0:00

ABC Listen. Podcasts,

0:02

radio, news, music and

0:04

more. If

0:08

You're Listening is recorded on the lands of

0:10

the Awabakal, Darug and Eora people. Australia

0:13

has adopted a lot of questionable

0:15

British ideas. Chip sandwiches, rugby union,

0:17

spelling theatre with an re at

0:20

the end. But there's

0:22

one questionable Australian idea that the

0:24

British have recently taken and run

0:26

with. An

0:30

Australian coastwatch aircraft spotted an internationally

0:32

recognised distress signal. It was August

0:35

2001 and a small fishing boat

0:39

was stranded in the middle of

0:41

the sea. Believed to be an

0:43

SOS painted on the Indonesian vessel.

0:45

On board were hundreds of asylum

0:47

seekers on their way to seek

0:49

refuge in Australia. Like a good

0:51

Samaritan on the high seas, the

0:53

captain of the Norwegian Freighter Tampa

0:55

rescued 430 mostly Afghani

0:57

refugees from their sinking ship. If

1:01

you're Australian, you probably already know where

1:03

this story is going. If you're

1:05

not Australian, buckle up. See,

1:08

the asylum seekers picked up by the

1:10

Tampa wanted to go to Australia, but

1:12

Australia wanted them to go back

1:15

to Indonesia. Mr Speaker, the government

1:17

has requested the Tampa not

1:20

enter Australian territorial waters

1:23

and that it should continue on

1:25

its original route to Indonesia. Now,

1:27

everyone agrees that having criminal smugglers pack

1:29

hundreds of asylum seekers onto small fishing

1:32

boats that often sink is

1:34

something that needs to be stopped. But

1:36

there was little agreement about how to stop

1:39

it. Prime Minister John

1:41

Howard's conservative coalition was predicted to lose

1:43

the next federal election. Far

1:46

right party one nation had whipped

1:48

up anti-immigration sentiment and the government

1:50

was under pressure to do something

1:52

about these boats. references

2:00

from one nation. He made a decision. The

2:03

asylum seekers would not come to

2:05

Australia or go to Indonesia. Some

2:07

would go to New Zealand and... The

2:10

tiny island nation Nauru in the central

2:12

Pacific will process the rest of those

2:14

on board at Australia's expense. Nauru.

2:18

I could do a whole series about Nauru,

2:20

but they really needed the

2:22

money. Less than 12,000

2:24

people live there, drinking water is

2:26

scarce and medical service is limited.

2:29

And in exchange for taking the asylum seekers,

2:31

Australia provided a lot of money. I would

2:33

think that it's going to cost a lot

2:36

of money, far more than

2:38

keeping the people in Australia while their

2:40

claims are assessed and determined. Within a

2:42

month, Howard rolled out legislation saying anyone

2:44

who attempted to enter Australia on a

2:46

boat would be sent to Nauru or

2:49

Papua New Guinea for processing. And

2:51

even if they were found to be genuine

2:53

refugees, they would not be allowed to settle

2:55

in Australia. We will decide who comes to

2:58

this country and the circumstances in which

3:00

they come. It was called the

3:02

Pacific solution, and politically, it worked.

