Culture

Scott Morrison Has Defended Donald Trump’s Immigration Ban, Because Things Weren’t Bad Enough

"The rest of the world is catching up to Australia."

by Osman Faruqi  30 January 2017

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In the hours after Donald Trump signed his executive order temporarily banning migration from seven Muslim-majority nations, as well as suspending all refugee admissions, world leaders lined up to condemn him.

“The reception of refugees fleeing the war, fleeing oppression, is part of our duties,” said France’s foreign minister. “The United States is a country where Christian traditions have an important meaning. Loving your neighbour is a major Christian value, and that includes helping people,” said Germany’s.

Even the UK’s foreign minister, Boris Johnson, criticised the new policy as “divisive and wrong”.

Meanwhile, here’s what Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop, had to say: “I’m confident that the Australian government and the US government will continue to support each other in ensuring that we can implement our strong immigration and border protection policies.”

Notice the difference? No condemnation, not even mild criticism. Australia will instead “support” the US government as it implements its “strong immigration and border protection policies”.

To be fair, it’s not as though any condemnation from the Australian government could be taken seriously anyway, given our own miserable treatment of refugees.

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Now the architect of Australia’s current immigration policy has spoken out on Trump’s immigration ban… and it’s not good.

In a radio interview with 2GB this morning the former immigration minister, Scott Morrison, refused to criticise Trump’s latest policy and instead compared it to his own attempts to establish a stronger border protection regime.

“I remember when we came in in 2013 and I was implementing our border protection policy, people threw their hands up… and guess what, I’m now getting the results I said I’d get,” Morrison said. “The rest of the world would love to have our borders. We’ve got a good history around this. Really, the rest of the world is catching up to Australia.”

Yep, according to Scott Morrison, Donald Trump’s immigration ban is an example of the US “catching up to Australia”. But you know what’s worse than hearing Bishop and Morrison basically endorse Trump’s immigration agenda? The fact that Morrison is right.

For decades Australia has built up an immigration system that punishes the most desperate. It’s a system that’s been endorsed by both sides of politics. And we shouldn’t be surprised that politicians like Donald Trump are looking to us for inspiration. If you want to implement policies that lock out refugees and use scare tactics to keep immigrants away, you don’t need to look any further than Australia.

At least Morrison is being honest about that.

Oh, and if you’re wondering where Malcolm Turnbull is on all this, he hasn’t said a word. But he has found time to tweet about the tennis.