AUSTRALIA has not recorded an asylum seeker boat arrival in five weeks - the first time in five years there has been such a quiet stretch without more people filling detention centres.

The Abbott government last night said Australia was now back close to the "starting line" in its bid to eliminate "the border chaos" that had started under Kevin Rudd in early 2009 and continued under Julia Gillard.

The reduction comes as relations between Australia and Indonesia over asylum seekers soured further yesterday with our closest northern neighbour warning that Australia was "reachable" by its fighter planes.

The development comes as the population of asylum seekers at Christmas Island has also dropped below 2000 for the first time since February last year.

media_camera Scott Morrison: 'We have our foot on the neck of the smugglers."

"We have our foot on the neck of the smugglers and we are not going to give them any relief," Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said. "We are going to keep applying the pressure."

The last boat arrival of asylum seekers was transferred to Australian authorities on December 19, a period of 35 days, or five weeks, without an arrival.

While the government has declined to comment about "on-water" incidents, citing operational reasons, Indonesian authorities have confirmed several boats have been turned or towed back in that time.

The federal government does not count them as arrivals requiring transfers because the people returned to Indonesia instead.

media_camera Asylum policy working... PM Tony Abbott addresses the World Economic Forum in Davos today.

According to the government, the last time a similar period of no transfers occurred was between January and March of 2009 when the Rudd government started relaxing border protection measures.

Mr Morrison last night said he had increasing confidence his policy measures were working, even though he conceded there was more work to do.

He said over the first 100 days the Coalition had pushed down arrivals to about 300 a month - close to the level of the 2010 election - and had now wound back the arrival numbers to the early Rudd era.

"This takes us back close to the starting line on boat arrivals, with it being five years since there was such a period of time with no arrivals," Mr Morrison said.

"Between January and March of 2009 was the last time there has been a longer period with no arrivals. That was when things started to ramp up.

"We are repairing the damage - that means getting us back to what it was like before Rudd and Gillard's border chaos wreaked havoc."

Although the government is aware arrivals do slow during the monsoon season, there were 357 people who arrived on five boats in the first 23 days of January last year.

The population on Christmas Island yesterday was 1909 people, the first time it has been under 2000 people since February last year when monthly reports began and the total was 1224 people.

In March last year, the total rose to 2251 detainees and had stayed above 2000 since.

BORDER STOUSH HITS A NEW LOW

media_camera Guarded.... Indonesia has beefed up its miltary at its southern border.

INDONESIA has beefed up its military presence in waters off its southern border as military officials claim its air force is ready and that Australia is "reachabale" if there are any more border violations.

Indonesian military officials have today told the Jakarta Post its Navy warships, including frigates, fast torpedo craft and corvettes as well as maritime patrol aircraft, have been deployed to waters off its southern border.

Four Air Force defence radars have also been programmed to closely monitor the area.

"We are watching four radars in Timika, Merauke (in Papua), Saumlaki (Maluku) and Buraen (East Nusa Tenggara), which all face Australia," Air Force chief spokesman Air Commodore Hadi Tjahjanto told The Jakarta Post.

"If we notice any border violations, our air base in Makassar will be ready. Australia is reachable from there."

The Post said the base referred to was the Sultan Hasanuddin Air Force Base in the South Sulawesi provincial capital, home the 11th squadron of 16 Russian-made Sukhoi Su-27/30 Flankers.

The newspaper said the flankers have a maximum range of some 3,000 kilometers. The sea border lies some 1,000 km from Makassar. At Mach 1, or the speed of sound, the Flankers would reach the border in little over an hour.

The developments come after Australia admitted last week it had accidentally breached Indonesia's sovereignty during asylum seeker missions in recent weeks.

Professor Damien Kingsbury from Deakin University said: "Indonesia has always been pensive about its territorial integrity and Australia has played a role in that in the past."

"There's a sensitivity about that. If Indonesia did that to Australia we'd be very upset, if not more so," he said.