The agenda includes cyberattacks, foreign interference, child exploitation and border security. Burke is also expected to brief his counterparts on the Australian action to expel the Iranian ambassador last month after security advice found Iran had instigated attacks on the Jewish community.
In a sign that Starmer and his ministers are acting on Australian lessons, Mahmood announced on Monday that she was considering tougher visa measures for entry to the UK, including refusing visas to visitors from countries that do not accept returned asylum seekers.
Migrant families wade into the sea at Gravelines, France, in an attempt to board a small boat heading to the UK.Credit: Getty Images
“We do expect countries to play ball, play by the rules, and if one of your citizens has no right to be in our country, you do need to take them back,” she told the British media.
Burke oversaw passage of the Migration Amendment (Removal and Other Measures) Bill last year to ban visas from countries that do not accept involuntary removals, prompting criticism from refugee groups. The law was expected to be applied to visitors from countries such as Iran, Iraq, Russia, South Sudan and Zimbabwe.
Starmer and Mahmood are under pressure from Reform UK leader Nigel Farage over more than 111,000 asylum seeker claims in the year to June – 43,600 of them from people who arrived by boat.
Burke said he and Mahmood had spoken about the Australian experience in bringing asylum seeker numbers down, and he rejected the idea that conservative parties could claim to be more effective.
“The simple lived experience now is that under both sides of politics we’ve been able to make sure that the people smugglers don’t win,” he said.
“I’m really proud of that. The principle of sovereignty doesn’t belong to one side of politics. It’s simply the definition of being a nation.”
Burke was a cabinet minister throughout the governments of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard and was appointed immigration minister when Rudd returned as prime minister in June 2013, after which the government reached agreements with Nauru and Papua New Guinea to host detention centres.
Tony Abbott continued those detention centres when he became prime minister three months later, while adding measures such as boat turn-backs and installing a military commander to head the border control operation.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage addresses delegates at a party conference on Saturday.Credit: Getty Images
Labor has continued the practice of having Operation Sovereign Borders under a military commander – something the British government has not done. The UK’s border security commander is a former police chief.
“We’ve constantly adapted, but we’ve never changed the mission,” Burke said in an interview.
“The mission is simply to make sure that no people smuggling venture is successful.
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“The caseload has involved different cohorts over time. The other thing that’s started to happen is we’ve increasingly been returning people directly to their country of origin.
“Sometimes people will be turned back directly to Indonesia. Occasionally, there’ll be people sent to Nauru.
“But in very significant numbers, now, we send people directly back to where they started.”
