Boat arrivals down by 70% since the election.
That about sums it up.
The Abbott government has blinked in its asylum seeker stand-off with Indonesia, ordering a Customs boat with up to 63 asylum seekers on board to Christmas Island, throwing its boats policy into disarray.
The arrival will be seen as a loss of face for the Coalition, which vowed before the election that Australian authorities would not act as a taxi service for refugees. It may also encourage other people smuggling syndicates to try their hand.
Indonesia had refused to take the asylum seekers whose boat had got into trouble off the coast of Java, raising question about the government's turn back the boats policy.
Yep Rudds PNG policy working LOL.......wait for it.....noooooooo
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Hows the leaky boat buying program going?
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Prime Minister Tony Abbott backs down in asylum seeker stand-off with Indonesia
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-polit...h-indonesia-20131109-2x8n8.html#ixzz2kF2g7luD
If Kevin Rudd's quick election solution is working so well in isolation, why did Labor wait so long to implement such a solution ?Yep Rudds PNG policy working LOL.......wait for it.....noooooooo
.
Mr Agus gave further details of the requests that had been rejected and said there had been similar examples under both Labor and Liberal governments. ‘‘It’s not gone into the media, that’s why the recent incident looks like it is the first time. In fact, Indonesia has made similar decisions more than three times ... under the current government and the previous government, in 2012 and 2013,’’ he said.
‘‘The boats were fine. In some of those incidents they activated the distress alert and when the Australian ships were nearing them they deliberately broke the engines so that the Australian ships could take them,’’ Mr Agus said.
‘‘Everyone was safe, and besides their boats were already closer to Christmas Island. We were asked to receive them. We said we didn’t want to. If there were incidents where the boats were wrecked and people were in the water, of course Indonesia would help because it is a humanitarian issue.’’
Labor, for all its bluster over the latest boat actually tried themselves to return them to Indonesia in a similar fashion.
It's really quiet interesting what the Indonesians are now revealing,
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/boat-policy-founders-20131110-2xa6x.html
Of course Labor tried to return asylum seekers they just didn't run the spin of turn back the boats crap, if the Indos say no it means no.
Two boat loads rejected and counting
Four boatloads taken back by Indonesia in the last few weeks... and counting...
What beats the hell out of me is why our navy is entering Indonesian waters to asisst these boats when they send out a distress call just 40 Nautical miles from Java.
Why the hell doesn't the navy relay the call to Indonesain authorities....."HA Marty, you have a boat in trouble 40 miles south of Java....you better come and get them because we don't want to infringe on your sovereignity"
And the biased stupid left wing ABC this morning states the Government's policy is in tatters....even Kochie on Channel 7 made a beat up of.
These people will say and do anything to discredit the Abbott Goverment......Never heard them say much about the three boats per day arriving under Rudd.
What a load of BS.
To admit to attempting to return asylum seekers to Indonesia would have been in direct contradiction to the ideology of Labor and their Green partners in government. It's also not up to Indonesia to determine our migration policy.Of course Labor tried to return asylum seekers they just didn't run the spin of turn back the boats crap, if the Indos say no it means no.
Two boat loads rejected and counting
Mr Morrison says the government is succeeding in stopping the boats, but the situation with rescues and returns is "very frustrating".
"There's no real rhyme or reason to it necessarily," Mr Morrison told Fairfax Radio on Monday. "I think this last instance became very problematic because it became very public."
Mr Morrison says he had given the Indonesian government an undertaking that when such incidents occurred "we would do it directly and we would do it discretely".
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has suggested that Indonesia had an obligation to accept the asylum seekers.
"These people were in a search and rescue situation in the Indonesian search and rescue zone," he said.
"Now the normal international law is that if you are rescued in a country's search and rescue zone - that country has an obligation to take you.
"You can go to the nearest port and the nearest port is normally the port that is in the country whose search and rescue zone you've been picked up in."
Thewest.com.au understands that two boats - believed to be carrying scores of people - were picked up by border protection authorities over the weekend. Preparations are being made on Christmas Island to receive the two groups.
What beats the hell out of me is why our navy is entering Indonesian waters to asisst these boats when they send out a distress call just 40 Nautical miles from Java.
Why the hell doesn't the navy relay the call to Indonesain authorities....."HA Marty, you have a boat in trouble 40 miles south of Java....you better come and get them because we don't want to infringe on your sovereignity"
And the biased stupid left wing ABC this morning states the Government's policy is in tatters....even Kochie on Channel 7 made a beat up of.
These people will say and do anything to discredit the Abbott Goverment......Never heard them say much about the three boats per day arriving under Rudd.
Noco, I may be wrong but my understanding is that, under international maritime law, the ship that is closest to a vessel in trouble is required to assist. I also understand that our navy is patrolling the Indonesian border in an effort to prevent boats getting through to Australia. If so, that probably puts our Navy at close proximity to AS boats being sabotaged. Perhaps the boats deliberately sabotage close to one of our Navy ships and/or perhaps the Indonesian Navy deliberately have their ships well away so that by law Australian ships are required to help.
It seems this last dispute was over the safety of the boat. Indonesia decided the passengers were not in danger so they refused to take them. Obviously engine failure does not put passengers in danger according to Indonesia and perhaps the Navy should have refused to assist on the basis they were not in danger. Indonesian Navy would have had time to assist them.
Maybe next time the Navy should wait until the passengers are in the water so Indonesia has to take them under international law or international law will have to be more specific to prevent people from drowning before they are considered in danger.
Tony Abbott has now weighed in on rescues in Indonesia's SAR zone,
So much for the veil of media silence and secrecy so as not to affect operational matters!
Now starts the 'spin', the propaganda, the appeal to ethics and moralityto try to explain why this dumb policy didn't work.
The real dumb policy was Rudd opening up the borders to all and sundry. If he had kept the working system handed to him by the coalition Australia would not have this problem now.
Pretty rude to call the efforts of the coalition dumb policy when they at least are actively trying to fix the awful mess left by labor.
"Sing ken ken, mereka semua akan segera makanan ikan"
It is understood the high tempo of disruptions is in part the result of a request by Kevin Rudd, who after reclaiming the Labor leadership in June petitioned Dr Yudhoyono to increase law enforcement efforts against the smugglers. Indonesia's ocean-faring boats, the ones capable of mounting rescues in high seas, are deployed to the country's north for strategic reasons, meaning Jakarta struggles to mount rescues within its southern search-and-rescue zones.
Its civil maritime assets are ill-equipped to operate far from shore, effectively leaving Australia responsible for co-ordinating, or even conducting, rescues that occur between Indonesia and Christmas Island.
Mr Morrison says the government is succeeding in stopping the boats, but the situation with rescues and returns is "very frustrating".
"There's no real rhyme or reason to it necessarily," Mr Morrison told Fairfax Radio on Monday. "I think this last instance became very problematic because it became very public."
Mr Morrison says he had given the Indonesian government an undertaking that when such incidents occurred "we would do it directly and we would do it discretely".
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