Ministers avoid boat payment claims
Cabinet ministers no longer deny that people smugglers were paid to return a boatload of asylum seekers to Indonesia, amid the prospect of three inquiries into the affair.
Instead, Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his colleagues are saying the Government will do “what it takes” to stop asylum seekers taking dangerous voyages to Australia.
Six crew members have told Indonesian authorities they were paid $US5000 each by Australian officials to return an asylum seeker boat to Indonesia.
The claims were at first denied by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop last week but both changed their language yesterday.
“We stopped the boats and they will stay stopped under this Government,” Mr Dutton told Parliament when invited by the Opposition to repeat his denial from last week.
“All of the people in the command structure in Operation Sovereign Borders ... will do whatever it takes, within the law, to meet our international obligations to stop the people smugglers.”
International law experts say the payments would be tantamount to people smuggling.
It emerged yesterday that Australian spies working for the foreign intelligence service ASIS may have paid money to disrupt people smuggling activities.
Under the Intelligence Services Act, ASIS agents are expressly exempted from any civil or criminal liability for “any act done outside Australia if the act is done in the proper performance of a function of the agency”.
Indonesia is investigating the payments and the Federal Opposition has referred the issue to the Auditor-General.
The Greens have asked the Australian Federal Police to investigate.
Mr Abbott attempted to turn the tables on the Opposition yesterday, saying that under the previous Labor government, smugglers generated half a billion dollars by charging 50,000 people $10,000 each to make the dangerous trip.
“This Government does not feel the need to broadcast our intentions and our tactics to our enemies,” the PM said.
Labor sought to censure Mr Abbott in Parliament for refusing to answer questions about the alleged $30,000 payment.
“Australian taxpayers have a right to know if their money is going to the most vile trade that both sides of this chamber have made the strongest comments against,” shadow minister Tony Burke said.
