Boat People Terror Alert Apricot (Why Jacinda is spoiling for a fight with Australia)

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In response to Jacinda’s increasing public pressure on the Manus Island torture camp abomination, Australia has ‘leaked’ a bullshit report that Refugees are attempting to jump in boats and sail to New Zealand.

Jacinda’s shrewd response to this politically motivated move by the Australian Intelligence apparatus has been to publicly offer Australia $3million to help with the immediate humanitarian crisis on Manus Island.

Australia don’t have a money issue, but Jacinda offering embarrasses Australia further and by stepping up to the leak instead of backing away after it, Australia are starting to comprehend that the new Government intends to push back for the first time in the ANZUS relationship.

As for the ‘boat people’ leak itself, of all the ridiculous things to fear monger over, the threat of asylum seekers swamping us by boat is surely the most absurd.

The idea these refugees would sail past thousands & thousands of Australian coastline to get to NZ sounds like a tourism advert, not reality. ANYONE who can sail 8000 odd Kilometres to NZ by boat should be made to immediately join Team NZ for the next America’s Cup, not deemed an external threat.

Why, why, why would any refugee (or smuggler for that matter) sail past weeks of Australian coastline just to get to NZ? It’s so illogical it’s embarrassing having to recite it. The second refugees see land they tend to desperately fling themselves at it, to think of these people in poorly built vessels committing to landing in NZ while they sail past Australian coastline for weeks on end is a joke looking for a punchline.

Beyond the ludicrousness of believing refugees are going to sail past Australia to land here, the reality is that the new Government are spoiling for a fight with Australia.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com
  • New Zealand citizens are treated like second class citizens in Australia and it is time to start pushing back on that.
  • Australia are exporting by forced rendition NZ citizens for committing crimes in Australia. Many of these criminals have lived their entire life in Australia so their criminal offending is a product of the society they grew up in, not their birth country.
  • Beyond Manus Island, Australia are still running torture camps on Nauru Island and Christmas Island.

The vast majority of New Zealanders resent the way Australia treat us and finally having a Government who will stand up to them is actually going to resonate with many voters.

This is a fight for respect that has been building for a long time and Jacinda ain’t for turning.

38 COMMENTS

  1. Some people cross to Australia and back in row-boats Martyn.
    Most of the world’s fishing fleet is well capable of the journey you identify.
    There would need to be fewer passengers and more provision and fuel so the fare would be higher, but to suggest it is impractical is stupid.
    D J S

    • Please, David Stone, please – get yourself into a row boat and head out into the Tasman. If you make it to Australia – good for you – stay there.

  2. 1.New Zealand citizens are treated like second class citizens in Australia.Yes!

    2. Australia is returning to NZ criminals who have lived their entire lives in Australia.Yes!

    3. Australia is giving preference to refugees who have obeyed the rules and not attempted to entire Australia illegally, like the Manus Island illegals.Yes!
    So why doesn’t Jacinda address points one and two with Australia , instead of acting like Don Quixote De La Mancha with her trusty sidekick Pancho Via Parker and tilting at windmills ? Grandstanding?!

    • +100…she is going out on a limb in NZ public opinion on this one

      ….lets hope it doesn’t backfire badly and cost her and the coalition the next Election

      eg swarms of very big boats heading our way( it is naive to think that people smugglers wont be thinking of this)

      …or so -called refugees who commit crimes in New Zealand against New Zealanders

      ….NZ already has terribly needy New Zealanders in need of housing and jobs

      …by all means bring in more refugees but ones who have gone through the legal channels and are genuine refugees eg .women and children as well , not just young men

      …why alienate the Australians on this issue?….far better to tackle them over extraditing NZers who were brought up in Australia

    • I assume you have proof that this is propaganda Roy.
      If this guy really was a security guard on Manus Is then there is a distinct possibility that he has a better handle on the situation than the usual hand ringers who have never been there and rely on information. which may or may not be true.

    • Yep, I listened to that interviewceith interest.

      “Ian”, that’s the anonymous ex Manus Island…well I don’t really know what he did, sounded precisely like a Newstalk ZB caller essentially summing up the prisoners there as paedophiles and violent criminals. There was no end to the atrocities committed by these sub humans apparently versus the generosity gifted to them by the Australians.

      But the coup d etat was that if they (Jacinda and Labour) push Turnbull too far he slam the door on NZ and we will all need visas. Queue the spooky dramatic music.

      Ian, or whoever you are or represent, who gives a fuck? They treat us like shit anyway. We can bypass the arseholes and enjoy the rest of the world so fuck them!

      It was a chilling tale from the anti government forces that seem to be popping up repeatedly since National lost.

