(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)
The government is pointing to various signs that asylum-seeker boat arrivals are slowing, but concedes that may be due to seasonal factors.
Thea Cowie reports.
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Immigration Minister Scott Morrison says in the past three weeks not a single asylum-seeker arriving by boat has been transferred to Australian immigration authorities.
He says that compares to over 450 arrivals in the same period a year ago.
It's a downward trend which Mr Morrison says is also being observed in Indonesia.
He points to new United Nations data which he says shows the number of asylum-seekers presenting in Jakarta has fallen from more than 1,600 a month in September to fewer than 300 in December.
But commander of the federal government's Operation Sovereign Borders Lieutenant General Angus Campbell says it's too early to declare the operation a success.
"I am not complacent. There is more to be done. People smugglers have not given up. Australia is engaged in a contest of will and tactical action -- one I am determined to win. However, it will only be after the monsoon season ends, around late March, that I will be able to be in a position to confidently offer an assessment of how the operation is going. Historically, the rate of boat arrivals has risen after the monsoon to what could be described as the 'business as usual level' for people smugglers."
Mr Morrison agrees, saying weather conditions in December and January have been mixed, making it hard to assess the full impact of the government's fight against people-smugglers.
Meanwhile Lieutenant General Campbell has confirmed a large number of large lifeboats are being added to the government's arsenal.
Previous media reports indicate the motorised vessels will be used to send asylum-seekers back to Indonesia if their own craft are deemed unseaworthy.
The commander won't provide any information on the potential or actual use of the boats now or in the future.
The silence is continuing on the issue of boat tow-backs and turn-backs.
According to asylum-seekers detained in Indonesia's West Timor provice, the Australian Navy has towed at least two boats back to Indonesia in recent weeks.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison says he won't confirm or comment on the reports for operational security reasons.
But in saying no asylum-seekers have been transferred to Australian immigration authorities for more than three weeks, the minister leaves open the possibility that boats have been intercepted and towed back to Indonesia.
The government's policy on tow-backs remains unclear.
"Before the election, what had been said and the way tow-back as a policy was explained -- and particularly to the Indonesian government, and as it was characterised both in the media and by the previous government -- is that boats would be towed back into Indonesian waters or towed back to Indonesian ports. That was the relevance of the phrase 'towback'. We've said very plainly, and we said this before the election, that it has never been our policy to violate Indonesia's territorial sovereignty. So I think there's been a confusion on the semantics by some on this and hopefully that clears it up."
After beginnning his term as minister with weekly briefings, Mr Morrison's latest comments come almost a moth since his previous media conference.
Mr Morrison now says he will now release a weekly statement and will only hold media conferences on what he calls an 'as-needs' basis because the establishment phase of the Operation Soverign Borders is now over.
It's a move being heavily criticised by Opposition leader Bill Shorten.
"In Opposition you couldn't open a newspaper or turn on a TV channel without seeing Scott Morrison talking about boats. Now they're in government he's developed an addiction to secrecy and they moved to weekly briefings. Now they're saying that they're going to brief Australian citizens as the government thinks they need to know and he's also saying they don't know if the operation's been a success. So I think the government should implement what are Tony Abbott said before the election, which is when the Government has a good week, a bad week or an in between week they just tell people what's going on."
Opposition to the government's asylum-seeker policy is also mounting in the Christmas Island detention centre.
Christmas Island Shire Councillor Gordon Thomson has confirmed reports of asylum-seekers there sewing their lips shut and going on hunger strike.
But the Immigration Minister says he's not concerned about a repeat of earlier riots on Christmas Island or Nauru.
"There are often incidents that take place across the detention network and they're typically quite peaceful. When those incidents escalate into something more significant, as there was in Manus Island, then we have provided reports on those things. This particular incident is under control. It's being managed by the service provider at the time. I get regular updates. And the changes that have been made at Christmas Island since the riots took place some years ago have been significant. There have been major upgrades to security infrastructure and security infrastructure and security procedures in those places to assist, manage and de-escalate events such as these."
On Manus Island and Nauru, the Immigration Minister says work is beginning on facilities for asylum-seekers who are ultimately granted refuge there.
However Mr Morrison says it is up to the governments of Papua New Guinea and Nauru to ultimately determine what work rights, entitlements and freedom of movement refugees would receive.
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