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

I know the opposition does not want to hear this, because it is all good news for border protection in the north, but this is a valuable addition to border protection in the north. What they do not realise is that the Triton as a platform out there, as a mother ship, frees up the Customs vessels. Of course we have the Bay class vessels also patrolling the waters with naval vessels. But what this does is act as a mother ship to take on board anyone who is interdicted by way of a suspicion of illegal fishing and as a mother ship for the basing of suspected illegal foreign fishing vessels. It then frees up the patrol boats to go about their task of patrolling and protecting our important border to the north.

We also have contracted private vessels—and we used one the other day, I understand—to tow back these fishing vessels to port and to transport those people we have arrested for illegal fishing. The importance of this is that it frees up those operational vessels such as the Customs Bay class vessels and our naval vessels to go about their job of patrolling, so that what we have in place is a very effective border patrol strategy in the north of Australia.

Recently sightings of illegal fishing have reduced by around 30 per cent. We believe that our efforts in the north are working and we have in place a very effective strategy. The situation with the Armidales has not diminished that. We understand that the Armidales should be back in action very shortly, in the very near future, and of course that is being worked on by the Navy. (Time expired)