Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

You guys can decide because you are running the show, Senator O’Brien. The Oceanic Viking is now in its fifth week of being tied up with this group of asylum seekers, and we know that it made a delivery to Christmas Island at least a week before that. In his answer to my question, Senator Sherry referred to budget documents which allowed $6 million over two years for 80 extra days over those two years. In that context, their allocation for this year is already up. They have spent at least 40 additional days—most of them on this group of asylum seekers—and there are still 56 on board the ship who are giving no indication of being about to get off. The government might claim a bit of a victory with the 22 that disembarked over the weekend, and I suppose that is fair enough, but while ever there is one person remaining on that ship and refusing to leave, this remains a policy failure and it just reinforces the failure of Mr Rudd’s Indonesian solution. The floating solution is no solution.

We know that this is the time of year when activity in the Southern Ocean is at its greatest. This country, along with its international friends, put in a lot of effort to get rid of poaching in the Southern Ocean. We do not want to go back to the situation we faced in 2005 where we were aware of at least six vessels down there fishing illegally, or in 2006 where there were nine vessels fishing illegally. We, along with our international partners, have expended an extraordinary amount of effort in that fishery to clean it up and to get rid of the poaching. As Senator Sherry said, we do not advertise where the ship is or when it is going to be sailing, but at the moment it is bloody obvious to the whole world where the ship is: it is sitting off Indonesia with 56 asylum seekers on it. So the illegal fishermen can go down there with impunity. They know that our vessel that patrols those waters, a vessel that is designed to work in those southern Antarctic waters because it is strengthened to deal with ice, is not available. It is currently a floating solution for Mr Rudd’s failed Indonesian solution.

Then we come to other activities. Last summer the Oceanic Viking spent a lot of time—between mid-December and April—shadowing the Japanese whaling fleet. We are within four weeks of that process recommencing, but the Japanese do not have to worry about the ship this year because it is stuck off Indonesia’s northern waters. So the government may well have made an additional allocation in the budget of $6 million for 80 days over two years, but that $75,000 a day is being spent on this ship whilst it is bailed up off Indonesian waters. Where is Australia’s cop on the beat? It is certainly not doing the job that it was given.

The government mentions the other vessels the Navy has, but they are not ice strengthened. They cannot go down into these southern waters to deal with the poachers. Senator Macdonald did great work when he was fisheries minister in acquiring this vessel and putting it onto the beat and, as I said before, we cleaned up a situation where in 2005 there were six vessels and in 2006 there were nine vessels poaching down there. We worked hard to clean that up and yet, because of the failed policies of the Rudd government with respect to asylum seekers, our cop on the beat is sitting off the coast of Indonesia with 56 asylum seekers on board. The sailing of that ship is supposed to be a covert operation. As Senator Sherry said, we do not indicate when the ship is at sea or where it is. But it is there for the whole world to see and the publicity it is getting makes sure that everybody knows about it.

So while ever this policy failure remains, and while ever the government fails to get the asylum seekers off the ship, that is the story. It is evident to asylum seekers as a result of this that, if you can create a special circumstance, this government will give you a special solution. That is what has been offered to the asylum seekers to get off the ship. If you can create a special situation, the government will give you a special solution. (Time expired)