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| Down Under |
| Aussie Treasurer: Trump travel ban shows 'world is catching up' to Australia |
| 2017-01-30 |
| Scott Morrison has declined to criticise Donald Trump’s contentious travel ban, saying it is up to the United States to determine its border control arrangements, and noting the rest of the world is now “catching up” with Australia’s harsh deterrence policies. Morrison, a former immigration minister, suggested to Sydney radio host Ray Hadley he empathised with the US president Donald Trump, who is facing a fierce backlash against his controversial executive order banning travel to the US from seven Muslim-majority countries. “I remember when we came in in 2013 and I was implementing our border protection policy people threw their hands up – and I said I’m doing what I said I would do in the way I said I’d do it – and guess what, I’m now getting the results I said I’d get,” Morrison told Hadley during their weekly Monday morning chat. “And we did that as a government, and we’ve continued that as a government, and we are the envy of the world when it comes to strong border protection policies. “The rest of the world would love to have our borders and the way they are secured and the immigration arrangements we have put in place, particularly most recently, over the last three or four years. “We’ve got a good history around this. Really, the rest of the world is catching up to Australia.” Morrison refused to condemn Trump’s policy, which has sparked protests, a legal challenge and criticism in the US and internationally. Australia’s treasurer said Trump was doing what he said he would do during the presidential race. “Now how the US wants to handle [border protection] is a matter for them. As you say, they’ve had an election, and the president is implementing what he said he would do.” The foreign minister, Julie Bishop, has reportedly indicated Australia will support Donald Trump’s “strong immigration and border protection policies”. “The Australian government is working very closely with the administration and the US officials and we want to ensure that Australians continue to have access to the United States, as they have in the past, and people from the United States have access to Australia,” Bishop is reported to have said in Los Angeles. |
| Posted by:Steve White |