Footage has emerged of asylum seekers in a lifeboat being towed by an Australian customs ship.

Footage has emerged of asylum seekers in an orange lifeboat being towed by an Australian customs ship.

The federal government would not talk about it for "operational reasons" while the Indonesian government appeared unimpressed at the report of another boat being returned to their shores.

The footage, obtained by the ABC, seems to show the same lifeboat which recently landed on a Javanese beach being towed by the ACV Triton.

A rope is visible between the two vessels and an inflatable boat and what appears to be an Australian warship are flanking the lifeboat.

Among those on board are at least one woman and one child.

A spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Scott Morrison told AAP the government had no response regarding the footage, "in accordance with the Operation Sovereign Borders Joint Agency Task Force policy regarding public release of information on operational matters".

Instead the minister released a weekly update on Operation Sovereign Borders saying the last smuggling venture that made it to Australia "that had all the passengers handed over to Australian immigration authorities" was on December 19 last year.

Former Labor immigration minister Chris Bowen said Mr Morrison would have demanded his resignation "if I tried this sort of secrecy".

Labor immigration ministers had been upfront about what they were doing in the job, he said.

"We fronted up to the press conferences, we answered the difficult questions and we didn't hide from the scrutiny as Scott Morrison appears to be devoted to doing," he said.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa was unimpressed by the reports Australian authorities had again returned asylum seekers to Indonesian waters.

"We still think that pushing back boats is not the best solution," he told reporters.

However, Mr Morrison says not only will people seeking to come illegally by boat not be settled in Australia, they will not get to Australia under the Abbott government's policies.

Meanwhile, Defence Minister David Johnston is pushing for an inquiry into the ABC for "besmirching" the navy's reputation.

The public broadcaster has admitted it should have been "more precise" when reporting the claims that asylum seekers were forced by the navy to hold onto hot engine parts, but has so far refused to apologise.

"If ever there was an event that justified a detailed inquiry, some reform, an investigation into the ABC - this event is it," Senator Johnston told reporters in Sydney.

Asked about Senator Johnston's comments, Prime Minister Tony Abbott sidestepped the questions, instead pointing to the success of Operation Sovereign Borders.

It has been 50 days since a boat arrived illegally in Australia, he said.

"The way is shut. You shall not pass," he said.

Mr Morrison's statement says that during the week to Friday, 37 people in detention were forced to return to Sri Lanka, 35 people were transferred to Nauru and a dozen chose to return home either to Iran or Sri Lanka.

Federal police also charged two Indonesians, one aged 61, another 34, with the aggravated offence of people smuggling.

Police will allege they were involved in the crewing and navigating of a suspected illegal entry vessel which capsized on 20 August 2013, when 106 people had to be rescued from the ocean.