Operation Sovereign Borders chief’s asylum warning

The outgoing boss of Operation Sovereign Borders has warned that people-­smugglers will be watching the refugee debate.

The outgoing commander of Operation Sovereign Borders has warned that people-­smugglers will be closely watching the political debate over medical evacuations of refugees from Nauru and will be looking for anything that could be marketed to asylum-seekers as a fresh path to Australia.

In an interview with The Australian yesterday, Air Vice-­Marshal Stephen Osborne said the border protection “mission” he has overseen since 2016 had no end in sight and Australia should never again be put in a situation where the Defence Force was “pulling bodies out of the water”.

The Australian can reveal that Major General Craig Furini, a decorated soldier and military planner, will take over as new Operation Sovereign Borders commander on Friday.

The scheduled changeover comes as the political battle over border protection and national security escalates, with the government accusing Labor of trying to water down its border-protection policy before the ALP national conference next week.

Air Vice-Marshal Osborne said people-smugglers monitored the political debate in ­Australia over boats closely and people-smuggling operations had been “suppressed” rather than defeated.

“We know what the impli­cations are for the ADF, let alone the rest of the country, if the boats were to start again,” Air Vice-Marshal Osborne said.

“There is a strong motivation to get it right … I don’t want to be back — and Craig doesn’t want to be back — where our people are pulling bodies out of the water again.”

Air Vice-Marshal Osborne was brought in by the government to offer briefings to crossbenchers and other MPs last week over a bill backed by Labor and the Greens that proposes to fast-track medical evacuations of refugees from Nauru to ­Australia. He would not specifically refer to the Nauru issue but said the problem of people-smuggling would be around for as “long as we can see”.

“Whether it’s in the media, in parliament or Senate estimates or even reports about surveys on what people think about ­anything related to people-smugglers and the like, we know (people-smugglers) will use any means they can whether they are true or not … all they need is that bit of a lever, that bit of a wedge … to try and sell that the path to Australia is open again,” Air Vice-Marshall Osborne said.

“So any discussion that ­affects the policy of OSB and various elements of it … we can expect to be watched very ­carefully and may be used at the very least as a marketing tool.”

Air Vice-Marshal Osborne said he wouldn’t comment further on the asylum-seeker debate “simply because it is so sensitive to both sides … of politics at the moment”.

“The thinking reader will be able to come to their own conclusions,” he said. “My advice is that we have to be careful of whatever we do, we are being watched but I’m also cognisant that we are a democracy, which is something we in the military fight to preserve … and that democratic process in Australia also has to be followed.”

General Furini, who takes over a taskforce that draws from 16 separate government agencies, said he would continue to offer “frank and fearless” advice to the government of the day.

“I don’t underestimate how sensitive this mission is to people of Australia and to politics,” General Furini said.

“The best thing I can do — we have a bit of a saying in the military, certainly in the army about giving frank and fearless advice — I will give my best advice based on my judgment formed from the best information at the time.

“The key message is that nothing has changed (with the change in command). We will continue to detect and intercept every venture that ­approaches Australia and prevent the needless loss of life at sea.”

General Furini, an artillery officer, will be the fourth Operation Sovereign Borders commander since it was established under the Abbott government in September 2013, shortly after the Coalition ousted the previous Labor ­government.

In September, he was awarded the Order of Australia for his role as the director of coalition joint taskforce planning under ­Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Syria.

General Furini has served in British military intelligence and Australian Defence intelligence and, as a colonel, he headed up global operations at HQ Joint Operations Command.

In 2006, he was awarded the Conspicuous ­Service Cross for services to the ­intelligence community. He is also a recipient of the US Legion of Merit. He has also served on the ­national security staff of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and in operations in Cambodia, East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Air Vice-Marshal Osborne, the only RAAF chief to have served as Operation Sovereign Borders commander, said his only advice to his successor was to “play a straight bat”.

“The reality is that it doesn’t matter what happens: you will get one side of the political side of the spectrum or the other, you’ll upset somebody,” he said.

“You just cannot dissociate policy and government policy from OSB … they are critically ­entwined. As a military officer, we will ­follow lawful orders when we are given them to implement under the government of the day’s direction. But obviously because this is one of those philosophical issues almost, it doesn’t matter sometimes about fact or the logic, people quite often are philosophically divided into camps so you will quite potentially upset somebody.”