But the former prime minister admits her government engaged in ‘disruption activity’ to stop people smugglers leaving Indonesia

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Former prime minister Julia Gillard says no boats carrying asylum seekers were paid to turn back while she was in power, weighing in on claims that payments were made to people smugglers.

“We didn’t have the policy of turning the boats around, so no, Labor did not operate the policy it is now asserted,” she told BBC’s Hardtalk program.

But she admitted that her government had engaged in so-called “disruption activity” to stop people smugglers leaving Indonesia.

“Absolutely we worked to try and prevent people smuggling,” Gillard said.



People smuggler payment claims: Labor backs away from pursuit of Coalition Read more

The sentiments echo those of her former colleagues.

On Thursday the shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, told ABC Radio that people who are familiar with intelligence operations “would think it’s surprising if Australian intelligence agencies and Australian federal police working in other countries was not on occasions paying for information”.

Earlier in the week Labor launched a full-scale attack on the Coalition over claims people smugglers were paid $US31,000 last month to turn their boats back to Indonesia, but wound the attack back after the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, refused to comment on whether people smugglers had been paid under Labor’s watch.

Reports in the Australian newspaper on Thursday claimed Australian spies paid people in Java to halt the departure of asylum-seeker boats while Gillard and her predecessor Kevin Rudd were in office.

The report claimed that, while paying people smugglers was not a fixed policy, it had been used in individual cases in the past.

But Dreyfus said paying boats to turn back was a whole different matter that “absolutely crosses the line”.

“That may very well be a crime under Australian law if not Indonesian law. It is no wonder there is now an Indonesian government investigation [into the allegations],” Dreyfus said.



Indonesia has slammed the Australian government’s refusal to confirm or deny the allegations, which it has labelled “bribery”.

Gillard defended her legacy on asylum-seeker policy, arguing that the failed Malaysian people swap deal would have worked if the Coalition had supported it.

“I believe the solution we designed with Malaysia was going to be an effective solution. Had we been able to implement it I think people would have said we got the response right,” Gillard said.