The top brass of the ABF and even the minister in-charge have denied knowledge of the news release which announced the joint ABF and Victorian Police operation which among other things would have profiled people and stopped them on the streets of Melbourne to enquire about their visa status.

However The Guardian reports that, “The “very, very badly worded” Australian Border Force press release that appeared to threaten random visa checks on the streets of Melbourne was twice sent to the office of the immigration minister, Peter Dutton.”

The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, described the saga as one of the government’s most “catastrophically silly” ideas on Saturday.  I don’t think there’s a single Victorian and indeed a single Australian whose jaw just didn’t hit the ground.”

The Greens called for the powers of border force officers to be clarified. “It needs to be cleaned up; they’re not an arm of the military and they’re not a police force,” Senator Sarah Hanson-Young told the ABC, adding: “It’s not clear at all what they think their role is, what indeed the powers are.”

The prime minister, Tony Abbott, said his department had no prior knowledge of the operation.

He said nothing untoward had happened except the agency had issued a poorly worded press release, describing it as a mistake and “over the top”.

“We would never stop people randomly on the street and demand their visa details,” he told reporters in Sydney on Saturday.

Late Friday afternoon, the ABF new release sparked a snap protest by several hundred people who stopped Melbourne’s trains and traffic and eventually the ABF’s poorly conceived operation.