Media releases

Minister stops the bling but not the boats

20-November-2009

<h1 style="text-align: center"> <div style="text-align: left">20 November 2009</div> </h1> <h1 id="ctl00_CP1_Headline" style="text-align: center">Minister stops the bling but not the boats</h1> The latest Australian Customs and Border Protection seizure of fake Tiffany and Co jewellery is to be welcomed, Shadow Minister for Justice and Customs Sussan Ley, said today. “However, the urgency which the Minister for Home Affairs, Brendan O’Connor, applies to this outcome should apply with even greater vigour to the to the apprehension of unauthorised boat arrivals,” Ms Ley said. In relation to the jewellery haul the Minister declared: “It is vital that we stop these goods at the border”. But no similar declaration was forthcoming on the fifth unauthorised boat arrival to be apprehended in less then a week. The boat was intercepted this morning south west of Ashmore Islands with 53 passengers and 2 crew aboard. “Agencies are working closely with their counterparts in country exchanging and gathering information”, Minister O’Connor claimed. Exchanging information is all very well, but the failure of the Rudd Government to control the nation’s borders and the surge in unauthorised arrivals resulting from its watering down of border protection measures is of much greater urgency. It is indeed vital that the boats, like the jewellery, be stopped and that Australia return to an orderly process of assessing and accepting refugees. “Why doesn’t the Minister express   as much concern about stopping the boats as he does about stopping the bling?” Ms Ley said.   <div style="margin: 0cm -20.55pt 0pt 0cm" align="center">-ends-</div> <div style="margin: 0cm -20.55pt 0pt 0cm" align="center">______________________________________________________________________________</div> <div style="margin: 0cm -20.55pt 0pt 0cm" align="center">Media contact: Debbie Brown    (02) 60213264   0428 297 699  </div>