3:05

I think we're actually now in a position

3:07

where we can stick our necks out a

3:09

little and call this result. The coalition has

3:11

a majority of 10 seats. The Conservative coalition

3:13

government won an election that nobody thought they

3:16

were going to win. All

3:20

of this made big news around the

3:23

entire world, including in the country that

3:25

is the undisputed champion of sending people

3:27

it doesn't want into detention in distant

3:30

places, the United Kingdom. These

3:35

vile people smugglers are

3:37

turning the channel into a

3:39

watery graveyard. 21

3:43

years later, Boris Johnson used it

3:45

as a template for a radical

3:47

policy shift. Former coalition

3:49

foreign minister Alexander Downer advised

3:51

the UK government on its

3:53

plan. Someone entering the

3:56

UK illegally may now

3:58

be relocated. to Rwanda. Facing

4:01

the prospect of losing the next election,

4:03

the UK's Conservative government announced that it

4:06

would roll out the Australian special, offshore

4:09

immigration detention. That

4:12

election is today, and polls are predicting

4:14

that the Tories' desperate bid to cling

4:16

to power has blown up in their

4:18

face. So in

4:20

this episode, how the Prime

4:23

Minister, Rishi Sunak's two-year fight

4:25

over this policy not only failed, but

4:28

dragged British ambition down with

4:30

it. I'm Matt Bevan,

4:32

and from If You're Listening, this

4:34

is Who Broke Britain. ["Who

4:37

Broke Britain?" plays in the background.] Several

4:48

hundred thousand people live in

4:50

the UK illegally. Most

4:53

come into the country on a work,

4:55

student or tourist visa and then just

4:58

don't leave. However, many

5:00

come into the country without a

5:02

visa, seeking asylum, but not on

5:04

little boats. Since the 1990s,

5:07

there's been a much easier way of getting from

5:09

Europe to England. They're

5:13

through. They're through. They're

5:15

through. Hey! There's

5:18

the handshake we've all been waiting for.

5:20

The Channel Tunnel is a symbol of

5:22

change. Leave the front. Most

5:24

asylum seekers enter Britain hidden in

5:27

vehicles going from France to England

5:29

through the Channel Tunnel, or

5:31

in trucks carried on ferries. This

5:34

has periodically led to horrific

5:37

tragedies, as migrants suffocate

5:39

inside the back of lorries. Inside

5:41

one vehicle, 58 bodies

5:44

and two survivors suspected illegal immigrants.

5:46

British governments of both parties have

5:49

attempted to stop people crossing the

5:51

Channel, with increased security

5:53

on both sides and periodically

5:55

deporting people whose asylum applications

5:58

are denied. The

6:00

EU helps the UK by stopping people

6:02

from even reaching the French side of

6:04

the channel, let alone trying

6:06

to cross it. But in

6:08

the last few years, two massive things

6:10

have changed. Firstly, Britain

6:13

isn't in the EU anymore thanks

6:15

to a campaign led by Boris

6:17

Johnson which promised to take back

6:19

control of our borders with a

6:22

sensible, fair and impartial system. And

6:24

secondly, extra security measures at the

6:26

channel tunnel and ferry terminals have

6:28

actually started to work. But

6:31

of course, now that they're not

6:33

coming through the tunnel, the migrants

6:35

are getting on boats. In

6:38

2018 a few dozen people attempted to

6:40

cross the channel on small boats. In

6:43

2019 it was a few hundred. In 2020 it was more than 8,000. In 2021 it was

6:45

18,000. So

6:56

in 2022 Boris Johnson's government, dissatisfied

6:59

with the lack of cooperation from

7:01

Europe, started to look at the

7:03

Australia model for solutions. We

7:05

will stop those who come here illegally

7:07

making endless legal claims to remain in

7:09

our country, at the expense of

7:12

the British public. They did a

7:14

deal with the tiny African nation of

7:16

Rwanda. The UK would pay

7:18

them hundreds of millions of pounds and Rwanda

7:20

would take the asylum seekers off their hands.

7:22

The deal we've done is

7:25

uncapped and Rwanda will

7:27

have the capacity to resettle tens

7:30

of thousands of people in

7:32

the years ahead. By

7:36

this stage, Boris Johnson, who had led

7:39

the Tories to a landslide victory in

7:41

2019, was wildly

7:43

unpopular. After lying

7:45

about it for quite a while, he

7:48

admitted that actually yes, he had been

7:50

getting his partay on at Downing Street

7:53

after ordering the entire population of

7:55

Britain into COVID lockdown. Much

7:58

like John Howard in 2001, Johnson

8:00

looked to be leading his party

8:02

towards inevitable election defeat. We must

8:04

find a way to stop these

8:07

boats now. He said this was

8:09

all about preventing people from drowning

8:11

at sea and stopping human trafficking.

