Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

The former admiral of the Navy Chris Barrie, a naval officer who was directly involved in these operations, has made it very clear that without the cooperation of another country—that is, a return country on the high seas—it is extremely dangerous for men, women and children and it is extremely dangerous to our naval and Customs personnel to do that. People who have already placed themselves and their crews at risk, who have actually dealt with these operational situations, should be listened to. These are people with many years of naval experience. That is why we do listen to those officers.

Further to that, as the Deputy Prime Minister has already said in question time, we have a situation where the Vice President of Indonesia and the Indonesian ambassador have made clear that what the Leader of the Opposition would like to put in place is not going to work, is not going to happen. And insofar as our own personnel are concerned, it is unsafe. For those reasons I would disagree with you in making the comparison with pirates on the high seas.

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