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

Senator Brandis, you keep saying that but it is actually not true. Repeating an untruth may make you feel comfortable but the reality is that that is not true. The number of boats steadily increased during last years of the Howard government.

The point I make is that Indonesia is a transit country that has been utilised by a lot of people seeking asylum in Australia and elsewhere. We are working very closely with Indonesian authorities. We are getting very good cooperation from Indonesian police. There have been a large number of disruptions and a large number of arrests. The Indonesian government have now committed to making people smuggling a criminal offence. That legislation is vital to the fight against people smugglers. At the moment it is very hard for Indonesian authorities to hold people smugglers because there is no specific people-smuggling charge.

We expect that legislation to be a huge boon for us in the fight against people smuggling in Indonesia. As I say, we are getting good cooperation. There have been a lot of disruptions. There is one man currently on trial in Australia who was extradited and another is about to be extradited. So we are working closely with them to combat this problem. (Time expired)