Nauru oversight a dangerous sign

The failure to keep legislation up to date to allow Nauru to continue to act as a regional processing centre for asylum-seekers who arrive by boat is another example of poor oversight and lack of attention to detail by the Albanese government. Unlike the failure to put in place proper measures for alcohol management in Alice Springs after the sunset clause for the Stronger Futures legislation was triggered, the lapse of legislation regarding Nauru appears to have had little practical impact. But this is due more to luck than design. The lapse left the nation without a clear legal avenue to send asylum-seekers offshore since October last year. The Migration Act provisions designating the Republic of Nauru as a regional processing country expired then, with the Federal Register of Legislation confirming it was “no longer in force” from that time. Incoming government briefs obtained through Freedom of Information legislation show the Department of Home Affairs advised the government that the Migration Act provided the legal basis to send asylum-seekers to a regional processing country.

The federal government has taken the first parliamentary opportunity to fix the problem and now must make the point publicly that the oversight does not reflect disagreement within Labor or a weakening of resolve on the issue of boat arrivals. Illegal immigration has been a weak suit for Labor historically and Anthony Albanese can ill-afford to let the perception grow that his government is going cold on maintaining the strict discipline of Operation Sovereign Borders. Offshore processing in Nauru is a key part of that approach that demands asylum-seekers who arrive by boat will be held in immigration detention offshore while their claims are assessed. The regime has proved successful in breaking the business model of people-smugglers who have profited from a dangerous trade that has resulted in the loss of hundreds of innocent lives at sea. So successful has the Operation Sovereign Borders approach been that it has been adopted by other countries, including Britain, which has been struggling to cope with an influx of refugees from the Middle East and Africa.

The lesson that must be remembered by Labor is that the Rudd government’s flirtation with more open borders was a disaster. Within months of coming to power in 2007, the Rudd government started to dismantle the Howard government policies. More than 50,000 asylum-seekers set sail for Australia on more than 800 boats and more than 1200 lives were lost at sea. This experience, as well as Alice Springs, shows it is much easier to maintain an orderly situation than to try to restore one from a state of chaos.