      He rounded off yesterday’s Armageddon reports quite nicely and it shows just how powerful and choreographed the right are at the moment

  3. I actually disagree with what the government is doing because it reeks of hypocrisy. A quick google found this on the internet:
    “The number of refugees and humanitarian entrants Australia accepts has varied in recent years. As of 2015-2016, Australia accepted 17,555 refugees in total.”
    How many refugees does NZ take each year? 750 – 750 compared to 17,555 – it is just pathetic and embarrassing.
    Attempting to undermine Australia’s policy of keeping out unwanted migrants is going to go no-where and appears to me like a way of hiding our own appalling record on helping refugees.
    Jacinda is playing political games and if the government had a genuine concern for refugees it would take practical steps to increase NZ’s in take to 10’s of thousands.
    But, of course, that is unlikely to happen as it would require actual effort and financial resources.

    • Effort and financial resources we can probably manage.

      However, training, jobs, integration and acceptance? We’ve been a bit skint there for decades. Can’t even manage our own, really.

      I hope this doesn’t end up like so many ‘kitten for Xmas!’ cries only to have the poor creature discarded when it becomes costly and inconvenient.

      We’re not greatly into melting pots or forever homes here. Flitting from one feel-good to the next before the first has ever been settled well.

    • Generally NZ has no business meddling in Australia’s affairs.

      The way they treat Kiwi’s there is not the way we treat Aussies here, but that’s beside the point.
      It’s their country so they make their rules.

      Sending crims back back to NZ when they learned their trade in Australia and haven’t really lived here is obviously wrong – a cunning move on Australia’s part to get rid them. ( That’s how a lot of Aussies got there remember)
      That’s a legitimate issue for Jacinda to discuss but it will fall on deaf ears.

      Bringing up the refugee issue again, when Turnbull has already said no, is meddling in their affairs, so it’s time to back off. ( If it really was a torture center that would be a different matter but there is no evidence of that.)

      Imagine the outrage if Australia told us how to run our country.

        • Must be having memory blanks – too much wine perhaps.
          Which of our policies have they told us to change in the last 12 months?

          • As you obviously have no clue what constitutes the methods Australian polititians use to lean on NZ govts, or understand just how obsequious the national party govt was with the Aussies, I will spare you the job of wading through the mountain if history on that subject. I would point out the reality that if the Aussies weren’t used to ordering us around, then why was Julie Bishop able to blatantly interfere with the recent election with her attempts to influence kiwis voting from oz, which, of course, was used by NZ’s excuse for a fourth estate to undermine the labour party in NZ, with impunity,? .. Because they are used to saying what suits them without comebacks.

            • Pardon me, but you have not shown any proof of Australia directly trying to influence the NZ govt.
              You are right – I don’t understand how Bishop interfered with NZ voters in Australia.
              Were they to be deported or tortured or what?

  4. That leak wasn’t made for a kiwi audience, it was made preparatory to Ardern further embarrassing Turnbull in front of Australians.

    If Ardern keeps it up, the Oz government will say “We have found a solution to the issue which protects our borders by preventing ‘dodgy’ types from getting here through the back door of kiwiland (which has always been Turnbull’s number one excuse for not allowing Manus Island prisoners into Aotearoa – that they will leave NZ & go to Oz as soon as they get kiwi residency) and also fixes the alleged inequalities which the South Pacific poms keep whinging about”.

    The Oz government will change the entry of kiwis into Oz to be the same as it is everywhere else in the world- a point system which gives preference to skills, work history etc and granting kiwis in Oz who meet that points threshold the same rights and responsibilities as all others on resident’s visas. The former Manus Island inmates will never get a visa and the changes will be sold as a means to ensure that.

    That move will be hugely popular in Oz but I’m not sure that Ardern will be judged so well in NZ where pushing unskilled workers and the unemployed across the Tasman has always served as a safety valve for Aotearoa governments of every flavour.

    Rural families including a huge proportion of Tangata Whenua rural whanau have always depended on easy access to Oz as a way to stay afloat.

    The choice between a well paid job in Oz or a shit pay gig in rural Aotearoa or worse Auckland is an easy call. Yep jobs are harder to get in Oz than Aotearoa right now it seems, but a study of the types of work available in both quickly reveals that Oz is a far superior destination if you lack education and/or skills. Plus ‘getting ahead’ once you get a foot in the door is also more achievable in Australia.

    • ^^^this. I think Jacinda is inexplicably pushing for something almost no NZers want and Australians don’t want either – i.e. more unskilled immigrants, especially of the Muslim persuasion which irrefutably have a less than ideal track record when it comes to seamless Western integration. Australia might eventually give NZ these refugees, but not before they’ve battened down their immigration policies with regard to NZ. “Be careful what you lobby for”, would be my advice to Jacinda.

