The image of the rusty, 40m, red-and-white fishing aground on a northern NSW beach is a symbol of embarrassment, even incompetence, for the authorities that are supposed to be responsible for the security of Australia’s coastline. It is one thing for the odd boatload of illegal immigrants to land on the remote north coast, or even for one to land in the less remote coast just north of Cairns as one did a couple of weeks ago. It is quite another matter for one to land, as this one did, in northern NSW. How did it slip through?
As the Opposition immigration spokesman on immigration, Con Sciacca, said, it is incomprehensible that a boat with more than 100 people on board could travel more than 2000km down the Australian east coast without detection.
But before the Opposition works itself into too much of a lather about the matter, it must remember that it has been an disciple, if not a major architect, in Australian naval defence strategy that is seeing us spend millions of dollars on new long-range submarines that will form part of the policy of forward defence and integration with US defence strategies while a rust bucket with illegal immigrants aboard can motor with immunity on to a tourist beach right next to a coastal township.
We need a more realistic assessment of threat here. This boat could contain a great range of security threats: human diseases; threats to agriculture; drugs or guns.
If it were an isolated incident, there would be less need for concern. But it is not. The message our laxity is sending out to illegal immigration and fishing operations is: take your chance. We need more smaller naval and coastal security vessels and less money spent on the few big while elephants.