John Hogg (Queensland, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Ellison, the Minister representing the Minister for Defence. I refer the minister to last week’s decision by the Navy to order the entire Armidale class patrol boat fleet to remain in port because of fears that faulty fuel pumps could endanger crews. Is it not a fact that a similar problem occurred in late 2006 and the Navy was forced to stop all Armidale class patrol boat operations until the fuel pumps were replaced? As a result of these problems, hasn’t the Navy been forced to recommission the old Fremantle patrol boats, which were being decommissioned, to cover the non-use of the new Armidale patrol boats? Isn’t the Navy also using eight Bay class boats from Customs to help fill the void of the missing Armidale patrol boats, and hasn’t this severely reduced the operational activities of both the Navy and Customs for the protection of our coastline?

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

I addressed these questions in Darwin last week with Rear Admiral Goldrick, who is the commander in relation to our border protection command, and he made it very clear then that the situation in relation to the Armidales has not diminished our capacity to protect Australia’s northern borders. We have sufficient assets, by way of Customs assets and other naval assets, to carry out the very important work that we are doing with border protection in the north.

With the circumstances that we have with the border protection command, we have not only the assets of both Customs and Navy available to the border protection command but other assets of the ADF as well. We have not had to go beyond that, according to Rear Admiral Goldrick. We have assets which are available to us which include a Fremantle class patrol boat. I understand that that is the HMAS Gladstone, which is in service. My clear understanding is that it has not been decommissioned and then brought back into action. It is a Fremantle class boat, and I remind the Senate that we still have them available and they do a very good job indeed. We are in the process of gradually replacing them with the Armidales. The Armidales are 14 in total number, and we do not have all of those completed yet. So it is a process of transition. But we have as well a minehunter and we also have a heavy landing craft, I understand, which is in harness as well in relation to border protection. So we have that.

In addition to that, I was present in Darwin last week to see put in action, last Friday, the Triton, which is a 98-metre trimaran, one of the biggest in the world today, built in the United Kingdom for the United Kingdom navy and the US navy as a pilot vessel. It is a state-of-the-art vessel, with speed, flexibility and accommodation, which is now in service. It is armed with two 50 calibre machine guns. It has a capacity to carry up to 30 Customs officers.

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

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

John Hogg (Queensland, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. For how long will the Navy be forced to maintain this bandaid solution? How much will it cost to cover this very serious loss of capability? And will the minister reassure the Senate that there has been no operational loss in the surveillance and policing of our coastline?

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

In relation to the latter half of Senator Hogg’s question, I can only restate the position I outlined earlier—and that was as stated by Rear Admiral Goldrick: that there is no loss in operational capacity in patrolling the northern waters of this country. In relation to the Armidale situation, the Navy has advised that they see the Armidales being back in action in the near future. It relates to a problem with a fuel line which is being looked at, and that is being given urgent attention.