Crowds protest against Australian Border Force visa checks in the Melbourne CBD August 28, 2015
The Federal Government says the cancelled police operation in Melbourne involving border force officers had nothing to do with the Immigration Minister, but Labour is calling for him to give a full explanation
Australian Border Force (ABF) commissioner, Roman Quaedvlieg, said yesterday a “clumsily worded” media release preceded the cancellation of Operation Fortitude by Victoria Police, after a public backlash to the suggestion officers would be randomly stopping people to check visas
Assistant Education Minister Simon Birmingham said it was up to Mr Quaedvlieg to find out what went wrong
“He was clear that the minister’s office was not involved in the issuing of that statement and it is really now up to him to get to the bottom of how this mistake occurred within his agency,” Senator Birmingham told Sky News
“The Government does not sanction and would not sanction random stoppages of people on the streets of Australian cities”
The original media statement from ABF said officers would be “speaking with any individual we cross paths with” and people should be “aware of the conditions of your visa”
Mr Quaedvlieg said it was approved at a “low-level”, which was the ABF commander for Victoria and Tasmania, Don Smith, who was directly quoted in the statement
Opposition Immigration spokesman Richard Marles said it was a “high farce” and the Minister Peter Dutton should front the media
“Frankly to put a person in uniform up in front of a press conference as he did yesterday and go into hiding himself is gutless,” Mr Marles told Channel Nine
Mr Marles said there were unanswered questions about what the ABF officers were going to do
“I tell you what you don’t do, you don’t announce an operation ahead of time where you’re going to stand on tactically located street corners around Australia and ask the question of anyone who crosses their path,” he said
“I think we need to hear from the Minister about how they actually plan in a serious way to deal with the question of visa fraud. This was just a joke”
A spokesman for Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said yesterday ministers do not direct operations and the cancellation of the operation was a matter for Victoria Police