"as though they had been trapped in a life for days with Philip Ruddock talking about border protection."

This one is actually subtle political comment.

The Howard Govt - Ruddock has sometimes been the Minister who thinks he's responsible for protecting Australia from being overwhelmed by various 'foreign hordes' (we've been terrified of this since the 'Yellow Peril' and resultant 'White Australia Policy' and 'Domino Theory' days! - incidentally The Labour Unions and thus The Labour Party were responsible for the White Aus Policy!) which has now 'migrated' (get it?) into proecting us from Big George's 'Islamic Terrorists'...

Little Fascist Johnny has manipulated the electorate previously with several various incarnations, such as 'Tampa' and 'children overboard' - thus we are constantly berated by people such as Ruddock about such issues as 'border protection' to the point that many (especially the 'young') turn off on such subjects... :-)