Culture

Australia Reflects On Yesterday’s Border Force Mess; #PutOutYourPassports Trends Nationally

Well played, Twitter.

by Hannah Hawkins  29 August 2015

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In a chaotic timeline of less than five hours yesterday, the Australian Border Force both announced and cancelled “Operation Fortitude” — a multi-agency operation including Victoria Police that would have seen them patrolling Melbourne’s CBD to randomly check visas over the weekend. Just after 10am, ABF regional commander Don Smith said officers would be stationed at various locations and “speaking with any individual” they “cross paths with”. “You need to be aware of the conditions of your visa; if you commit visa fraud you should know it’s only a matter of time before you’re caught out,” Smith said.

This was obviously not received well — the internet exploded with rage and a snap protest attracting hundreds was held outside Flinders Station, eventually blocking off a major intersection — and little over two hours after the original announcement, the ABF attempted to correct its previous statements, saying “the ABF does not and will not stop people at random in the streets and does not target on the basis of race, religion, or ethnicity” before they cancelled a press conference and the operation altogether. There are pubescent high schoolers stumbling through their first class powerpoint presentation less embarrassed than the ABF right now.

In a statement on Facebook, Victoria Police said they chose not to go ahead with operation because of a “high level of community interest and concern”, but a more detailed answer and a statement from the Immigration Minister Peter Dutton — or Prime Minister Tony Abbott — has not yet been given (although Independent MP Andrew Wilkie’s intense statement basically comparing Abbott to Joseph Stalin would have outshone anything the government could have said anyway).

But like most Australian political events that attract high levels of scorn and a plethora of new relevant Facebook accounts, the huge amounts of indignation expressed by the public proved that Australian society is clearly not ready to get steamrolled quite that much just yet — and that hashtags will forever be our solidarity action of choice. Overnight, #PutOutYourPassports began trending across Twitter, possibly overtaking the Bronwyn Bishop-inspired #PutOutYourWallets in popularity, and giving the government another clear sign that, if anything, at least it’s good for comedy.

Photo via Twitter.