This should be in the humour section but decided to post it here. And they even blame LNP for the thousands that arrived here...lol
No wonder fairfax are losing millions if they print this rubbish.
Mr Hughes and Mr Menadue said when in opposition the Coalition blocked legislative changes that would have enabled asylum seeker processing in Malaysia, which "kept the door open for tens of thousands of boat arrivals".
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-po...is-casts-doubt-on-claims-20150924-gjtwfo.html
Did Tony Abbott stop the boats? New analysis casts doubt on claims
The federal government's claim that it "stopped the boats" has been called into doubt by analysis showing asylum seeker arrivals slowed dramatically after the former Labor government toughened its border stance, suggesting the Coalition "vastly overrated" its contribution.
The analysis, by former Immigration Department chief John Menadue and Australian National University migration expert Peter Hughes, shows the drop-off began immediately after former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced in mid 2013 that asylum seekers who arrived on unauthorised boats would never be resettled in Australia.
When Prime Minister Tony Abbott took power a few months later "the flow of maritime arrivals was well on its way to being finished as a result of measures already taken" by Labor, the analysis said, adding the Coalition's role "was at the margins and vastly overrated".
But Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said Labor's earlier dismantling of Howard government border policies triggered the surge in boat arrivals and "the Abbott government stopped the boats".
Under a controversial policy instigated by Labor, asylum seekers who arrive by boat are held and processed offshore at Manus Island and Nauru, and permanently denied refuge in Australia.
The measure was announced in July 2013, a month when 48 boats arrived. This dropped to 25 boats in August and 15 in September, when Labor lost power.
It continued falling to about five per month until December 2013, when the Abbott government began turning asylum seeker boats back to other nations.
Last month Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said the government had turned back 20 boats since it won office – an average of one a month.
The analysis said: "Arguably, boat turn-backs would not have been successful at all without the July 2013 decision … it's hard to believe that it would have been physically possible to turn back 48 boats [a month]".
It pointed to other Labor measures that helped stem the flow of boats: "enhanced screening" of Sri Lankan asylum seekers that forced many to return home quickly, and the decision by Indonesia, at Australia's urging, to stop issuing Iranians with visas on arrival.
Mr Hughes and Mr Menadue said when in opposition the Coalition blocked legislative changes that would have enabled asylum seeker processing in Malaysia, which "kept the door open for tens of thousands of boat arrivals".
Mr Menadue is a former secretary of the Immigration Department, and was head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Malcolm Fraser and Gough Whitlam.
Mr Hughes is a former senior policy official at the Immigration Department and later advised the department on the proposed Malaysia deal.
Mr Dutton said Operation Sovereign Borders and boat turn-backs "showed the people smugglers they were dealing with a government that would be resolute in shutting down their illegal trade".
"From the moment Labor dispensed with the Howard-era border protection measures the people smugglers were in business and the boats started flowing," he said.
Offshore processing and denying unauthorised boat arrivals settlement in Australia were policies the Coalition held in opposition, Mr Dutton said.
Labor immigration spokesman Richard Marles said the party's offshore processing policy had a "profound impact on stopping the flow of vessels between Java and Christmas Island" and an end to deaths at sea "could have been achieved much sooner had the Liberals not opposed Labor's Malaysian solution".
