The Liberal Candidate has sunk to a new low in his last ditched attempt to sway voters using Liberal Party Social Media propaganda to influence his 14K followers:
FACT: A fishing vessel carrying dozens of people has been stopped by the Sri Lankan navy amid warnings that people smuggling could ramp up after election day.
A fishing boat and two dinghies headed for a 'foreign country' were intercepted off the Batticaloa (East Sri Lanka) coast on Wednesday. Had they not been intercepted they might have gone anywhere to escape the food famine of Sri Lanka. Given that it is 3500km from Batticaloa to Christmas Island the journey at 10 knots per hour would have them 189 hours to arrive. Were they going to Australia?
The Sri Lankan navy said 40 people, including four people smugglers, were apprehended for trying to 'illegally migrate to a foreign country by sea'.
Were they on their way to Australia? No evidence at all.
The Australian Border Force said that “a vessel has been intercepted in a likely attempt to illegally enter Australia from Sri Lanka”. Really? And if they were? Sri Lanka is facing a dire shortage of foreign exchange, fuel and medicines, and economic activity has slowed to a crawl. Inflation hit 29.8 per cent in April with food prices up 46.6 per cent. Maybe it is relevant that they might have wanted to flee because the Tamil-majority district is flanked by Trincomalee and Ampara, that together make the multi-ethnic Eastern Province that has been home to Tamils, a sizeable Muslim population who are also Tamil speaking, and a smaller proportion of Sinhalese. And guess what? The war is not over and people (asylum seekers) are still fleeing as is their right.
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Earlier, the Saturday Paper’s chief political correspondent, Karen Middleton, noted the Australian had reported a boat had “been detected and intercepted by the Sri Lankan navy on the way to Australia and, of course, the government is saying ‘see we told you boats are a problem’”.
Middleton said a source from the Sri-Lankan Australian community told her that overseas authorities had been using the boat turn-backs as a political stunt.
'I received a message on April 26 from a member of the Sri Lankan-Australian community saying that two boats were on the way,' she told ABC.
'He said that he had a friend in Colombo saying he had witnessed people being put on a boat by Sri Lankan police, that he alleged that Sri Lankan authorities had facilitated the boat and he said it was designed as an election stunt to arrive in Australia just before the election.'
Prime minister Scott Morrison confirmed a boat had been intercepted by Sri Lankan authorities.
Scott Morrison has breached his own rule against commenting on “on-water matters”, confirming an asylum seeker boat from Sri Lanka has been intercepted.
