Christmas Island tragedy forces review of ALP's asylum stance

LABOR Party national president Anna Bligh has backed a complete review of the government's border protection policies

LABOR Party national president Anna Bligh has backed a complete review of the government's border protection policies

The call comes as political unity over the Christmas Island asylum boat disaster crumbled.

As the frantic search continued for survivors of Wednesday's horror sinking, the opposition said it would not join a proposed bipartisan group announced by Julia Gillard yesterday.

The rebuff came as The Australian learned that Indonesian authorities were searching for an Iranian in the belief he had planned the doomed people-smuggling operation.

It can also be revealed that the two patrol boats that participated in yesterday's rescue, plucking 41 survivors from the sea, were stationed off Christmas Island only because the seas were too rough to resume regular patrols.

The official death toll last night rose to 30, including four children and four babies, after divers recovered the bodies of man in his 20s and a boy about 10 years old, near the sunken hull.

However, the government, which yesterday announced three investigations into the tragedy, said the toll was likely to rise because up to 100 Iraqis, Iranians and Kurds were believed to have been aboard the boat.

Locals said bodies could be trapped for weeks in underwater caves at the site of the boat wreck, 200m from the island's only safe harbour, Flying Fish Cove.

Ms Bligh, the Queensland Premier, speaking in her federal leadership capacity with the ALP, yesterday agreed the "catastrophic tragedy" would raise questions about whether Christmas Island should continue to host the nation's biggest immigration detention camp.

She said the Prime Minister's decision to return to work from holidays demonstrated that she understood the implications for "policy settings in relation particularly to this island".

Asked whether the Indian Ocean territory had become a magnet for people-smuggling, Ms Bligh told The Australian: "I really do think it is premature to be jumping to specific conclusions. All I am saying is that . . . when a shocking incident like this happens, it's incumbent on all of us to have a really good look at all the settings, and we should have the courage to do so.

"This is an absolutely catastrophic tragedy and when we understand better the circumstances that led to it . . . I would expect that we as a nation would have a long, hard look at what it all means."

Inevitably, this would lead to "some questioning" about the viability of the detention facilities on Christmas Island, which was excised from the Australian migration zone by the Howard government. "I think as a nation we are all struggling with how we should protect our borders from illegal entry, how we should ensure we process people who are seeking asylum in a humane way and whether the detention centres are on Australian soil or places like Christmas Island," Ms Bligh said. Rescuers yesterday continued to scour wild seas for survivors. But in what Customs described as "difficult and dangerous conditions", authorities were unable to locate any more bodies in the water.

About 100 Customs and Border Protection command personnel were involved in yesterday's rescue effort. Customs said a decision about whether to continue the search would be made throughout the day.

Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor, who was on Christmas Island to manage the disaster response, said rescue vessels had been deployed as soon as possible.

"The climatic conditions were awful, we had cyclonic weather," he said. "There were very high swells, the largest swells for months, there was low visibility."

Authorities said the bodies of 30 asylum-seekers had been retrieved from the sea, with 42 rescued, including one man who scrambled ashore. "At this stage it is believed 12 adult males, nine adult females, two juvenile males, one juvenile female, one infant male and three infant females are deceased," Customs said.

Three seriously injured asylum-seekers were due to be transferred to Royal Perth Hospital last night, joining two others who were airlifted off the island on Wednesday night.

The three Indonesian crew members survived the disaster and last night were being held in the island's construction camp, away from the asylum-seeker survivors.

The Australian Federal Police's identification unit has begunidentifying the victims.

The Prime Minister warned the toll would almost certainly rise. "

Another asylum-seeker vessel arrived in Australian waters yesterday. The boat, with 54 passengers and two crew, was intercepted northwest of Ashmore Island by the patrol boat HMAS Glenelg yesterday afternoon. Those aboard were on their way to Christmas Island last night for security, identity and health checks.

