(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)
A senior Indonesian government figure is warning already tense relations with Australia will deteriorate further if the Coalition pursues its policy of towing asylum seeker boats back.
After days of conflicting reports on Indonesia's official stance to the policy, leaders of Australia's closest neighbour seem to be uniting in opposition to the tactic.
Thea Cowie reports.Indonesia's Foreign Affairs Commission Chairman Mahfudz Siddiq is joining the chorus of opposition coming from Indonesia.
Speaking here on the ABC he warns towing boats back to Indonesia could lead to conflict.
"The Australian government action by returning the tow boats back to Indonesia is a provocative action. Instead of solving problems, it will trigger more conflict. It will have impact broadly and fundamentally on the bilateral relations. It will cost both countries."
Mr Siddiq is also highly critical of reported Australian plans to buy motorised lifeboats to send asylum seekers back to Indonesia if their own vessels are unseaworthy.
He says the tactic is tantamount to a people smuggling operation legalised by the Australian government.
The comments come as the office of Indonesian President Susilo Bangbang Yudhoyono backs the Foreign Minister's rejection of Australia's policy, saying turning boats back is unhelpful.
Indonesia's military commander has also moved quash earlier reports he thought Australia's turn-back policy was "justifiable" and Indonesia had agreed to it.
Back home, the Abbott government is refusing to bow to mounting pressure to reveal details of its efforts to combat asylum seeker boat arrivals.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott speaking here on Channel Ten.
"If stopping the boats means being criticised because I'm not giving infomation that would of use to people smugglers, so be it. In the end we are in a fierce contest with these people smugglers and if we were at war we wouldn't be giving out information that is of use to the enemy just because we might have an idle curiosity ourselves. In these situations, I am not going to release information which will be exploited by people smugglers. "
In response to suggestions the government lacks transparency, Mr Abbott says he'll be accountable to the Australian public at the next election.
Acting Australian Greens leader Richard Di Natale says that's undemocratic.
"He says that this secrecy is appropriate and that the point of accountability for him will be the next election. Well winning an election doesn't give you a free pass to do things under the cloak of darkness without transparency from the Australian parliament. Now that's not the way democracy works, Mr Abbott. The way it works is you front up to the Australian people. We have two houses of parlaiment that will ensure that your secretive and brutal agenda is exposed for what it is."
Federal opposition leader Bill Shorten says the Coalition should apply a common sense test to questions about Operation Sovereign Borders.
"I do think it's legitimate for Australians to know how many boats are coming. What's happening to the people who are coming on the boats? Is there a disagreement with Indonesia about returning back the boats? I believe Australians understand that on a day-by-day basis they don't need to know exactly where every ship in the water is. But what we do expect to know is what's going on? The Abbott Government said before the election when they wanted Australians' vote, they said if we have a good week, a bad week, or an in-between week, we will let you know every week what's going on."
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.
In statements to SBS Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has refused to confirm or deny the claims, saying to do so would allow people smugglers to make assumptions which put people's lives at risk.
Penelope Mathew is a professor of international and refugee law at the Australian National University in Canberra.
She's calling on Mr Morrison to release any legal advice he's been given on how Australia is meeting its international legal obligations under the towback and turnback policies.
Professor Mathew thinks the reported actions would be a violation of international law, and will ultimately result in more deaths at sea.
"If you look at the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea there's a duty to rescue people in distress and if you look at the conventions of safety of life at sea and search and rescue we're supposed to co-operate with other states in order to get people to a place of safety. The other related law is of course international refugee law and the fundamental obligation not to return a person to a place of persecution and of course the problem with relying on Indonesia is that it's not a party to the Refugee Convention."
The Immigration Minister has again released his weekly briefing on Operation Sovereign Borders by email.
The statement avoids any reference to asylum seeker boat arrivals, saying only that no asylum seekers have been transferred to Australian immigration authorities for more than three weeks.
That leaves open the possibility that boats have in fact been intercepted by the Australian Navy and towed back to Indonesia.
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