  5. Unless DAVID STONE and HISTORIAN PETE can demonstrate any Maori component to their ancestry, then they are also refugees or at least descended from refugees (as indeed I am).

    This makes you both look miserly and dog-in-the-mangerish and I am sure you are both neither.

    Don’t be in such a hurry to cast aspersions without paying attention to those inconvenient facts. You sell yourselves short.

    • I am indeed primarily a refugee from Ireland.However, a quarter of my ancestry [English] made me a refugee by invading Ireland.And another approximately quarter was also invaded by England [Scottish].So if I sound a bit confused at times it is no wonder! You wouldn’t happen to be English would you, because I have a few grievances.However , my refugee status making it so that I have to be an advocate for open borders for all comers is a long stretch!
      I know people who are involved in helping refugees.They say that our efforts and resources made available are inadequate , and are only short term, and then the refugees are mainly left to their own devices, to sink or swim! And then there are the ex- prison inmates from Australia. Is there any real attempt being made to re-integrate them in NZ society?

    • Silly comment. The 19th and earlier centuries are past tense. We currently live in the 21st, I draw to attention.
      If you want to be really silly (a.k.a. reductio ad absurdum) everyone not living in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania is a refugee “or at least descended from refugees”.
      I agree with Winston: we want the people we need to come to NZ, not the people who need to come here.

    • J S Bark
      My ancestors did indeed originate from the UK. As immigrants rather than refugees though not wealthy. Do you regard all immigrants as refugees?
      My earlier comment addressed only the practicality of a sea voyage , I made no judgement of the moral issue of accepting refugees or not.
      In point of fact I think we should accept far more genuine refugees and for fewer wealthy migrants, or poor migrants come to that. They serve a pecuniary purpose in line with the neoliberal economic philosophy that I don’t subscribe to.
      I have put my money where my mouth is re refugees in the past as I have sponsored one and invited him into my home for a couple of years till his refugee status was granted and he was able to make his way as a builder in Auckland.
      D J S

    • My Maori forbears were originally immigrants as ( much later) were my English, Scottish and Irish settler forebears.
      None were refugees.
      Bark sounds pretty British. Surely your ancestors were settlers or immigrants rather than refugees.

    • FOR THE RECORD

      I am Welsh-Irish with a working class English mum.

      I was fourteen when I landed here; I am now 66.

      J S Bark, a very bad pun on a famous 18th Century German composer, is my TDB user name and not my real name. Call me Johann or Joe…

      Whether we come here to escape actual mortal danger, collapsing societies or unbreathable air, we all come here to escape something hence we are all refugees.

      Even the tangata whenua were refugees hundreds of years ago.

      These islands are the land of refugees. People displaced from somewhere else.

      I am not prepared to pull the ladder up behind me and I shall criticise anyone who tries to do that themselves. There is plenty of room for everyone here.

      Above all else we are firstly human beings; can we at least behave humanely toward those that need help?

      And thanks for the many and varied comments.

      • J S B
        It’s worth thinking about that the price people pay to smugglers for a dangerous passage on an overcrowded leaky boat seems to be many times what they would have to pay for an airline ticket for the same journey, and present their claim when they arrive safely in Ak or wherever. There must be some reason for them doing that. And it won’t always be a good reason.
        I feel that equating migration in the hope of better opportunity with real refugee status is something you should think about; it’s quite belittling of the plight of refugees of which there are millions.
        Cheers D J S

  6. A Jacinda Merkel could be a very leaky boat for the coalition come next Election.

    …suggest Labour does some polls to see what NZers think about this …rather than supporting Jacinda striding the stage like a latter day Joan of Arc:

    ‘Don’t take them – warning from a former Manus Island guard’

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018621621/don-t-take-them-warning-from-a-former-manus-island-guard

    “A New Zealand man who worked at the Manus Island refugee detention facility is warning the government against taking any refugees, saying the ones still at the centre are dangerous men.

    Ian, who only wants his first name used, worked as a security guard at Manus Regional Processing Centre for 18 months, and said about eight incidents of violence, threats and illegal behaviour were recorded each day.

    There were numerous refugees who had integrated into the community, some who even married, and did not pose a danger. But the ones who remain at the centre and have refused to leave after Australia closed it earlier this month, are people New Zealanders should fear, he told Checkpoint with John Campbell.

    “We know what these people are capable of, we know there’s footage on hard drives that they’ve got of child pornography, etcetera. They are not the calibre of people you want to come into a country and try and re-establish themselves.

    “The people who have transitioned out to the community, quite possibly not a problem – but the ones that remain would be a major issue.

