David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

These are matters of great moment before the Australian parliament as brought to us by the opposition. Here is an abandoned vessel floating quite harmlessly off the vast coast of northern Australia. For those of you who do not know, there are no shipping lanes in this area. It has been used by fishermen, but there are no shipping lanes. It is floating off the vast coast of Australia. A Customs Coastwatch helicopter reported the vessel at a very early point, around 8 March, as being derelict and with no apparent sign of life.

The opposition fails to understand that, in the practical operation of Coastwatch and the management of vessels in apprehending illegal fishermen, when you divert vessels to apprehend a vessel that is unmanned and floating harmlessly and aimlessly, you obviously leave a gap in the surveillance area. People who understand what happens on Australian patrol boats know that a patrol boat is deployed to apprehend illegal fishermen and then to deal with their boats. Whilst one goes and deals with a fishing vessel that is unmanned and floating, as I say, quite harmlessly, other areas are left exposed. What happened here, quite obviously—you do not need to be an Einstein to work it out—was that Coastwatch management rationalised the deployment of vessels as a matter of priority. The vessel has now of course been taken into tow and removed from the theatre, as it were.

I find it absolutely astounding that in the face of a whole lot of public interest matters occurring in Australia today this is the issue that the opposition would bring to question time—a vessel floating quite harmlessly in the vast oceans off the northern coast of Australia. What does that say about the political acumen of the opposition? The only policy that I can think of that the Labor Party has brought to the table in the last 10 years with respect to our northern coastline is that of a coastguard. The utter lack of understanding that the opposition brings to the table when it comes to the surveillance and management of the security of our northern shores never ceases to amaze me.

At one point the opposition actually suggested, and even to this day I find this one of the most remarkable pieces of political policy making in the history of the nation, that helicopters should be deployed with armed gunmen on board strapped to the side to shoot out the motors of illegal fishermen. This was actually opposition policy. Mr Deputy President, can your mind’s eye actually envisage this—a helicopter flying low over a manned foreign fishing vessel with a person strapped to the side firing live rounds into the vessel? I must say that goes down as the gold medal winner for the most reckless, impractical and ridiculous policy initiative I have ever heard. It was coastguard mark 3, if my memory serves me correctly. What does that tell me about the quality of the opposition’s nous, knowledge and ability when it comes to the protection of our northern shores? Obviously it is a very adverse reflection on their ability and capability.

Currently Australia is maintaining a very large force of patrol boats from Cairns to Broome. Indeed, I have had experience in the apprehension of seven Indonesian fishermen. These waters are vast, and the small wooden boats are not detectable on radar. This is a major problem for current apprehension techniques. When one does apprehend a foreign vessel inside our economic zone and our fishing grounds, communications have to go back to Canberra with respect to the processing of the apprehended individuals. I was fortunate enough to be on an Armidale class patrol boat that apprehended seven Indonesian fishermen. They were dealt with very efficiently and properly. Indeed, they seemed to quite enjoy the experience of getting off these very small boats. (Time expired)