Boatpeople surge ‘Shorten’s fault’, says Dutton

Peter Dutton says nearly 70 boatpeople who recently tried to travel here would have ended up on the mainland if Bill Shorten had won.

This boat carrying asylum-seekers from Sri Lanka was the third intercepted while trying to reach Australia since the federal election. The five men aboard were flown back to Colombo yesterday morning.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says nearly 70 boatpeople who tried to travel to Australia in recent months would have ended up on the mainland if Bill Shorten and Labor had won the election.

Five asylum-seekers were returned to Colombo on a government plane yesterday, as their failure to reach the Australian mainland was used to put pressure on the opposition to back a reversal of medical transfer laws.

The secretive Australian Border Force operation was known to only a few inside government but The Australian has confirmed the group on Christmas Island was ushered under guard to the ­island’s airport before dawn and the jet was seen heading to Sri Lanka using flight tracking ­software.

Mr Dutton confirmed the boat’s arrival in question time yesterday before taking aim at former opposition leader Mr Shorten.

“I can inform the house that we have dealt with a vessel on water in recent days and we have returned that vessel, which contained five male Sri Lankans, back to Sri Lanka.

“And I put praise on all of those officers who have been involved in that operation,” Mr Dutton said.

“The reality is that boats had already been put on the water during the election campaign in anticipation of the member for Maribyrnong (Mr Shorten). Remember him?

“That is the reality. Forty-one people on board headed our way from Sri Lanka almost went to the bottom of the ocean and fortunately those people were saved and returned back to Sri Lanka.”

The department confirmed the vessel was intercepted in waters northwest of Australia on July 19, having left Sri Lanka in late June.

Since the launch of Operation Sovereign Borders, Australia has returned 191 Sri Lankan refugees from 11 boats. One of the five on the latest vessel had previously tried to come to Australia by boat.

Mr Dutton also mentioned another vessel that tried to come to Australia weeks after the election.

“There was another vessel of 20 people on board that we were able to intercept and return those 20 people back,” he said. “Those people no doubt would have landed here under the Labor Party.”

The latest arrival — the third in recent months — comes as Labor vows to resist moves to repeal laws that have handed doctors greater control over refugee medical transfers.

Opposition home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally said Mr Dutton had to answer for the boat’s arrival.

“Labor supports Operation Sovereign Borders including boat turnbacks, where safe to do so, regional resettlement and offshore processing to ensure we stop and disrupt the evil people-smugglers’ trade,” she told The Australian.

“The Home Affairs Minister needs to explain if his $300 million in cuts to border protection led to this people-smuggling venture taking to the water. Why isn’t Mr Dutton doing more to disrupt and deter people-smuggling operations in the first place?”