Quite right Dream On, I don't think anyone in Liberal officialdom thought about anything much at all re this ridiculous debacle! Who carries all their 'papers' around with them in Australian capital cities anyway?

It isn't as simple as OTB and JOM seem to think it would be...like getting picked up for traffic offenses, drunkenness, or drug offenses. What rubbish.
How would they decide who to ask to show their visa or passport 'papers', as opposed to seeing the actual offenses happening with alcohol, drugs or speeding for instance?

I can see it now. As several 'suspected-terrorist-looking' men walk along Little Collins Street in the Melbourne CBD, they are stopped by the Border Patrol Good Ol' Boys who dramatically yell at them 'Show Me Your Papers!".
So the men , all speaking in an Aussie accents, flip out their Aussie birth certificates...

I'll also add that Bill Shorten's response, while the debacle was still unfolding, was spectacularly unimpressive.

He did a good impression of a wet lettuce draped over a fence.

It seems he couldn't garner the prevailing mood of outrage when he first spoke. Noting he came out the next day comparing it to the Prince Philip debacle, it was a particularly notable instance of Shorten waiting to see which way the wind blew.

' Bring back the inquisition hey runner. A few burnings at the stake maybe. Chop a few hands off. Or is that too basic for you lot? I know you like your medieval torture implements'

you r of course describing the abortion industry Mikk. Don't forget you can get good money for baby parts. Thankfully though Mikk your Creator has given you choices even though you make terrible ones. Its the Sercularist/femimist/homosexual lobby that act as dictators.

btw Susie is right about many illegals not having papers. The regressives taught them to ditch their papers before arriving here.

Speaking of Shorten, he actually queried the veracity of his own side's knee-jerk, overblown squealing about a non-occuring visa check by asking would they really do such a thing and advertise it beforehand?

Setting his mouth in motion while his brain was still idling, probably, he inadvertently scored a point for Abbott with his unusually sensible comment.

ttbn,

".....by asking would they really do such a thing and advertise it beforehand?"

Only because one has to be incredulous at the ABF's swaggering stupidity in releasing a document that warns their supposed targets to lie low in the city on that Saturday.

Imitating their creators, the ABF would appear to be a couple of bricks short of a load as well.

Except that Abbott and his cohorts thought they could slip that one through - that having the ABF visible patrolling the streets and hassling people through racial profiling would become the accepted norm - as in:

"With a particular focus on people travelling to, from and around the CBD, the group of agencies will work together to support the best interests of Melbournians, targeting everything from anti-social behaviour to outstanding warrants."

(What have anti-social behaviour and outstanding warrants got to do with the ABF?)

"The inter-agency outfit will continue to work together on an ongoing basis to target crime in and around the Melbourne CBD to make the city a safer place for everyone"

http://newsroom.border.gov.au/releases/abf-joining-inter-agency-outfit-to-target-crime-in-melbourne-cbd

And it might have worked in days gone by - before Australians could communicate nation wide with the click of a button.

"....he inadvertently scored a point for Abbott with his unusually sensible comment."

Tony Abbott didn't score any points in this latest debacle - not one.

We've watched Abbott for two years, beating the war drums, bellowing his terror hysteria, standing next to flags and uniforms, dressing up former immigration officials in black sinister uniforms and insignia.

Let's just say when that press release arrived the other day - it wasn't a surprise - and the good and reasonable folk of Australia told him where to stick his paramilitary fetish.

The OP is foolish stirring, as are a number of replies.

It would be a waste of time asking the Greens (Protest) Party or Socialist Alternative (they are much the same serial activists?) what they would recommend that the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) should do about Visa overstayers and Non-Citizens working illegally.

However where conservative estimates suggest that the pool of unlawful non-citizens is 60,000 (and could exceed 90,000) most reasonable, thinking citizens would be concerned that DIMIA implemented effective and efficient controls to treat the risks. For instance, that DIMIA cooperates and coordinates with other government authorities with shared concerns, intel and operational capabilities. Examples could be ATO and police.

There is no surprise that the same activists who oppose the highly successful policies that have put the people smugglers out of business and who refuse to accept that refugees in the queue should come first and not be displaced by economic migrants who can pay criminals, are also here opposing actions by DIMIA and other agencies to deter and collar visa overstayers and illegal workers.

You would think that these whining, serial-protestor leftists would realise that not pursuing visa overstayers who break the rules is being damned unfair to the many migrants who do obey the rules and come here legitimately.