Just when you think he can get no lower, down he goes again. Tony Abbott's boast that he would turn back the refugee boats is rank populism, a despicable play for the talkback rednecks. It is a policy – and he must know this – that would risk the lives not only of asylum seekers but of young navy sailors.

The people smugglers have shown they will set fire to the boats or sink them to stop them being sent back.

In April 2009 one boat, SIEV 36, carrying 47 Afghans and two Indonesian crew, was intercepted by the navy off Ashmore Reef.

Sailors from the patrol boat HMAS Childers were on board checking documents when there was an explosion. The rotten timbers of the SIEV went up in tongues of flame and gouts of oily black smoke. Chief Petty Officer Coxswain Rachelle Burnett, 33, was on the Childers.

"I watched in horror as nine of my good mates were thrown in the water," she said later. "The explosion was so powerful that I was standing on the bridge about 70metres away and could feel the vibration rip through my body. I immediately thought that all my mates were dead as I didn't think anyone could survive."