Joseph Stalin would be proud of Tony Abbott. Just as East Germany’s Stasi would be delighted with the Australian Border Force. Why even General Pinochet would be impressed.
The decision by the Federal Government to cancel this weekend’s security operation in Melbourne is a welcome respite, for now at least, but the Government has shown its hand by planning the operation in the first place.
The community was outraged at the prospect of the random visa checks and should remain incensed with the Government for thinking such an activity would be acceptable in the first place.
Australia is now a police state where citizens could be stopped in the street to have their papers checked. Are we to presume the enemies of the state will start to be disappeared?
Since the terrorist attacks in the US in 2001 Australians have been subject to countless new security law excesses, including the mandatory retention of metadata by the current government.
To now have the prospect of the Australian Border Force “randomly” stopping people in Australia is surely the final straw.
• phill Parsons in Comments: As I stood before the Clockwork Orange I pondered what runs through Australia’s veins. Where has a fair go gone, where is my miners licence, will the Eureka flag have to fly again? Shades of the Border States asking people looking like Latinos “Que es tu pueblo?” Trump may trump US all yet but I for one do not want to regret what has made Australia, its good and bad, to live in fear of my neighbours. Lest we forget, because the Tony government has.