8:13

So we must halt

8:15

this appalling trade and

8:17

defeat the people smugglers. And

8:19

the way to do that was to

8:21

copy John Howard's plan. Everybody

8:24

who comes by boat goes to

8:26

Rwanda. Nobody wants to

8:28

go to Rwanda. Ergo, nobody gets

8:30

on a boat. It's a deterrent.

8:32

We will do whatever it takes

8:35

to deliver this new approach. But

8:38

he had a problem. The UK

8:40

is a signatory of the European Convention

8:42

on Human Rights, which had

8:45

already in the past prevented

8:47

British authorities from deporting people

8:49

to unsafe countries. Rwanda

8:51

is a country which was in the midst

8:54

of a genocide 30 years ago. It

8:56

has poor systems for processing asylum seekers

8:59

and a history of deporting people to their

9:01

country of origin, even if

9:03

they are likely to be persecuted there. So

9:07

Rwanda is unsafe. Can't

9:09

send anyone there. Unless

9:12

you say this. Rwanda is

9:14

one of the safest countries

9:16

in the world, globally recognised for

9:19

its record of welcoming and integrating

9:21

migrants. Okay, so

9:23

Rwanda is safe? In

9:25

that case, it's not really a deterrent,

9:27

is it? Johnson

9:30

foresaw this issue. We expect this

9:32

will be challenged in the courts. And

9:34

it was. Immediately. The

9:37

government was left in a paradox. They

9:40

had to convince the courts that Rwanda

9:42

is a great place, but

9:44

they had to convince asylum seekers that

9:46

Rwanda sucks. Meanwhile,

9:49

they had to convince British voters that

9:51

a few hundred thousand migrants travelling on

9:53

boats were a serious threat AND

9:55

convince them that the government had it all

9:57

under control. that

10:00

worked. The courts intervened

10:02

and stopped the first plane

10:04

from deporting failed refugees to

10:06

Rwanda. To try and

10:08

convince voters that they were doing something, the

10:11

British government hired a barge called

10:13

the Bibby Stockholm and began housing

10:15

hundreds of asylum seekers on board.

10:18

This three-storey ship that can accommodate

10:20

500 people has been

10:22

compared to the notorious prison ships

10:25

used to house convicts in the Victorian

10:27

era. At a cost of tens of

10:29

millions of pounds, the

10:31

rate of boat arrivals increased

10:35

and the polls kept getting worse for the

10:37

Tories. Less than

10:40

three months after announcing the policy,

10:42

Boris Johnson resigned as Prime Minister

10:44

under the weight of several swirling

10:47

scandals. The Rwanda plan

10:49

was someone else's problem now. In

10:54

the lead-up to the 2024 election, the

10:56

new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was left

10:59

in a tricky situation. With

11:01

polls indicating that his party was headed

11:03

for an electoral wipeout, he

11:05

had to decide what issues to campaign on

11:07

to try and save as many seats as

11:09

possible. It wasn't as

11:12

though the Conservative Party had no achievements

11:14

to tout during the coming election campaign.

11:17

During their 12 years in government,

11:19

they had legalised same-sex marriage years

11:21

before Australia did and without a

11:23

plebiscite. I'm in favour of gay

11:25

marriage because I'm a massive supporter

11:27

of marriage and I don't want

11:29

gay people to be excluded from

11:31

a great institution. They had led

11:33

the G20 in fighting climate change.

11:35

Today we're announcing that we will

11:37

be ending our contribution to climate

11:39

change by 2050 and

11:42

legislating for a net zero emissions

11:44

target. They had started construction on

11:46

a high-speed rail route from London

11:48

to the north of England and

11:51

led the most effective COVID vaccination

11:53

program in Europe. Don't make me

11:55

compare them to Australia on those

11:58

issues. They'd provide