Security in clumsy hands of ignorant independents

Australian democracy is being compromised by a small group of independents which wields disproportionate power in the house. The group of MPs is proposing that the bipartisan approach to strong border security be dismantled. It wants ­unelected medics to enjoy discretion over who enters Australia.

Independents once were considered a viable alternative to traditional party politics. But as their power has increased they have become opportunists who act as scavengers on the body politic. They exploit declining public trust in government to capitalise on disaffected voters. They use wedge politics to divide the major parties on policies that exist to protect the national interest. The astonishing abuse of power contradicts crossbenchers’ claim to represent the sensible centre.

Kerryn Phelps is a newly minted independent MP who thinks doctors should have the power to determine what refugees and asylum-seekers can enter the country. It is unclear how a health degree confers the expertise required to manage border security, but the idea has taken hold in progressive circles. The next great leap forward in Western medicine is club medic, where doctors without voters manage Australian borders.

The independents are enthusiastic about dismantling Australia’s rational ­approach to border security. Phelps’ proposed medical evacuation bill would amend the Migration Act so medics can order the transfer of asylum-seekers and refugees from offshore processing centres to the mainland. Labor and the Greens supported the passage of the bill through the Senate. They ridiculed advice from Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton that handing power over border security to unelected ­officials was a risk to national security.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the Australian Government Solicitor have raised serious concerns about the medical evacuation bill. The solicitor advised Scott Morrison that giving control to doctors would “drastically limit” ministerial discretion over who can enter Australia. In a declassified briefing note provided to The Australian, ASIO has warned the medivac bill “would render the government powerless to conduct proper security threat assessments or stop transfers to the mainland”.

Despite expert warnings, some refuse to acknowledge the threat posed by the Labor and Greens-backed bill. They contend it poses no risk because people granted refugee status already have passed background checks. But many criminals are granted refugee status because asylum-seeker vetting is so complex.

People-smugglers and their cargo often destroy documentation prior to arriving in their country of choice to gain refugee status preventing authorities’ conducting criminal history checks.

They are well-trained in the art of deception. There is so much evidence of criminal evasion in asylum-seeker populations that the conmen have earned the name fake refugees. We pay for their vetting. We pay for their housing. We pay their legal fees, education and medical costs. We pay for their resettlement. We pay for their welfare.

While genuine refugees should be considered for resettlement in Australia, we should not entertain the fantasy that refugee status is evidence of sound character.

In 2017, the government reported boat arrivals were claiming $250 million a year in welfare income support alone while thousands declined to provide information about their identity or apply for refugee status. Most of the 7500 asylum-seekers had entered Australia under the Labor government. Dutton said it had cost more than $13.7 billion to process 50,000 asylum-seekers who arrived on boats after Labor weakened border security.

The proposed medivac bill reflects a mixture of arrogance and incompetence among politicians, many of whom lack ­experience in government policymaking. Apparently, they didn’t bother with the proper checks and balances to ensure it would serve the national interest.

If the political Left had done due diligence on the bill, it would have consulted the relevant authorities and discovered its fatal flaws.

For example, the government has exposed a loophole in the ASIO Act 1979 which defines security as threats to the homeland, including espionage and politically motivated crime but excluding other forms of criminality. In effect, the medivac bill could permit paedophiles, rapists and murderers to enter Australia if they were classified as refugees and unelected medics ordered their evacuation from offshore processing centres.

Late last week, Labor shifted its position on the bill as numbers were circulated showing it would cost $1.4bn by 2023. Most of the cost — $1.2bn — would be for reopening and managing the Christmas ­Island detention centre. As reported in The Australian, the Department of Home ­Affairs believes most of the 1000 individuals living on Nauru and PNG would try to enter Australia on medical grounds if the medivac bill becomes law.

The hubris of the independents is staggering. They expect Australians to pay $1.4bn for a policy that will green light the people-smuggling trade and put unelected medics in charge of who enters the country.

And they have the gall to demand that the government of the day conforms to their destructive demands. Key independent Rebekha Sharkie took a predictably populist line on the proposed bill, saying she “trusts the doctors over the politicians”.

When The Australian asked about Sharkie attending a prime ministerial briefing about it, her spokeswoman said: “We don’t know what the government is going to propose. Sometimes you go to these briefing meetings and they don’t move at all, they just use it as another opportunity to tell you what they’re thinking.”

Why should a government with internationally recognised expertise in border security compromise for crossbenchers who lack the requisite expertise to craft policy in the national interest?

Australians cannot afford to pay billions for queue-jumping, country-shopping asylum-seekers who cheat the system and deprive genuine refugees of sanctuary. But the independents want more of our money to prop up unsustainable border policy.

The government has a golden opportunity to expose Labor’s record of incompetence on border security. If Labor and the Greens want to provoke an early election over the malformed medivac bill, give them just enough rope.