Tony Abbott insists his tow-back policy can work despite comments on Monday night from Liberal frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull suggesting asylum-seeker boats probably can't be returned safely if Indonesia doesn't co-operate.
Turnbull on the ABC's Q&A program on Monday night placed a question mark over whether the Coalition's policy could work. "You can only return boats when it is safe to do so," Turnbull said. Asked what would happen if Indonesia would not be a party to the Coalition's commitment, Turnbull responded: "That may render it unsafe to do so."
Indonesia's ambassador to Australia, Nadjib Riphat Kesoema, said recently his country wouldn't accept would-be asylum-seekers from boats returned to Indonesian waters. "We don't know the situation ahead of us right now, but no such collaboration will happen between Indonesia and Australia [to] bring back the people to Indonesia," the ambassador said.
"Indonesia is a transit country and also the victim of this situation. I think it's not possible for the Coalition to say that it has to go back to Indonesia because Indonesia is not the origin country of these people."
Abbott was asked on the Gold Coast on Tuesday about Turnbull's remarks, and about Indonesia's lack of support for the policy. "I don't accept the premise of the question," the opposition leader said.
"Obviously we do want to have a very strong relationship with Indonesia. I've met with President Yudhoyono, three times as opposition leader. They have been constructive and very cordial conversations. I see no reason why a future Coalition government can't have the same strong and constructive relationship with Indonesia that the Howard government had and that's what I will be working towards from day one."
Abbott last week stepped up the politics around national security and boat arrivals. Despite public reservations from Australian defence officials about whether towing back boats could work in practice, and Indonesia's apparent reluctance to give the policy public endorsement, Abbott indicated the Coalition would stop the boats during its first term if it won government in September.
Asked on Tuesday morning for a guarantee that he would stop all boats, Abbott said voters should "look at our record."
The Coalition has signalled repeatedly it is confident that towing back people smugglers' boats could work despite commentary to the contrary. Key figures, including the shadow minister for foreign affairs Julie Bishop, have hinted there is an understanding on these questions between the opposition and key Indonesian officials.
The Gillard government remains under intense pressure over its management of border protection. Former Labor leader Mark Latham said on Monday night that former prime minister John Howard had got the policy settings right on asylum boats, and Labor shouldn't have dismantled the Coalition's punitive regime after taking office in 2007.
"I'm happy to say when I was leader of the Labor party, the policy settings we had, they were wrong, Howard was right," Latham told Q&A.
"There comes time in politics and public life where the thought of lying in bed at night thinking of young children drowning on the seas … there comes a time to call the truth and act on it."
Prime minister Julia Gillard and Immigration minister Brendan O'Connor meanwhile defended a decision by authorities not to retrieve bodies from a vessel that capsized north of Christmas Island over the weekend.
Gillard said: "I think it breaks everybody's heart to see that loss of life." But she said border command always prioritised rescue efforts over retrieval. "As border command has made clear, they always put the highest priority on saving lives."
O'Connor repeated that message in a separate radio interview on Tuesday morning. He said ideally, border protection command would rescue survivors and retrieve bodies, but these were tough operational decisions best made by people in the field.
He told the ABC: "I'm not sure whether these bodies will be a in a position to be retrieved." O'Connor also defended the "bravery" of border command officers, arguing it would be wrong for people to draw the conclusion that officers didn't care about the bodies left in the water.
The government has also launched a new advertising campaign with the intention of deterring would-be asylum seekers from Afghanistan.
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