By Patrick Begley
- Indonesia to investigate claims Australia paid people smugglers
- Claims Australia paid people smugglers to turn around
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has not denied Australia paid people smugglers to turn around an asylum seeker boat.
The Prime Minister also refused to offer a view about whether such a method would be unacceptable and would not commit to an investigation.
Fairfax Media this week revealed passengers and an Indonesian police chief have claimed border protection officials paid people smugglers to return asylum seekers interecepted north of Australia en route to New Zealand.
Indonesia is now investigating claims that crew members of a boat were paid $5000 each to turn around.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott refused to say whether he condoned the idea of Australia paying people smugglers to turn boats around.Credit: Penny Stephens
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton denied this week that Australia had paid people smugglers.
But Mr Abbott refused to do the same when speaking on Melbourne radio station 3AW on Friday morning, saying "I just don't want to go into details".
"The Australian government will do whatever we need to do to keep this evil trade stopped," he said.
Host Neil Mitchell asked whether this would include paying people smugglers.
"We will do whatever we need to do to keep this trade stopped," Mr Abbott replied. He later said the government would do "whatever it takes" so long as it was "consistent with being a humane and decent country".
Asked whether he would support in theory a payment to people smugglers, he said: "I'm just not going to get into hypotheticals."
He said border protection agencies had been "incredibly creative in coming up with a whole range of strategies" to stop people smuggling.
After the interview, Mitchell said the Prime Minister had confirmed by the manner of his answers that Australia had probably paid people smugglers to turn around boats.
I'm just not going to get into hypotheticals
Sixty-five people from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, who were seeking asylum in New Zealand, had their boat intercepted by Australian navy and Customs officials in late May and were then returned to the island of Rote.
The Indonesian police chief on Rote, Hidayat, said the six crew members said they had been given $US5000 each by Australian officials. The crew were apprehended when they arrived at Rote and are being processed for people-smuggling offences.
The Indonesian government has said it is shocked by the claims.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said: "If it is true, it's very concerning that a government official gave money to people smugglers to push back the boat to the middle of the sea."