Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has played down reports a boat carrying 78 asylum seekers was deliberately sabotaged before being rescued by the Australian navy.

"I'm not leaping to conclusions, I'm not making any judgment and I don't think other people should," he told ABC Radio on Thursday, noting the report quoted unnamed sources.

The government would receive an "exhaustive" report about the incident from Customs and from personnel on HMAS Armidale, the first Australian vessel to respond to the boat's distress call inside the Indonesia search and rescue zone.

The Australian newspaper reported sources saying the boat had been deliberately disabled by punching or drilling holes into the hull, effectively forcing the navy to take passengers on board.

The Oceanic Viking, an Australian Customs vessel, will land the group at the western Java port of Merak later on Thursday.

Mr Smith said Australia would act in the same way again if faced with "precisely the same circumstances".

"When we get a distress call we have an obligation to help."