June 11, 2024
The Age
Angus Thompson
Tuesday 11 June 2024
People smugglers should be charged onshore rather than handed over to foreign nations, the federal opposition says, following revelations an Indonesian man was released upon his return to help authorities there hunt a criminal syndicate.
Coalition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said Australia should reserve the right to prosecute people smugglers unless it was confident they would face justice in their home country.
“It is concerning that, in at least one instance that we know of, an alleged people smuggler faced no charges in either Australia or Indonesia for his crimes,” Paterson said on Monday after this masthead revealed a man who helped 39 asylum seekers reach the mainland in February was deported without charge.
“There’s no deterrent if there are no consequences.”
While Australian authorities do prosecute some people smugglers – who face up to 10 years’ jail if convicted – others are sent back to other nations, depending on where the bulk of the evidence is held and the government’s capacity to investigate.
Comment has been sought from the office of Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil, however, Australian Border Force previously told this masthead and 60 Minutes the man was one of three crew members returned to Indonesia to face justice there.
The man instead struck a deal with authorities in Jakarta to trace the organised criminals running the networks, who are increasingly confident about testing the limits of Australian border security.
The joint media investigation also revealed long-running issues with Border Force’s Cape-class patrol fleet. One vessel, the Cape York, caught on fire and was out of action at the same time as the Indonesian people smuggler’s boatload reached the West Australian shore.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese avoided a question during a Parliament House press conference on Monday about whether the Cape-class fleet was up to the task of patrolling Australia’s borders, following a spate of recent illegal arrivals and interceptions since late last year.
However, Paterson told 2GB radio on Monday the incident aboard the Cape York amounted to a government failure to protect its maritime officers and give them seaworthy vessels, resulting “in a serious breach of our borders”.
“It’s no wonder that boats are managing to slip through and make it all the way to the Australian mainland, and no wonder the people smugglers are having some success convincing desperate people to pay exorbitant amounts of money and … make this dangerous journey to Australia,” he said.
According to a 2018 Australian National Audit Office report, defects were the main reason the fleet fell well short of targeted patrol days under the Coalition in 2016-17.
Paterson argued that the boats had been ordered by Labor before the Coalition took power in 2013 and, despite their defects, the previous government had delivered a record 2500 patrol days in 2020-21.
He said it was Labor’s challenge to fix the vessels.
“They’ve been in government for two years … trying to shoot the blame back to the previous government is not good enough,” he said.
O’Neil has previously told this masthead the government was committed to supporting the fleet and was doing so through record funding to Operation Sovereign Borders.
