Stephen Smith (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. Members may have seen media reports this morning to suggest that Abraham, or Captain Bram, as he is known—a person who is well-known to Indonesian and Australian authorities, a person who has previously been convicted of people-smuggling offences—had been detained by Indonesian authorities. I can confirm to the House that Indonesian authorities have advised Australian officials that Captain Bram has been detained and is currently under detention by Indonesian officials. The Australian government welcomes very much the detention and his arrest. He of course will now be subject to Indonesian criminal and judicial procedures, but this is potentially a very serious setback for people smugglers and people smuggling in our region and we welcome that.

This is but another example of the very close cooperation between Australian and Indonesian authorities and officials on this matter. That cooperation has been in hand for a number of years. Since coming to office the government has moved to increase and enhance the resources allocated to combating people smuggling. It has done so in conjunction with Indonesia but also, importantly, in conjunction with other countries in our region: Malaysia, a transit country, and of course Sri Lanka, where in recent times we have seen terrible civilian conflict. We are seeing very serious push factors emanating from Sri Lanka.

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