Australian and Indonesian authorities are maintaining regular contact on people-smuggling measures despite a breakdown in diplomatic relations, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison insists.
The regional alliance has turned sour in the past week as Indonesia vowed to withdraw from information-sharing arrangements in the wake of spying allegations.
But both nations continue to fight people-smuggling activities, Mr Morrison said.
"Operational-level dialogue has continued the whole way through," he told ABC Radio on Monday.
While there may be a diplomatic stand-off cooperative and productive contact was ongoing between "operational-level people who are doing things on a daily basis".
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
People smuggling remained a crime in Indonesia and authorities there continued to combat the practice, Mr Morrison said.
"(Indonesian) Immigration officials have said they've had no direction to cease what they are already doing in terms of operating under their own laws."
There have been no reported boat arrivals since the diplomatic row broke a week ago.
There has been a "massive" decline in the number of asylum-seeker vessels detected en route to Australia, Liberal MP Steve Ciobo told Sky News in support of the coalition's border security policy.
"We've seen nearly a 79 per cent decline in arrivals," he said, citing figures which compared the eight weeks before and after the September election.
But opposition MP Bernie Ripoll said the government had failed on its promise to stop the boats.
"They've slowed, yes, but they haven't stopped," he said.
He attributed the drop in boat numbers to Labor's tough measures introduced before the election which are "finally bearing fruit".
