Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It has been a pleasure to sit through all of this evening's adjournment debate waiting for your indulgence, Mr Speaker.

I rise to speak on something very serious. All members in this place would be well aware of the events of 15 December, when SIEV221 foundered off Christmas Island and up to 50 lives were lost as those people attempted to make what is a very treacherous journey to Australia.

The circumstances and the result of the journey of SIEV221 are a horrifying example that brought home to all Australians why we need to stop the people smugglers dead in their tracks. The graphic images brought home to many Australians the reason this parliament needs to do everything possible to make sure that people smugglers do not have a product left to sell.

Whilst we had graphic images of SIEV221, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that many other people have attempted to make that journey and have been lost at sea; although it is not brought home as graphically when you do not have the obvious evidence that we had from 15 December last year. Two vessels were reported to have left Indonesia, and they have not been seen or heard of since. I mention them because, when it has been asked about the boats in the media, the government has made statements about what it knows of their fate which contradict their reporting to this parliament during the estimates process. I will now highlight where the discrepancies are. I ask the government to do all that it can to come into this place and explain what they know in order to clear up these discrepancies. On 16 September, I wrote to the Minister for Home Affairs and asked him to do just that.

So two vessels are reported to have left Indonesia—one of them on or around 3 October 2009 and the other one on or around 13 or 14 November 2010. These vessels combined are alleged to have been carrying up to 247 people. Possible tragedies of this magnitude need to be taken as seriously as they can be. Indeed, I think the situation demands a full public account of what the government knew about these vessels and when it knew it.

The first vessel was reported to have left Indonesia on or around 13 or 14 November. On the subject of this vessel, a Customs and Border Protection spokesman was paraphrased in the Sunday Age of 26 December 2010 as having said:

… the authority was not aware of claims of a missing boat. No boat had been detected and no rescue mission carried out in the period in which the vessel may have been near or in Australian waters.

Further, in the Sydney Morning Herald of 8 May 2011, Customs and Border Protection Command are reported to have stated that they did not receive any calls about it. Yet, in answer to a question from Senator Cash in budget estimates in May this year about that exact vessel, the response was:

A number of enquiries were received by the Department relating to people who were believed by family members to have travelled from Indonesia to Australia on or around 13 November 2010 and had not been heard from since. These calls were received via the SIEV 221 hotline established following the Christmas Island boat crash disaster on 15 December 2010.

The second vessel is believed to have been carrying 105 people. The Minister for Home Affairs, when he was asked about the fate of this vessel in the Sydney Morning Herald of 25 May, said:

"subsequent credible information" showed its difficulties had been resolved.

He was also reported to have said:

… surveillance activities that day by border protection command did not detect a vessel in distress.

Yet in answer to a question from Senator Ronaldson in the same estimates period this year the following information, which contradicts that, was provided:

Following the publication of the report in The Age of 18 January 2010, Customs and Border Protection reviewed its information holdings to ascertain if the agency had any relevant information. This review concluded that information Customs and Border Protection received about a vessel in distress on 3 October 2009 may have referred to this incident.

The officer who gave that answer continues by saying that a brief stating just this was provided to the minister on 20 January 2010—that is, before he made his comments in the media.

I think that everyone in this parliament can agree that this parliament owes the fullest possible explanation of what the government knew about these vessels, and I urge the minister to come into this House and clarify the record.

I seek leave to table the letter that I wrote to the minister, the questions on notice that we received and the press reports that I have quoted from tonight.

Leave granted.