July 30, 2024
Surveillance flights to detect illegal boat arrivals off Australia's northwest coast have slumped by 22 per cent in two years amid a surge in people-smuggling voyages, presenting a major challenge for incoming Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke.
As Mr Burke headed to Indonesia for high-level security talks, new figures revealed surveillance flying hours for Operation Sovereign Borders fell a further 2 per cent last financial year after a 20 per cent drop in 2022-23, while maritime surveillance hours were down 7 per cent after a 12 per cent fall the previous year.
OSB commander Brett Sonter said surveillance was "key" to the agency's mission, and he was filling the gaps with Australian Defence Force assets, including submarine-hunting P-8A Poseidon jets and C-130J transporters.
OSB's latest update confirms three people-smuggling boats carrying a combined 49 people were intercepted in June. The official figures don't yet include interceptions in July, during which Australian Border Force personnel turned back more than 70 people from at least two people smuggling ventures.
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said the first item on Mr Burke's to-do list should be fixing "the catastrophic declines in aerial surveillance and maritime patrol days on the Albanese government's watch".
"It's no wonder we've had 19 boats since the election and at least three of which have reached the Australian mainland or territories," Senator Paterson said.
"If people smugglers keep breaking through, we will only get more of them.
"Tony Burke knows exactly what that's like from when he was last in the job in the disastrous Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era, when 83 boats carrying 6634 illegal arrivals showed up in just 80 days on his watch. We can't afford a repeat of his failures."
Mr Burke departed for Bali on Monday afternoon for talks with Indonesia's Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Hadi Tjahjanto, on people smuggling, counter-terrorism co-operation and transnational crime.
In his first comments since the weekend reshuffle when he was shifted from employment and workplace relations, Mr Burke said he took on the home affairs and immigration portfolios "with a deep sense of responsibility and resolve".
"The Albanese Labor government is committed to strong and secure borders," he said.
"By maintaining strong borders we can deliver an orderly and compassionate immigration system that is tailored to the needs of the nation."
Mr Burke last served as immigration minister from July 1, 2013 until the election in September that year. He averaged more than one unauthorised boat arrival per day during his tenure the highest of any of his predecessor Labor ministers. But his time in the post also coincided with a steep fall in people-smuggling ventures after then-prime minister Kevin Rudd barred boat people from ever settling in Australia.
"When I took over the immigration portfolio in 2013 boat arrivals were at an all-time high," Mr Burke said on Monday.
"The policy changes I oversaw delivered a 90 per cent reduction in the number of people putting their lives at risk on boats."
Anthony Albanese accused Senator Paterson of playing politics, declaring Mr Burke would do an "excellent" job in the portfolio.
US defence company Leidos took over the ABF's $1.5bn aerial Continued on Page 4 No stopping boats if you stop looking: surveillance flights drop Continued from Page 1 surveillance contract in 2021 when it acquired the previous operator, Cobham Aviation Services.
The company is supposed to undertake 15,000 hours of aerial surveillance a year using 10 civilian Dash-8 aircraft, but managed only 12,691 in 2022-23 a 20.7 per cent fall on the previous year.
Updated figures provided to the Senate last week revealed that number had fallen a further 2 per cent to May 31.
Rear Admiral Sonter said OSB was "getting adequate surveillance" by supplementing Leidos's flying hours with ADF aircraft.
"One of the beauties about this role is being an ADF officer that is seconded to the ABF, I have an ability to call on Australian Defence Force assets as well," Real Admiral Sonter said.
"I do get P-8s. Sometimes I get C-130s. So it varies. I don't normally ask for a specific platform."
He said the vastness of Australia's geography presented major challenges, with the North West Cape region alone spanning 600km of coastline.
"Every day, when I get in here, I get an operations briefing in the morning," he said. "It's fed by intelligence. We look at it and we say, 'OK, how do we have to change our posture based on our intelligence?' And every day I'm changing the posture of the aerial surveillance, the ships, the deterrence and disruption to make sure we are getting after what we know is there on that particular day."
He predicted drones could share the surveillance load in the future, but an upcoming tender process for a new 10-year contract worth an estimated $2.6bn had not specified the need for uncrewed systems.
The ABF itself does not have any drone capabilities, and it's unclear whether the RAAF's new Triton surveillance drones will be used to detect peoplesmuggling boats.
Rear Admiral Sonter attributed the recent increase in boat interceptions to false claims by people-smugglers. "Unfortunately, what we see is, they like to tell lies. And frankly, they target vulnerable people," he said.
He said the people smugglers continued to mislead potential customers, telling them: "Come to Australia, we can organise this visa for you, you'll be working within a certain amount of time".
He added: "What they're not telling, and this is pretty critical, is there have been no successful ventures. So you're not going to get to Australia and Nauru does not lead to Australia either, which is still something that people, for whatever reason, don't understand.
"You are going to go back to where you came from."
The RAAF's P-8A Poseidon aircraft are highly sophisticated, requiring a crew of at least six to operate a complex array of sensors and weapons.
Defence analyst Marcus Hellyer said using the aircraft to locate people smuggling boats was "overkill".
"It does have great radars on it which would be great to pick up illegal entries," Dr Hellyer said.
"But it is designed to detect and identify enemy ships and submarines, and prosecute them with harpoon missiles and antisubmarine torpedoes not much use if you're trying to catch unauthorised immigrants or illegal fishermen."
