As one who has steadfastly refused to believe the rhetoric from the usual suspects that it would be impossible to successfully turn back boats I take more than a little pleasure in the reports that boats are being very successfully turned back and I envision those lily-livered lefties choking on their cornflakes with every new story of a successful turn back.
Those disposable orange life boats are looking like a very good investment indeed …
Indonesian media reported that a large orange lifeboat washed up on Pangandaran Beach on Wednesday night.
Ciamis police inspector Firmaansyah was quoted as saying that the 34 asylum-seekers appeared to be from Iran, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan.
“The boat was like an orange-coloured capsule made of fibreglass,” Mr Firmaansyah told Kompas.com.
The boat was closed, with ventilation windows on the top. Inside police found the remains of food and drink.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed the purchase of several large lifeboats, which are known to be used in turn-back operations.
Wednesday’s arrival was the second known instance of the boats having been deployed.
Authorities have begun using the boats in order to stop asylum-seekers from preventing their return to Indonesia by scuttling their own boat.
Yesterday’s news means at least six boatloads of asylum-seekers have now been turned back to Indonesia, either in their own vessels or on the Australian-supplied lifeboats.
The high number of turn-backs coupled with the absence of new boat arrivals suggest turn-backs have become routine procedure, rather than aberrations.
I can’t help but recall a certain gentleman, now in a provincial legal practice*, who was so passionately arguing that we should return people smugglers’ boats so they could be of a better quality and less likely to sink with a resultant loss of life. I can’t help but enjoy a few moments of schardenfraude at the latest as the Australian government goes one better and gives each new cohort of “asylum seekers” brand new boats for their return journey. Oh how the breakfast conversation in that house in NSW must be a total joy as that legal professional tries to find new reasons why the success of turning back the boats is in fact a failure…
Pardon my cavort with nostalgia and imagination but I think that its a very good thing for our nation that those on the left were so wrong about turning back the boats, clearly it can be done and Indonesia has not and will not go to war over us over the return of “asylum seekers” as anyone without the disability of a jellied spinal column has been saying for years.
Cheers Comrades
Iain Hall's SANDPIT 
The message I get is 1. that they are still coming even in the monsoon season! 2. Operation Strategic Stupidity is costing us even more in terms of $$$’s, international relationships and global standing. 3. Eventually the Indonesians are going to get really pissed off and something stupidly aggressive is going to happen. 4. Our whole economy is heavily reliant on Asia, turning into the Asian pariah certainly isn’t going to help the economy.
The solution is a regional one and needs to be addressed regionally, preferably not by gung ho morons intent on behaving like the George Dubya Bush’s of the world. Many people would like to see a more controlled management of asylum seekers — this is not the way to achieve it.
Wonder when the focus is going to turn to asylum seekers coming by aircraft and quietly disappearing into the community?
Deknarf
Fair enough comment, however the numbers are truly miniscule compared to those under Labor’s watch.
Wrong because we no longer have eternal increases in the number of detainees that cost fortune to house and detain, the cost of a couple of disposable orange boats is covered by not detaining the contents of an average of 7 boats a week.
I don’t think so because their bluff has been called. They know that morally they don’t have a leg to stand on because the boats have all come form Indonesia and have been crewed by their nationals. As long as our navy stays out of their territorial waters they can do nothing at all.
Not going to happen as long as those in Asia want our money,our tourists, our minerals or agricultural products.
That ALP line is hokum, the bottom line is that we don’t want or need these illegal immigrants and we have made it clear that if they don’t come the right way then they should not bother trying to come the wrong way.
Success of the strategy says that you are wrong.
Oh I agree that any that get in by air should be deported but their numbers are what precisely?
You see as soon as they “claim asylum” they will be detained…
Umm! It’s the monsoon season and we are not being told how many people in the boats being turned back!
We are still paying for extra boats, housing at the various offshore concentration camps, as well as in oz. Additionally most asylum seekers not permitted to work thereby falling back on the public purse. I understand the boats are worth about $70,000 each plus all the ocean activity from our Navy. And I guess by not mentioning it you agree that our international relationships and global standing is being damaged by our behaviour.
Time will tell on this one. Only takes a gung ho yo yo in a tense situation to loose off a weapon and all hell will break loose. It is now quite apparent that our Navy is entering Indonesian waters without permission.
Most of the materials we supply can be sourced from elsewhere and from countries with a lower costs of production
The solution is a regional one and needs to be addressed regionally, preferably not by gung ho morons intent on behaving like the George Dubya Bush’s of the world.
Had we not happily gone about supporting the American militarism and turning a blind eye to other nefarious activities in various countries many of these asylum seekers wouldn’t be coming at all – there wouldn’t be a need.
Many people would like to see a more controlled management of asylum seekers — this is not the way to achieve it.
While we are still turning back boats the strategy is not succeeding since the boats are still coming. The next step will be for these asylum seekers to move east along the Indonesian island and come directly into Oz. I understand that one boat has already done this.
A few final factoids: 50% of asylum seekers arrive by air of which 45% granted protection status. Those coming by boats, 90% get protection status. 0.3% of world refugees come to Oz.
(formatting fixed for clarity Iain)
Our Navy don’t tell lies, neither does the Catholic Church, and of course our beloved politicians would never lie.
Deknarf
we don’t need to know
You seem to be forgetting that the detainee population is almost entirely an artifact of the failure of Labor’s policy failures.
Maybe but most are not government to government deals and are subject to contractual obligations.
🙄 I just don’t buy this argument about “American militarism” obliging us to take any would be migrant from the third world.
You minions of the left really are in the touchy-feelly softly softly mode of intentional relations don’t you? Well in the real world there are lots of situations were bold and assertive action solves the problem more effective manner than years of meek negotiation. Clearly turning back the boats falls into this category where the Labor government has for years just accepted the claims from Indonesia that they would not accept the return of boats that had originated in their territory. Its now obviously clear that they don’t like their bluff being called and boats being sent back but they also know that they never had any foundation in international law to support their previous refusals.
Oh that is an interesting line of argument but the voyage all the way to our mainland is a logistically bigger deal. None the less as turn backs are not the only thing that is being done to stop the boats. Ensuring that those that get here cannot ever get residency is another:
the only reason that so many were eventually got residency was because of Rudd going soft.
Meanwhile many thousands of over-stayers are here, some are here for years and years— its all a game,who arrived by plane. Some get married—that is the loop-hole now, for getting residency—-a mail -order bride. Bob Carr was once told he had a mail order bride, by a Liberal—snigger-snigger.
People who arrive by plane, are looked upon as a better type of human resource.