest by fomenting distrust between Australia and Indonesia.
Former Labor leader Mark Latham was absolutely correct when he said the Greens and the Labor left and their "so-called compassionate" approach to asylum seekers was causing deaths at sea. "You can't be compassionate and you can't have a good heart, you can't have a good soul, if you encourage people to get on boats that sink," Latham told Sky in 2011. "And people just need to understand that the real compassionate policy is to stop the flow of the boats."
The Indonesian police have confirmed that the boats turned back were "rented" from Indonesian fishermen and the crews which were endeavouring to help the undocumented arrivals enter Australia were Indonesians. Unfortunately they escaped after the local Indonesian police transferred them as well as other crew and passengers to Kupang.
The contrast between the Abbott government's approach to illegal entrants and that of the Rudd and Gillard governments could not be sharper. Former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd trumpeted his foreign policy forays at mega-volume, dismaying our neighbours and eroding their trust. Similarly, Julia Gillard showed a total lack of diplomatic skill when she shut down the important live cattle export trade without any consultation with either the Australian beef industry or the Indonesians.
Having Australian Generals deal with their Indonesian counterparts collaboratively on the people-smuggler policy has isolated grandstanding politicians like Hanson-Young, and the Labor Opposition leadership team of Bill Shorten, Anthony Albanese, Tanya Plibersek and Tony Burke.
Even Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, ANU-schooled and Labor-leaning, has been dealt out of the main game, which he hinted at by refusing to comment on the reports of boats being towed back to Indonesia because they were operational matters. Natalegawa is too shrewd a politician to take on the large and important Indonesian military institutions within months of a national election in Indonesia, no matter how much air time and print space the ABC and Fairfax offer him.
With the "unachievable" policy of turning back the boats looking better every day, it is the Labor left, the Greens and their media cheer squad who have been left high and dry.
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