If I may play Captain Obvious for a moment, the secrecy around Operation Sovereign Borders is not for one moment intended to deprive people smugglers information about on water goings on. Indeed it cannot. People smugglers are of course first hand witnesses and participants in the events. As are the asylum seekers, who all have mobile phones and who will immediately call their relatives to inform them of their fate.
In fact, Morrison and Abbott want and intend that the asylum seekers immediately inform their friends and relatives back in Indonesia what has happened to them, to describe how horrible it was and how cruelly they have been treated, so that their failure to enter Australia may dissuade others. S&M inc (hat-tip Bob Ellis) do not at all intend secrecy for operational matters in the information flow going back to Indonesia. They want that megaphoned.
No.
The target of the secrecy is you and me, the Australian public. (Hi.)
Morrison and Abbott directly lie to us when they say otherwise.
Why Would They Lie ?
Because in lying, Morrison and Abbott serve a higher good than that of truth. For Abbott its the re-election of the LNP. For Morrison its the de-Islamisation of Australia. Lies, cruelty and torture, for these men, justify the purpose of serving their Higher Truth.
But they know that even the bigots and fearful in Australia can only stomach so much. That why secrecy is paramount.
Under The Milky Way 