Labor has never paid crew members to turn back asylum seeker boats, opposition leader Bill Shorten has said, but the party remains evasive on whether Australian spies ever paid people smugglers.

“Labor has never paid people smugglers to turn back boats as it appears the government has done,” Shorten told reporters on Tuesday. Labor does not support the policy of turning back boats, and never enacted the measure in government.

The comments refer to allegations that cash payments were made to people smugglers at the end of May to return their vessel to Indonesia.

The government has refused to confirm or deny the allegations, but reports on Monday suggested the payment could have been made by Australia’s spy agency Asis.

The Greens’ motion to order the government to produce documents relating to allegations passed the Senate on Tuesday afternoon. The government has until 3pm on Wednesday to comply with the order.

“The government has failed to be upfront about paying people smugglers so the Senate has now moved to force the information to be tabled in the parliament,” the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

On Tuesday footage from the Reuters news agency emerged of an asylum-seeker in Indonesia detailing allegations of payments. Link to video

It is likely the government will cite “public interest immunity” and national security as reasons for not producing the documents, a move Hanson-Young said would be “cynical”.

If the government does not comply with the order, the Senate can order a public inquiry, or delay the introduction of bills relating to the minister in question, the immigration minister, Peter Dutton.

Neither Shorten nor shadow immigration minister Richard Marles would comment on whether spy agencies paid people smugglers in Indonesia while Labor was in office.

“If ultimately the question is whether or not we’re going to ask questions or answer questions in relation to the conduct of Asis, we’re not going to do that. In fact, it would ultimately be illegal to do that,” Marles told Sky News on Tuesday. “The government is trying to throw Asis into the frame, throw Asis under the bus, in order to distract attention from an incompetent minister. That’s actually what’s going on here.”

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 gave Asis extra funds to step up disruption measures, the article said.

Shorten told the party room that Labor has previously erred in its asylum seeker policies.

“We made mistakes in this area and we have learned the difficult lessons of the past,” he said, without elaborating what.

He added that the party has “every right to ask questions” about border protection.

“I will not cede this issue to the Liberals. They are not above reproach,” he said.

Prime minister Tony Abbott has blasted journalists for highlighting the tensions between Indonesia and Australia over the people smuggling payment claims, saying the relationship is doing well.



“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.



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

Abbott stood 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.”