December 7, 2023
The Federal Government is under attack for not doing enough to protect Australia's borders, with new figures showing more than 150 foreign fishing boats have been intercepted off WA's coast in the past five months.
The Coalition claims the boats are likely being used to smuggle people into Australia after a vessel slipped through the cracks last week with a dozen asylum seekers arriving undetected in the Kimberley.
No vessel was sighted when they were found, suggesting they may have been dropped off.
It has been revealed 156 foreign fishing vessels have been caught by the Australian Fisheries Management Authority and Maritime Border Command since July 1, which is more than three times the amount of the previous year.
Only three other boats have been stopped in Australian waters elsewhere in the country since that date.
Videos showing boats packed with people believed to be from Indonesia in waters off the Kimberley coast have also surfaced, and footage of rubbish with writing in a different language left on Vansittart Bay a protected island in the region.
Shadow home affairs minister James Paterson said the Albanese Government was not protecting Australia's borders.
"It's thoroughly unsurprising following the Albanese Government's $600 million in cuts to Border Force and their inability to deliver adequate maritime surveillance and patrol days that more and more illegal fishing ventures are slipping through the cracks," he said.
"It's no wonder that people smugglers are leaping on this weakness to sneak people all the way to the Australian mainland.
Labor must urgently restore full funding to Border Force and all elements of Operation Sovereign Borders before the floodgates open again." Authorities have noticed an increase in foreign fishing vessels in the Kimberley Marine Park this financial year, with penalties for those caught including having catch and equipment confiscated, boats seized and destroyed, and court prosecution.
The agencies conduct aerial surveillance and patrols.
WA Fishing Industry Council chief executive Darryl Hockey said the issue was "getting worse and worse", with many more boats arriving from Indonesia getting away without penalty.
"Our fishermen are seeing so many of these Indonesian boats everywhere and in numbers they haven't seen for years. The Government should be doing more. . .they're not getting anywhere near addressing the scale of the problem," Mr Hockey said.
"There are these motherships that are parking up in international waters and they're sending in fast-motorised craft to fish really hard.. . We're getting feedback from our (fishermen) that they're finding Indonesians camping on an island and one got chased off. He found noodle packets with Indonesian writing on them." A Border Force spokeswoman previously said illegal fishing in Australian waters would not be tolerated.
"Our message to illegal foreign fishers in Australian waters is clear you will be detected, and we will intercept you," she said.
Authorities stopped 112 illegal fishing boats off the WA coast in the past financial year, 311 in the 12 months before it and 84 for the 2020-2021 financial year.
