The prime minister says the navy's on-water operations close to Indonesia are complex and even elite professionals make errors

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

The prime minister, Tony Abbott, says Australian border protection vessels may have ventured into Indonesian waters because personnel were distracted by the wind or tides.



Abbott was asked on Tuesday to explain how highly skilled and well-resourced naval and border protection professionals could have been unclear about the location of a maritime border with a key regional neighbour.

The Abbott government made repeated public assurances Australia would respect Indonesia’s maritime border as it intensified efforts to turn back to Java boats carrying asylum seekers as part of its Operation Sovereign Borders policy, a policy to which the Indonesian government has publicly objected.

Then it emerged Australian boats had made incursions by accident into Indonesian waters, a development that reignited diplomatic and strategic tensions and prompted Indonesia to make a public show of deploying naval assets to the region.

Defence and customs have launched an investigation into the incidents, which occurred between early December and January. The inquiry will report when federal parliament resumes next month. It is unclear whether the findings will be made public.

During a press conference confirming the appointment of the new governor general, Peter Cosgrove, Abbott said the government had apologised to Jakarta for the incursions, and the apology had been accepted.

Pressed further on how the incidents could have occurred given the sophisticated technology on the vessels and the skills of the personnel involved, he proffered the following theories, including a sporting analogy.

On-water operations were complex and even elite professionals made human errors.

“On the high seas all sorts of things happen; there are winds, there are tides, there are other things that they're focusing on,” he said.

“I have nothing but total respect for the professionalism of our naval personnel, for the professionalism of our customs personnel but, even people who are at the very top of their game, even people who are the very best at their job, will occasionally make mistakes.

“Test cricketers occasionally drop catches, great footballers occasionally miss tackles and, regretfully, there were a couple of occasions when this mistake was made – but it won't happen again.”

Abbott emphasised the success of his contentious policy of stopping boats carrying asylum seekers from achieving their objective of reaching Australia.

“We have fully implemented the policy that we said we would implement prior to the election and I think we've gone almost 40 days without a boat actually getting to Australia.

“That's the important point to make here.”