From The Australian’s newsletter:
Breaking News
Border Force collects illegal arrivals landed on remote northern beach
It’s understood the five men, whose country of origin and reason for travelling to Australia were unclear, were discovered by a commercial helicopter pilot after they had scrawled SOS in the sand.
If you click on the link you might find, like me, it is paywalled and all you’ll see is this:
Border Force collects illegal arrivals landed on remote northern beach
A Dutton government would prioritise new strike and counter-strike weapons to deter more powerful adversaries, and draft defence experts and industry leaders to help overcome procurement blockages.
Sounds like a free plug for Dutton.
Based on available information, here’s what can be pieced together:
In early April 2025, a helicopter pilot reportedly spotted an SOS message written in the sand on a remote beach in northern Australia. This prompted a response from the ABF, who dispatched vessels to the area. The ABF intercepted a group of people, but the exact details about their status – whether they were refugees, asylum seekers, or something else – aren’t fully clear from public reports.
The Murdoch media appear to have framed this incident as evidence of “illegal arrivals” attempting to enter Australia, tying it to broader narratives about border security and immigration policy. This aligns with the pattern where border incidents are amplified during election cycles to stoke fear of unchecked migration, often targeting Labor’s policies.
Case in point, from the ABC:
The Coalition’s campaign spokesman, Senator James Paterson, has issued a statement calling the reports “deeply concerning”.
“Regardless of whether they are people smugglers or illegal fishers, no one should be able to reach the Australian mainland undetected,” he says.
“Once again, we have seen the Albanese government relying on private businesses alerting the government to serious security concerns, like when a Virgin Australia pilot was the first to alert the government to a [Chinese] live fire exercise in the Tasman Sea.
“Time and time again, we have seen Labor fail to keep Australia safe. Only a Dutton Coalition government will restore Operation Sovereign Borders and stop the boats.”
As for whether they were refugees: no definitive evidence confirms their status. The lack of clarity leaves room for speculation, which media outlets can exploit to fit their narrative. Without official confirmation from the ABF or the Department of Home Affairs – which I’m unable to locate (though it doesn’t mean it’s non-existent) – it’s impossible to say if they were “illegal” refugees or arrivals or not.
But let’s not ruin a good story.
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That’s a coincidence as one has posted before on ABF Terror Unit, under Home Affairs Minister Dutton’s time, applying successfully for a French novel to be reclassified down from Mature to Unrestricted; then record was sent to the archive?
https://web.archive.org/web/20210511131146/https://www.classification.gov.au/titles/camp-saints
Raspail’s ‘racist screed’ Camp of the Saints, inspired R. Camus’ ‘The Great Replacement’, published by Tanton Network’s TSCP and Raspail had a friendly interview decades ago with a now Sustainable Population Australia patron* & Melbourne based academic.
It has influenced Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson, Marine Le Pen, Viktor Orbán et al, LNP/ALP and possibly ABF &/or Home Affairs management too?
Here’s a French review:
By CÉCILE ALDUY April 23, 2017
In 1973, a strange apocalyptic novel (‘Camp of the Saints’) imagined the Southern coast of France suddenly overrun by hundreds of boats “piled high with layer on layer of human bodies” carrying hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Indian continent.
Within 24 hours, as the military response fails, political elites capitulate and the French native population collapses morally, poisoned by their “damned, obnoxious, detestable pity” for “other races,” the West falls to the “black and brown” invasion “swarming” across its land…..
SPLC on the publisher:
‘‘TSCP routinely publishes race-baiting articles penned by white nationalists. The press is a program of U.S. Inc, the foundation created by John Tanton, the racist founder and principal ideologue of the modern nativist movement. TSCP puts an academic veneer of legitimacy over what are essentially racist arguments about the inferiority of today’s immigrants.’
*Pre election more chatter and ‘nudging’ about ‘immigration’ or quasi environmental related is emerging across media as content, including long lost SPA patron Tim Flannery (in Guardian), who he..and who’s next, Bob Carr?
Here we go again. The LNP rattling the can in regard to border security. Christ knows how they’d cope if we had active borders like the USA has. Or how they’d cope, given our play-group sized ADF.
Senator ‘Boy’ Paterson laments the arrival of “smugglers or fishers,” and adds that “no one should be able to reach the Australian mainland undetected.” This continent’s coastline extends some ~34-37 thousand kilometres and includes more than a thousand estuaries. I’m guessing logistical details like these don’t count in Boy Paterson’s spray.