In what way?
Youâve directed my attention to the actual wording of the regulations, for which Iâm grateful, having never really needed to refer to any such rule book previously. I simply know what I have to do in any distress situation at sea. But I note in there the words taking into account the particular circumstances of the case.
This was not a straight rescue at sea of survivors of a vessel legitimately in distress. The distress was contrived with the aim of forcing a ship to ârescue survivorsâ so to speak, and carry them to their destination in Australia.
In fact the âsurvivorsâ confronted the captain aggressively after it was obvious to them that the Tampa was heading for Indonesia where the Indonesian Government had directed the ship to the port of Merak, the closest suitable port for the Tampa. They demanded to be landed in Australia.
Were they acting appropriately for âsurvivorsâ? They commandeered the ship. Was that in accordance with SOLAS?
Anyway, this case comes under that nice phrase taking into account the particular circumstances of the case. The clash was between ungrateful âsurvivorsâ and a government determined to control its borders.
The situation was resolved, the âsurvivorsâ found themselves on a nice tropical island to mull over their next move, the government won a resounding election showing which side the people were on, and a policy that is now the envy of the world was born.
The compassionate case as a result of this show of strength is that legal refugees arrive in large numbers (per capital) in Australia and that the public largely accepts and welcomes them whereas they donât accept or welcome self selecting boat arrivals.
Compare this to the âcompassionateâ response of the subsequent Labor Government which loosened the policy, attracting many tens of thousands of asylum seekers, drowning well over a thousand of them, imposing a huge financial burden on the taxpayers to accommodate and sustain in every part of the land, and losing the support of the people and, eventually, government.
Fortunately the government has changed yet again and the strong border policy is now fully accepted in both sides of parliament, if grudgingly by some âcompassionateâ idiots on the left.
The niceties of SOLAS takes second place to the deterrent value of this strong policy which saves lives at sea.