December 1, 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 CONTINUED PAGE 8
managed to get through last week with a dozen asylum seekers arriving undetected in the Kimberley. No vessel was sighted, suggesting they may have been dropped off.
The West Australian can reveal 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.
The West has also obtained videos showing boats packed with people believed to be from Indonesia off the Kimberley coast, 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 . . . that more and more illegal fishing ventures are slipping through the cracks," he said. "It's no wonder people smugglers are leaping on this weakness to sneak people all the way to the Australian mainland." 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.
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," he said.