    “They are fearing for their safety for a very good reason, they are the ones that have caused all the problems in the local community.”

    The Government has reiterated its offer to take 150 refugees from Australian detention facilities, an offer previously made by the National-led government. It’s an offer Ian says is “diabolical”.

    “We have more than 150 homeless people on the streets or low income families that can do with help from the government, not these people who have come across the world, dumped all forms of identification and attempted to hide their criminality.”

    Ian, who lives in Australia, said the refugees were living in good, air-conditioned converted containers while the centre was open, had Wifi, a volleyball court, took classes and went on fishing excursions.

    He said guards wore cameras which recorded violence, threats and verbal assault, and he was in charge of documenting it before passing it to authorities, along with a “mountain of paperwork”.

    “Do we want these kinds of people in New Zealand? I most certainly do not. I’m not a racist, I’m not culturally bias. I just do not like the criminal element trying to get a back door into the country.”

    He urged Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to reconsider the offer.

    “My message to her would be ‘do not pursue this any further’. The calibre of people she wants to bring into the country are not what we want.

    “These people are hiding their criminality behind loss of documentation, and if she continues to push the issue I would not be surprised if Malcolm Turnbull slammed the door on New Zealand.”

    If the refugees were able to come to New Zealand and gain residency, then they would be able to move to Australia.

    “It opens a back door into Australia and if that happens you are looking at irreparable damage done to the Special Category Visa deal between New Zealand and Australia, which would affect a lot of people.”

    He expected the Australian prime minister would respond by changing legislation so Kiwis have to apply for a visa before entering and living in the country.

    “Those on Special Category Visas over here like myself, who have come here to work, will find themselves in dire strait. And it cannot be good for either country.”

    ‘People smugglers see new Govt as easy target – reports’

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018621620/people-smugglers-see-new-govt-as-easy-target-reports

    “Australian authorities have intercepted four boats bound for New Zealand, run by people smugglers emboldened by the change of government, according to media reports. Jane Patterson reports.”

    • I’d believe that. When I saw their videos, all I could think of was, “where all da women at?” This looks like a bunch of unaccompanied males looking to economically migrate. And while I understand the desire to do so, letting them in at the expense of refugees makes little common sense, and is really quite unjust.

  7. The way I see it, Jacinda’s sudden interest in sourcing refugees from Manus instead of that UN organisation she otherwise venerates and who are the proper and correct source for legitimate refugees comes down to two things.

    First, she’s butthurt about being compared to Trump on her eminently sensible and evidence based immigration and housing sales policies. Second, she (probably via idiotic advisors who need their priorities set straight) is attempting to take advantage of Turnbull’s more US-oriented focus in order to snatch the mantle of ‘regional leadership’ from Australia.

    Ultimately, she is causing a problem for Australia, and its obvious. You’re dealing with an operation run by human traffickers. Human. Fucking. Traffickers. Accept that. They will shamelessly take money from desperate people who will go with any roll of the dice to try and short circuit a process which is very slow. If that means these people are told by the human traffickers, “get yourself detained aiming for Australia, and end up getting into NZ”, then they will pay them to facilitate that. And they will do so at the expense of someone who has done what they are supposed to and been through the UN process. How’s that for rewarding people for doing the right thing?

  8. We should be doing more for our own people before doing anything for these so called refugees.
    Who will take responsibility if one or several of them goes feral & commits an act of terrorism???

  9. Jacinda & Winnie need to grow a pair & start treating the aussie’s here the same way as aussie’s treat kiwis in aussie.
    If they don’t like it, they can damn well go back to aussie

    • Come on, we are better than that.
      We should continue to treat Australians who have chosen to live in NZ with the respect they deserve and not consider a childish “tit for tat.”
      An “eye for an eye” is ripe for the dustbin of history.

  10. The comments here are so bad and aligned with Dutton’s bullshit that I would hate to see what’s on Whalespew’s blog. Why are we so ready to believe an Australian disinformation campaign?

    Australia can stop anyone they like from entering Australia from Aotearoa, and they do. They will have the names and digitised photos of everyone on Manus, so claiming that they would get into Oz from here is just bullshit. Dutton is a sadistic fascist and Turnbull is scared of him. I’m a little proud that Jacinda isn’t.

    The only good thing in all this is that Dutton is not likely to be a minister for much longer. I hope he ends up before a tribunal in The Hague.

  11. Australia should close the door to NZers. Kiwis must stop taking advantage of our cousins across the ditch and get over the arrogant self-righteous attitude we have developed. No more backdooring immigrants, we need to fix our broken immigration policies. I’m extremely disappointed in Jacinda over this refugee issue (not to mention the new TPPA). 2 months after electing her Government and i’m already consigned to scuttle my vote next election.

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