Circumventing the system: No, not the asylum seekers, the government

On 9 April 2013, 66 Sri Lankan asylum seekers sailed into Geraldton harbour in Western Australia. Their arrival was met with great alarm by politicians and the media. It had been a long time since any asylum seekers had reached the mainland, and none had ever made it so far south. The Premier of Western Australia, Colin Barnett, went as far as to state that the arrival was ‘a serious, unprecedented and unacceptable breach of Australia’s border security’. The leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, agreed with the Premier, travelling to Geraldton – a place he labelled the ‘site of a major lapse in Australia’s border security’ – to attack the Government for its perceived policy failures.