The head of the government’s border protection effort, Air Vice-Marshal Stephen Osborne, has said he would have “concerns” if a future Labor government changed the structure of Operation Sovereign Borders.
Osborne made a rare entry for a public official into a bitterly contested partisan debate when asked at a press conference on Monday whether he shared Peter Dutton’s oft-repeated view that Labor’s policies would restart asylum boats.
Osborne said the most “appropriate” way for him to express his views in relation to the question was to note that Operation Sovereign Borders “has been very successful now, it is almost four years without a venture”.
“It is built on a very particular structure and, if we make any changes to that structure, I would have some concerns, and we will leave it at that,” Osborne said.
The home affairs minister, appearing alongside Osborne, then shut down further questions about the Air Vice-Marshal’s views.
Dutton has been intensifying his political rhetoric about border protection in the lead-up to a debate at Labor’s looming national conference.
Such debates are a national conference standard, with left faction and activist groups pushing for more humane treatment of asylum seekers.
Holding a copy of Labor’s policy platform, which is now in circulation, Dutton declared on Monday the opposition “would water down the successful elements of Operation Sovereign Borders”.
“Bill Shorten is speaking out of both sides of his mouth when it comes to border protection policy,” Dutton said. “He says one thing to the press and that is that he has got a tough stand on border protection matters, and yet when he is in the Labor party conference, he is telling people there will be a softly, softly approach to border protection policy if the Labor party is to win government.”
Shorten has acknowledged there will be a debate when the party meets in July but says he has no interest in adjusting the government’s policy to turn boats back when it is safe to do so.
“We recognise that the boat turnback policy has been effective, and I have no interest in changing that policy,” Shorten said in late March.
But he said mandatory detention should not result in indefinite detention. “I make one thing very clear: we don’t support the way the government has treated people in detention,” Shorten said.
Labor’s immigration spokesman, Shayne Neumann, has been contacted for a response to Osborne’s intervention.
