There's the reputational damage for sure, plus people who live here can see what a shitty government we have, and the more this kind of shit happens, the more people start to want to smash things.

Like, back when the right wing Liberal government last got back into power, they sent the federal police on an illegal raid of our national broadcaster's journalism offices, and they stole a bunch of evidence of things they were investigating. You know, straight fascist shit. Turns out that raid revealed the identity of David McBride who blew the whistle on Australian special forces' war crimes in Afghanistan. Now we've got a "Labor" government, and guess who just went to prison for that whistleblowing? David McBride. Guess how many people doing actual war crimes went to prison. It was none. Our supposedly for the people left wing government did nothing to intervene, even though they could.

Also the conservative government did a robodebt scheme that coldly calculated debts and slapped the most vulnerable welfare recipients with thousands of dollars of debt based on technicalities. A lot of people committed suicide as a result. The debts were pretty much all bullshit, and there was illegal information sharing between departments to make this scheme happen. Guess who's being prosecuted for this scheme now under our "Labor" government? If you guessed the whistleblower that exposed the illegal behaviour, you'd be right. His name is Richard Boyle.

At a certain point people start to realise that the state just isn't on our side and we need to do something about it, and that something isn't elections, because nobody is coming to help us regardless of who we elect.

immigration Australia, or more to the point the individual case manager, is not responsible for the wider fabric of Australian society

Sure they are. That's literally what you said their job was 5 minutes ago, and that's their stated intention. They think the disabled 2 year old is bad for Australian society.

You went straight from justifying it according to the good it supposedly does for society into "not my job; not my problem". But that's been explained to you, and you weasel-worded your way out of it.

Also:

First of all, thanks for coming in with an actual arguement - not typical of many of my comments here.

That's a massive red flag on two levels. Firstly I find people who make a big song and dance about how much they love being so reasonable and calm and civil about everything are actually very likely to immediately transition into spouting off some bullshit. Secondly... well you straight up said you don't usually get reasonable answers, which you seem to think reflects badly on everyone else but actually just reflects badly on you. If it smells like shit everywhere you go, check your shoe. I was telling you that your value system is monstrous. I did it politely but please don't take that as respect for what you said.

Like, I was trying to tell you that being able to soberly assess the grim reality of what borders actually do, and then use that as justification for those horrific actions, actually makes you a monster. Then you immediately took a completely un-self-aware journey through an autobiographical account of The Banality of Evil. When everyone just accepts their position in society and acts like a cog in the machine completely devoid of any agency or ability for judgment, then those who hold the levers of society can steer that machine straight into fascism. "When good people fail to act, evil prevails." That's you. You're the person who would rather let evil win than rock the boat, and it makes you a coward. You don't have to be a coward, but as long as you continue to act in the way you have said that you do, that's what you are.

Also, if you pay attention to actual game theory, being good to people as a default position always gives better results. The Australian government was incredibly shitty to these people with absolutely no provocation from them. The agents who betray others tend to get fucked over in the long run, because everyone else stops feeling like they owe them anything. That's one of the big reasons why this policy is self-defeating. If the cogs that make the machine run start to believe the machine is evil, they will stop letting it run.

Thanks