Goodbye Bronwyn

[Ducatiboy stu]

WTF is this government up to......What are they thinking....

They seem to be going from one ****-up to the next

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-28/operation-fortitude-cancelled/6733008

 

[manticle]

I can imagine the potential for hilarity.

Official: got your visa there mate?
Commuter: um no. I'm going home from work.
O: Where you travelling to?
C:Altona North
O: Got your passport?
C: Um, no. My myki is valid though.
O: Not likely mate. Only train you'll be catching is the first one back to Syria.

 

[Black Devil Dog]

It's clumsy the way they've done it, for sure.

But if someone is overstaying their visa and they have a job, they're preventing a law abiding person from having that job.
It's well known that there are thousands of people who have overstayed their visas, working illegally in Australia.

I thought foreigners taking jobs from Australian's was something the Unions and socialists were against. Depends on the agenda of the day I suppose.

Maybe they could just send out a media release and request all visa over-stayers, voluntarily make themselves known at the local police station.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Its more a case of how they are going about it.....

You really think putting a group of glorified customs officers at train stations is really going to get masses of illegal overseas visitors.

How are you going to tell who is legal and who is not...you certainly cant do that just by looking at them...oh wait...look over there..a terrorist...

They are starting to over step their legal powers

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

 

[manticle]

It's clumsy the way they've done it, for sure.

And that is the point

But if someone is overstaying their visa and they have a job, they're preventing a law abiding person from having that job.
It's well known that there are thousands of people who have overstayed their visas, working illegally in Australia.

I thought foreigners taking jobs from Australian's was something the Unions and socialists were against. Depends on the agenda of the day I suppose.

Really? Not sure many arguments have been made against the law that limits visa stays. Stopping people randomly at flinders st on the other hand is a bit of a shit idea.

Maybe they could just send out a media release and request all visa over-stayers, voluntarily make themselves known at the local police station.

Maybe abf could just realise it's a shit idea and leave it at that. Not sure why you'd want to be an apologist for it or try and make it anything to do with socialism or unionism.

Hey that's a shit idea
Yeah you're right.

Yes I said shit idea several times because it is.

 

[Black Devil Dog]

From the article linked. Under the Migration Act, an officer may require a person who the officer knows or reasonably suspects is a non-citizen to show their ID or their proof of citizenship or visa.

I wouldn't interpret 'knows or reasonably suspects' as "stopping people randomly".

I'm not an apologist, but I'm not an alarmist either.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Immigration officers generaly find most illegal immigrants at their workplace, which makes it really easy as they are all in the one place

Very few get busted just catching a train

 

[manticle]

So they're going to hang out at Melbourne's most used train station to target people who are known or reasonably suspected, rather than target specific individuals at home or work?
I'm not an alarmist either but dare I say it - it's a shit idea. They have gone so far as to realise that, you've admitted yourself it's a clumsy approach.

I doubt it's particularly the government of the day - more likely an overzealous public servant trying to score career advancement points and a manager with no foresight as to the repercussions vs reward.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

But yeah...its a shit idea

Even WEAL would agree with that

 

[Liam_snorkel]

From the article linked. Under the Migration Act, an officer may require a person who the officer knows or reasonably suspects is a non-citizen to show their ID or their proof of citizenship or visa.

I wouldn't interpret 'knows or reasonably suspects' as "stopping people randomly".

I'm not an apologist, but I'm not an alarmist either.

"Reasonably suspect" is discretionary power, come on.

 

[droid]

Random drug tests in the workplace have stopped many a person from having a brekky bong etc, shit idea? whatever, what's the big deal with being stopped and spoken to? I don't have a problem with that. Carrying ID is normal isn't it?

 

[Seaquebrew]

People in dark uniforms checking 'papers' ?

I must live in a vacuum, first I've heard of Border Force

Not something that fills me with joy

 

[Liam_snorkel]

Something something hitler quote.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

A bit of deja vu, same thing happened in UK a couple of years ago, and as usual Australia and UK seem to mimic each other.

http://www.scriptonitedaily.com/2013/07/30/newsflash-uk-border-agency-id-checking-people-of-colour-at-train-stations/

Minister says its nothing to do with him, but obviously it would have channeled its way down from him, I don't have any qualms about Border Protection doing their job, but I don't see how they are going to do it if they don't, as they say, target race, religion or ethnicity.
Would be a much simpler idea to ask employers to sight work visas, although even so without having to do that the ATO declaration form should pick the prospective employee up.
Then you have the brothel workers who come in on a student visa and lay on their back for a year and then go back to whichever Asian country they have come from, no tax paid and a load of AUD gone out of the country.
And a few years ago when we were booming furniture factories were bringing in cheap labour on 3 month visas,wasn't found out until a furniture factory caught fire in the middle of the night in the Western suburbs and the firemen found a couple of dozen disorientated Chinese people wandering about, they worked ate and slept in the factory.

 

[goomboogo]

Maybe, rather than targeting individuals on the street, Borderforce could pay some attention to the business owners who are exploiting the sex workers and factory workers. It's hardly surprising that people are prepared to circumvent the law in order to work in Australia when there are zero opportunities to make reasonable incomes in their native countries. Yet in this country, it's these people who are the recipients of vitriol as opposed to those who take most advantage from the situation.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

It's the businesses who pay cash who should be targeted, go to a Chinese restaurant in Glen Waverley or Springvale and try to pay with plastic, they hold your wife and kids hostage while you have to go off and find a hole in the wall.
While they may not be employing illegals they would be paying lower than award wages and avoiding tax as well.

As for the targeting of train stations, how else is an illegal going to travel, couldn't get a driving licence, they could drive illegally but would eventually get picked up, it is the only feasible place to pick up an illegal, just the manpower going into it that is a waste.

 

[Liam_snorkel]

Haha yeah, "EFTPOS BROKEN" everywhere

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Bob Hawke throws his weight (for what its worth) behind ChAFTA.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/foreign-affairs/bob-hawke-warns-alp-and-unions-on-china-fta/story-fn59nm2j-1227501956380?sv=df188a71101aac7b265bd0c8f9564f53

 

[spog]

It's all Bronwyn's fault.