Any government that is not aiding the enemy, will keep secret the effect of any invasion, until it has been repelled.

Our last government were actually boasting to their western Sydney Muslim constituency, how many they had let in each day. It's called vote buying, & Labor are good at it. They wanted the numbers made public daily, to keep the Muslims on side.

Reading between the lines of the last bit of information to appear, we might have just successfully started the repulsion phase of this particular invasion.

Thanks, Hasbeen,

This place gets more and more bonkers on this subject as the days go by.

Now it "Labor" who, according to you, was promoting boat arrivals.

Which is a laughable conclusion.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-26/green-tony-abbotts-incredible-disappearing-act/4980664

"For three years every arrival was proclaimed. From the blogs of the enthusiastic election-now! right, from newspapers of like mind. In the recent federal campaign, Tony Abbott even gave his support to a touring billboard that counted down every new boat arrival. The political line was simple and eager: the then government had lost control of our borders, it was unable to secure the perimeter...."

"None of it is consistent, of course, none of it rings true. In opposition every boat was numbered and paraded for full political effect. In government the shutters come down."

"If as Morrison now claims the provision of this information has aided the smugglers, then we can assume it also, by his own arguments, put lives at risk. Logically that is precisely what Messrs Morrison and Abbott have spent the past three years in opposition doing: spreading information for political purpose that by their own standards of "shipping news" encouraged the smugglers and thus put the lives of asylum seekers in terrible jeopardy."

Poirot - Quote "Now it "Labor" who, according to you, was promoting boat arrivals. Which is a laughable conclusion."

You can promote something by not actually doing anything effectively enough to stop it, so by that Labor did promote the rise in boat arrivals.

If they had effectively stopped them we would not have had over 50,000 arrive during there term of office.

So far Australia under the Liberals has returned 2 boatloads of people to Indonesia they rescued just off Indonesian land.

Labor had our Navy bring them all except 1 boatload to Australia when they picked them up well into Indonesia's rescue zone.

Labor only started to really do everything possible to stop them when it became apparent it could become part of an election loosing issue if they did not stop them.

Philip S,

There's always been a mode of secrecy and spin concerning refugees, their arrival and subsequent treatment.

That's not new.

It's the ramping up of censorship of it that's interesting.

"Immigration, it happens, has had one of the more upfront PR operatives. The department's chief spinner, Sandi Logan, has been in the habit for some years of using Twitter to make announcements, argue his department's stances and sometimes take direct issue with critical reporters. Commander of the High Seas Rear-Admiral Morrison has now told Logan to put a sock in it. The minister's office will handle things from now on, thank you, and Mr Logan's Twitter account has been "retired"."

(I followed his twitter account for a while after the Rudd announcement when he was advertising transfers and publishing pictures of crying refugees being told they were straight off to Manus)

"The British newspaper publisher Alfred, Lord Northcliffe (1865-1922) famously defined news as "what somebody somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising".

We should thank the Minister-General, Scott Morrison, for reminding us.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/from-morrison-all-the-news-fit-to-suppress-20130927-2ujta.html#ixzz2g6ovyRVD

<<So far Australia under the Liberals has returned 2 boatloads of people to Indonesia they rescued just off Indonesian land>>

Yep good to see,should always have been the policy!

Up to now we've been soooooooooo wimpy-weak:
--We pick them up from just off Jakarta and escort them to an OZ port.
-- Give them a free call home (to alert folks to send the next boat).
--Give them access to all the latest IT/internet, to keep in contact with their relos & finalize payment transfers to the smugglers.
--And the Green/lefty media (in which I include the ABC & SBS) run regular sermons about how bad we are to not be more accommodating.

And take a look at the title of this thread: <<Are irregular arrivals a wartime secret?>> another symptom of the wimpy-weak disease!
FGS! call a spade a spade. Anyone who barges, bullies and bribes their way to our shores is an ILLEGAL!

SPQR,
Poirot is staring to sound like it is a member of the illegal invasion crowd. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it wasn't actually involved in the people smuggling rort.