‘I am in the business of building a strong relationship … not aggravating things,’ prime minister says, adding that stopping the boats has improved ties

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Ties between Australia and Indonesia are “getting stronger all the time” and media outlets are “promoting discord” by saying otherwise, Tony Abbott has said.

The Australian prime minister has been under intense pressure to definitively confirm or deny claims that authorities paid people smugglers US$5,000 (A$6,450) each to turn their boats back to Indonesia late last month.

He has instead repeated the argument that the Coalition has “stopped the boats” and has pointed the finger at journalists for inflaming tensions between Canberra and Jakarta.

“The great thing about stopping the boats is that it has very much improved our relationship with Indonesia,” Abbott said. “We have a good relationship with Indonesia, it’s a strong friendship, it’s getting stronger all the time.

“Occasionally people will say things which journalists like to savour and conjure. There are many media outlets that are more interested in promoting discord than in celebrating all the constructive things that happen between our two countries.

“I am in the business of building a strong relationship with Indonesia, not aggravating things.”

The comments come just a day after his foreign minister, Julie Bishop, ignited a diplomatic row by saying Australia would not have to stop asylum boats if Indonesia secured its borders.



Bishop’s assertions drew an angry response from the Indonesian government, with a spokesman for the security ministry, Agus Barnas, demanding she withdraw them and the vice-president, Jusuf Kalla, saying the alleged payments amounted to “bribery”.

Abbott denied that any illegal activity had occurred. “I am confident that at all times Australian agencies have acted within the law,” he said.

Reports on Monday suggest the payment could have been made by Australia’s spy agency Asis, complicating the issues of legality and transparency. Australian spies have been operating inside Indonesia on anti-people smuggling ventures since at least 2001, according to reports in the Australian newspaper. The Rudd government had given Asis a funding injection to step up disruption measures, the article said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Outspoken independent senator David Leyonhjelm waded into the debate on Tuesday, saying it makes a ‘certain amount of sense’ to say ‘here’s fifty bucks, now piss off’. Link to video

A spokeswoman for the shadow immigration minister, Richard Marles, on Tuesday told Guardian Australia: “Labor did not pay people smugglers to turn back boats.”

On Monday Labor said it was “unlawful for the government or the opposition to divulge security or intelligence information”, leading members of the government to question whether Labor was being hypocritical in hammering the Coalition over its policies if it would not reveal its own policies.

Abbott is standing by the policy.

“We’ve done the right thing, we’ve done the moral thing, the decent thing, the compassionate thing,” he told reporters in the capital on Tuesday. “We’ve stopped the boats by doing whatever is necessary within the law to stop the boats.

“The most moral thing you can do here is stop the boats because as long as the boats are coming, the evil people smuggling trade is in business and the deaths continue.”

Indonesia has never supported the Coalition’s policy to turn boats around, saying regional cooperation is needed to stop the flow of asylum seekers.