Abbott talked up his tough border protection policies while delivering the second annual Margaret Thatcher Lecture in London to British Conservative Party leaders and members, his first major speech since being ousted last month by Malcolm Turnbull.
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Thatcher was a success with the occasional failure, and there was a success or two among Abbott’s failures, so a hint is correct. Perhaps he might consider returning to the land of Oz for a while, to, you know, serve his constituents in his taxpayer-funded role.
Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Pat Power, who headed the Catholic church in the Canberra-Goulburn diocese from 1986 until retiring in 2012, says he is “absolutely astounded” and “appalled” that Mr Abbott would use the Bible to preach his “narrow-minded” and “hard-hearted” message.
“They are not are just harsh but cruel and they don’t deter asylum seekers because we’ve now locked the front door”.
“I am not sure Tony Abbott on a victory lap giving a Margaret Thatcher lecture is exactly what Europe needs to solve its problems”.
“So it’s good that Europe has now deployed naval vessels to intercept people smuggling boats in the Mediterranean – but as long as they’re taking passengers aboard rather than turning boats around and sending them back, it’s a facilitator rather than a deterrent”, he said.
Comparing the plight of continental Europe with Australia’s own battles with border control – under conservative Howard and Abbott governments – Abbott said it would be wrong to adhere to traditional Judeo-Christian principles in assessing asylum seekers. “The immigration detention centres have all-but-closed; budget costs peaking at $4 billion a year have ended; and – best of all – there are no more deaths at sea”, he said.
“Stopping the boats and restoring border security is the only truly compassionate thing to do”. “It will require a few force, it will require massive logistics and expense; it will gnaw at our consciences”, he said.
Mr Abbott also said numerous people now displaced throughout Europe were economic migrants.
To tackle the biggest migration crisis that Europe has faced since World War II, Abbott urged Europeans to turn back the boats which smuggle the refugees, and deny them entry at the border.
“The Australian experience proves that the only way to dissuade people seeking to come from afar is to not let them in”, he said.
Australia had joined US-led air strikes on IS but the jihadists could not be defeated without more effective local forces in a part of the world “that’s such a witches’ brew of danger and complexity”.
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“Leaving anywhere, even Syria, to the collective determination of Iran, Russian Federation and Daesh [Islamic State] should be too disgusting to contemplate”, he said.
