Foxy,

It's clear that far left whingers don't think that boats trying illegally to get access to Australia is not a security issue, while the majority of Australians do.

As for the boat drivers that sold out their paymasters and drove the illegal immigrants safely back to Indonesia rather than spending 5 yrs in jail, considering that they just screwed their bosses out of $millions of future business.

Shadow,

It is interesting how you down play criminality and the Liberal Party. I recall our debate concerning the criminal active of the NSW Liberals and the findings of the ICAC, another example of you justifying party members criminal activity with a " what ever it takes" attitude. You are now doing it again, do we see a trend here?

Paul,

It is interesting how you downplay criminality and the Greens. I recall our debate concerning the bribery of the greens by the biggest corporate donation in history, and the taking of dirty money from the unions. Perhaps before you divert the thread yet again we should concentrate on the successful legal challenges against the activity against illegal boats during the coalition. Having trouble remembering any? That's because there weren't.

Every time the coalition moves against the people smuggling industry the Labor/green coalition enabled, there is a great squawking from the left about how many laws the coalition is violating especially from those that clearly have no clue with respect to refugee or maritime law.

As a clue here are some common mistakes by the squawkers:
1 The UN charter covers asylum seekers that have arrived in Aus, not those in international waters.
2 In maritime law it is acceptable to stop and board a boat on the high seas if it is in distress, appears to be smuggling people, drugs, or heading illegally to Aus.
3 Those intercepted that have not committed a crime can be returned from whence they came or the nearest port.
4 Paying criminals to disrupt criminal operations is legal and is ongoing in every country in the world.

anyone familiar with the definition of people smuggling will immediately understand why accusations against the navy for people smuggling are so absurd. -- People smuggling (also called human smuggling) is "the facilitation, transportation, attempted transportation or illegal entry of a person or persons across an international border, in violation of one or more countries' laws, either clandestinely or through deception, such as the use of fraudulent documents"

Dear Shadow Minister,

If it is so obvious to you that the government
has not broken any laws - then why doesn't the
Prime Minister simply answer the questions being
asked and have the matter end. By refusing to
answer guilt is implied.

Indonesia has had a lot to say and the 'fact-checking' (LOL) taxpayer-funded national broadcaster duly reports Indonesia's tainted and twisted messages giving their propaganda and negotiation strategies undeserved oxygen and credibility.

This is Indonesia, one of the very few countries that has NOT signed up to the "Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (SUA) or Sua Act, (which) is a multilateral treaty by which states agree to prohibit and punish behaviour which may threaten the safety of maritime navigation".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_for_the_Suppression_of_Unlawful_Acts_against_the_Safety_of_Maritime_Navigation

"As of June 2015, the Convention has 166 state parties, which includes 164 UN member states plus the Cook Islands and Niue. The 166 states represent 94.5 per cent of the gross tonnage of the world's merchant fleet".

Sadly, Malaysia is also an exception.

It is interesting that the apologists for the economic migrants are not concerned about their criminality, such as in conspiring to or actually damaging ships' engines and hulls and the criminality of the international gangs they support of course.

Shadow, you have once more drifted off into Fantasy Land and are allowing your imagination to run wild. The Greens have never ever been before the ICAC on corruption charges, or any charges for that matter, unlike that conga line of CORRUPT LIBERALS who tried to apply the Abbott philosophy of "whatever it takes" and they took plenty, the whole scurvy bunch, from Boozy Barry and his bottle of plonk, right down to Andy Cornball and Bad Hazzed.

These sub-contractors of yours, operating those cruises out of Jakarta and being paid $5000 a day by the Little Aussie Battler, I want to know if they are fully paid up members of the Indonesian branch of the Liberal Party? Now that they are under the employ of one Tony Baloney Abbott what more can we expect? Payoffs to pimps, cash to criminals, bank rolling of bank robbers, where will it end.