Speaking for the first time on yesterday’s catastrophic Operation Fortitude—a scheduled operation by the Australian Border Force, intending to check visas on the streets of Melbourne, but which crashed and burned as quickly as it emerged—Prime Minister Tony Abbott has today admitted the proposed taskforce was a “mistake“.
In Sydney today, Abbott commented on Operation Fortitude, saying, “obviously it was a mistake.” The Prime Minister added:
“It was over the top and wrong because we would never stop people randomly in the street demanding their visa details, we don’t do that sort of thing in Australia and it would never happen under this government.”
Tony Abbott said the poorly-worded press release, which was sent live yesterday morning, was to blame. “Unfortunately the press release was very, very badly worded but no one had been, no one ever will be, randomly stopped in the street for some kind of visa check.” In other words, this.
Putting an end to the fleeting, flaming train wreck that was #BorderFarce, Australians on twitter have taken to the #PutOutYourWallets tag, commemorating the Operation that never was.
Via SMH.
Lead image by Cameron Spencer via Getty.