The new boat's arrival came as Indonesian authorities searched for an Iranian man suspected of organising the boat. The Australian learned the suspect was identified by at least one rescued asylum-seeker.

The suspect is described as operating from the Jakarta region.

Fending off questions about the role Labor's softened refugee policies might have played in drawing boats here, Ms Gillard called for any policy debate to be "informed by facts".

"What we know from past instances in this area is there have been times when there has been a lot of misunderstanding and a lot of debate about the facts," she said.

Customs and Border Protection released a timeline of the disaster that showed the rescue services took almost an hour and a quarter to reach the stricken vessel after the first distress call was received. Two vessels, one operated by Customs and one by the navy, were stationed at Christmas Island because it was too rough for them to resume patrols on Tuesday as scheduled.

According to the timeline, Customs was told of the distressed boat at 5.48am, Christmas Island time. Twelve minutes later, the navy's HMAS Pirie, which was anchored on the lee side of the island some 30 minutes away, was charged with responding to the sighting. At 6.31am, Australian Federal Police reported seeing asylum-seekers thrown from the boat into the water.

Four minutes later, the Pirie requested help from the Customs boat, the ACV Triton, which was also sheltering on the lee side of the island, with more than 100 asylum-seekers intercepted earlier that week still on board.

At 7.01 - one hour and 13 minutes after the initial call - the Pirie arrived at the scene and commenced the rescue. Asked whether she was satisfied with the timeliness of the response, Ms Gillard congratulated the heroism of the rescuers, but called for time to establish the facts of the incident. She also confirmed reports in The Australian yesterday that the boat had not been detected by authorities until it was sighted, moments before the tragedy.

She said West Australian authorities would conduct a coronial inquest into the incident. There would be a criminal investigation under people-smuggling laws and a review of the incident by Customs and Border Protection.

Ms Gillard promised to establish a bipartisan "working group" comprising the government, the opposition, the Greens and a member of the independents to share information.

"To ensure the facts are known, I have decided to invite the opposition, the Greens and the independent members of parliament to work with the government and the relevant agencies for managing the response to this incident," she said.

The group would meet before the end of the year and again in the new year if necessary. "This is an unusual step, but one I've determined to undertake because I believe it's important that the comprehensive facts are available to all," Ms Gillard said.

The proposal drew a frosty response from the Coalition, with Tony Abbott expressing surprise at the news. "I did have a brief conversation with Julia Gillard, but it was about joint briefings, it wasn't about a joint committee," the Opposition Leader told The Australian in Tokyo. "And it's far from clear what if anything she has in mind by way of a committee."

Mr Abbott said he was loathe to start a "political bunfight" over the issue, particularly while the rescue effort remained under way.

"But given the Prime Minister's claim, I think I can make the observation that what Australia needs is a new policy to deal with this problem, not a new committee to investigate," he said.

Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop said the Coalition would pursue individual briefings with authorities, as was the normal practice.

"The Coalition does not believe there is a need for this special parliamentary committee to be established," Ms Bishop said.

Last night, Ms Gillard's office said she had spoken to Mr Abbott to explain the standing group and its role, and Immigration Minister Chris Bowen had called his opposition counterpart, Scott Morrison.

Ms Gillard's office said Ms Bishop was mistaken when she suggested the new group was responsible for managing the disaster response. "This confusion is understandable, given the amount of new information emerging today; however, the Prime Minister made clear in her discussions with Mr Abbott and in her subsequent press conference, the role of the standing group (is) to ensure the facts and information about what happened are clearly disclosed to a wider group reflecting the parliament."

The independents also criticised the proposal, with NSW MP Rob Oakeshott describing the idea as "questionable".

"In my view, this is a moment for the Prime Minister, not a committee," he said. "The facts of what happened, in detail, need to be established, and it is questionable whether I, or a committee, can value-add in that context."

Additional reporting: Brendan Nicholson, Peter Alford, David King, Lanai Vasek, Rick Wallace