The Department of Immigration has spun off a division labelled the " Australian Border Force " (ABF) which is tasked with weeding out those whom overstay their visa and others in this country illegally. It made a disastrous start to operations this week.
A badly worded news conference gave the impression that the ABF would be roaming the streets of Melbourne, stopping people at random and checking their immigration status. This resulted in a huge public backlash and there were comparisons made with the tactics of the old Communist east German " Stasi " ! In panic, this proposed operation was hastily cancelled !
It does raise the question of exactly what can be demanded of us in the way of personal identification, and that harks back to another failed attempt to impose an " identity card " on the citizens of Australia. That idea suggested that every citizen be required to carry a photo engraved card about the same size and type used for driving licenses which stated their name and address - and this would need to be produced when opening a bank account, applying for a passport or undergoing any legal transaction which required identity to be confirmed.
There were many obvious benefits, but the concept was alien to the Australian culture and it was determined that implementing it was politically impossible. It was quietly dropped, but this uproar over the ABF will bring it back in many minds and the threat posed by Islamic extremists is such that it may again be resurrected in official circles.
Quite clearly, we are required to carry our driving license with us and produce it on demand when we drive a vehicle in any of the Australian states or territories. It is a fineable offence to drive without that license and the police are entitled to take an erring driver to a police station and hold them until their identity can be proven.
The law is not so clear when it comes to a pedestrian lawfully going about their business in the streets. We are not legally required to carry personal identification and our obligations to identify ourselves vary from state to state. When police make raids on workplaces known to employ those illegally in the country people are rounded up and held until their identity can be established. Often, entirely unrelated laws are used to establish a valid holding reason. A person without money in their pocket could be charged as a " vagrant - failing to provide visible means of support ".
What alarms the civil liberties people is that this " stop and check " procedure will be used as a form of profiling. The immigration status of a coloured person is much more likely to be demanded than that of a white person, and mode of dress and national characteristics will obviously feature in the selection.
It is also obvious that more than immigration status will be involved. When the police do a random drug/alcohol roadside test of drivers they run the holder's license details through the police computer and this reveals if there are any arrest warrants current or if that person is on parole - and what conditions apply to parole. It is likely that this same procedure would apply to an ABF immigration check.
Strangely, we accept this police background check at breath test stations but find it abhorrent that we may be stopped on a public street and subjected to what seems precisely the same procedure. Double standards apply. And yet we are very vocal about securing our national borders and tracking down those who remain in the country when their visa expires.
Now comes the usual political fight to determine what tools the ABF may use to do their job, and this will be made even more difficult by the mix of Conservative and Socialist state governments - and their ability to frame ID requirements !
No comments:
Post a Comment