Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Ludwig does not quite appreciate how our system works in relation to the cooperation of other vessels that make sightings and report them to us. But I suppose Senator Ludwig believes that we should not rely on private vessels for sighting. He thinks that fishermen have no role. He thinks that commercial vessels have absolutely no role in looking out for Australia. I can say to Senator Ludwig that I have met with commercial fishermen who believe they do have a role. And we are working with them. We will rely on reports to our hotline and go out and inspect vessels which have been reported to us. We will do that when that is reported to Customs. If we did not do that, Senator Ludwig would be the first to say that we were derelict in our duty. In this case, we dispatched a helicopter immediately and the Storm Bay came alongside hours later. That demonstrates that we have a very good system in place; that vessel has been interdicted and towed into Weipa.