No matter who decided it was a good idea for the newly uniformed paramilitary types of the Australian Border Force to team up with police to randomly intercept citizens in Melbourne for visa checks this weekend, it was a bad look for the organisation and a black eye for the Abbott government by association.

Operation Ineptitude - its official name having been "Operation Fortitude" - was an ill-conceived debacle from start to... well, to its inevitable abandonment.

For the Abbott government, which has lately elevated "community safety" to holy trinity status along with jobs and growth, the overreach of the Australian Border Force's adolescent excursion into police-state theatrics, could be seen as the natural extension of Coalition rhetoric.