Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister expressed the Labor Party’s resolve to try to attack the trade of people-smuggling and that we would apply all measures at our disposal to try to disrupt and end the people-smuggling trade. As I understand it, the last successful turnaround of a boat was in 2005, when the Howard government ceased turning boats around at sea because of operational concerns.

We have certainly attempted to discourage persons from leaving and have worked with our international allies. There has been, for instance, a lot of focus recently on the boat that is moored at Merak which was intercepted by the Indonesians en route to Australia and berthed at Merak. We are using all the measures we can in cooperation with our allied nations and those in the region to disrupt people-smuggling with all the means at our disposal, but we also make sure that those operations are safe and that they do not put naval personnel at risk. As we saw last year with SIEV36, there are dangers to Navy personnel in operating in these environments and one has to be careful.

My understanding is that the last turnaround that occurred at sea was in 2005. I will check that; I do not have the figures easily to hand. But, as I said, I think the last turnaround at sea by Australian Navy personnel was conducted in 2005. Operating instructions to Navy are obviously designed to— (Time expired)