One of America’s best known television journalists has expressed her shock at what has become accepted as a regular part of Australian life.
Megyn Kelly, who has hosted shows on Fox News and NBC, brought Sky News Australia host Paul Murray onto her SiriusXM show to explain how Australia deals with migrants trying to get there by boat.
Kelly seemed amazed by the comparison with the US’s border problems when she said ‘Australia is not messing around when it comes to illegal immigration.
‘One of the things that got me interested in this was back in 2022 when they kept out Novak Djokovic, who wouldn’t get the (Covid) vaccine.
‘And then it just led to this in-depth look. Australia in general is no stranger to saying “No, keep the hell out.” They don’t really care.’
She asked Murray how Australia came to have such a strict and rigid line on immigration.
‘About 20 years ago there was this sort of great difference between Australians who believed “Oh, we’ve got to be compassionate and anyone who can sort of float their way here should be able to become a citizen,”‘ he said.
‘But the reality was that people were dying in that journey. Now, most likely was the path was to go from Indonesia. Hop on a boat, pay $10,000 to a people smuggler and then you eventually float your way towards Australia.
‘You get here close enough (and it was) “Ah well, thanks for the effort, you’re in.”
The Sky News host said the deaths of ‘thousands of people’ prompted a change, where the Australian Government said ‘Yes, we’re an island, but we don’t care how you get here, you’ve got to come through the front door.
‘So, put simply, if you came here illegally, our position was that we will turn the boat around and we’ll send you back.’
US TV host Megyn Kelly (pictured) brought Sky News Australia host Paul Murray onto her SiriusXM show to explain how Australia deals with migrants trying to get there by boat
Murray then explained the turn back policy where boats can be escorted by the Australian Navy back to the port they departed from.
‘If you did happen to get here, you went into an offshore processing centre, and put simply, you stayed there until you either decided to go home or you decided to go home.’
Kelly put it to her guest that ‘the main purpose of the harsh policies was deterrence, and therein is the most important lesson, I think, for America.
‘Because it being perceived as inhumane is kind of part of the point.’
Murray agreed, telling her ‘the whole idea is that there’s a front door. And in the same way that you don’t cut the line when you go to Disney … you don’t cut the line when it comes to immigration.’
He added that there are many legal ways to migrate to Australia ‘If you fill out the paperwork, if you are this amazing (you will) be able to become a citizen, it’ll happen.
‘If you’ve got a skill for our country, that’s fantastic, but otherwise, no.’
He said ‘the key message that I want to get to Americans, is you’ve got to have the idea that you have a country worth protecting by having a border, and you have to draw the line to say it is a privilege to be here, not a right that will be afforded to you if you can find a way to get here’.
Sky News host Paul Murray (pictured) explained Australia’s tough immigration system to Megyn Kelly
Megyn Kelly Novak Djokovic (pictured) being kicked out of Australia for refusing to get a Covid vaccination caught her interest
Kelly then read out part of an article from Diplomat magazine which said ‘Australia is the only country that mandates immigration detention for all unlawful arrivals. It’s like, you come here illegally, you’re going into mandatory detention, including those seeking protection as refugees.
‘Australia has one of the most punitive policies on forced migration in the world and says, Australia effectively punishes those who flee to the country for protection’.
‘Now this is somebody who doesn’t like the policy. But I’ll tell you, most Americans would be reading this right now, Paul, and being like, “Good.”‘
Murray said ‘The people who are turning up (in Australia) are not refugees, they are people who are trying to shop for better access to welfare.
‘Because the reality … is while a lot of people would like to think Australia is sort of one big version of Texas, the reality is that we are Canada or the United Kingdom in terms of social welfare, but just with a lot more desert.’
He also offered advice on what the US could learn from Australia’s immigration policies.
‘It’s very simple. If you end up in Mexico and you’re trying to come from somewhere way down the map, well guess what, Mexico is the safe place to go …
‘So America has every right to say “Well, bugger off, you can go back to the nearest safe country.”‘
Murray said people trying to get to Australia by boat are deterred because they will get sent to ‘Nauru, which is an island country off to our west – our government gave a lot of money to that country – or you move up to a place called Papua New Guinea, which is just to the north.
‘The whole point is that you’ll never physically get here … It’s the Australian Defence Force that is in charge of this one and that’s presumably what I would suggest you need in the US.’
Kelly put this into context for her followers, saying ‘it’s basically, not only are you not coming into Australia, but we’re going to send you off to this other little island that we’re paying a bunch of money to to process you people.
‘And you’re really not going to be able to enjoy the fruits of Australian living while we adjudicate what to do with you.’
Murray claimed that ’80 per cent’ of Australians support its offshore processing system and then offered more advice for the US.
Paul Murray told Megyn Kelly about people being sent to an immigration detention centre in Nauru (pictured)
‘When you’ve got a better social welfare system for the people who arrived … illegally than the people who, for whatever reason, end up on the streets of San Francisco, you’ve got a problem.
‘Now you would think the social justice warriors would see this, but instead they have this sort of infantalised idea that every single person who’s crossing the border is on the bones of their backside and is doing this so they can make a better life for their family.
‘But the reality is that there’s an awful lot of people who know that there is a better life in the United States with greater protections in the United States and even the minimum wage in the United States that is better than the life that they have in other parts of Latin America, which means they are economic migrants.
‘They are not refugees, they are economic asylum seekers,’ he said.
