The commander of the federal government's border protection operation says he will not be able to call Operation Sovereign Borders a success until the monsoon season ends in late March.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
In a wide-ranging press conference held on Wednesday with Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, Lieutenant General Angus Campbell also confirmed reports first published by Fairfax Media that the Australian government had bought lifeboats to help it combat people smugglers.
He would not say how they would be used other than to point out they were for "on water activities".
General Campbell said on Wednesday that no asylum seekers had arrived in Australia by boat in January, but that people smugglers had not given up.
"While I'm encouraged by [the lack of arrivals], I am not complacent," he told reporters in Canberra.
"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."
The monsoon season, which lasts between November and March, provides a natural deterrent to asylum seekers arriving by boat.
Lieutenant General Campbell said that historically, boat numbers had risen after the monsoon season ended to a "business-as-usual level for people smugglers".
In the lengthy press conference at Parliament House, Mr Morrison said that the "establishment phase" of Operation Sovereign Borders was complete.
Mr Morrison also confirmed that he would no longer conduct regular weekly press conferences on the government's border protection efforts, saying media conferences would occur "as required".
The number of asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat is down by 80 per cent since the election, according to the government.
Mr Morrison said that the United Nations refugee agency in Jakarta had also noticed a drop in registrations by 1608 people in September to 296 in December.
"We welcome this trend."
The government has not confirmed reports that about six asylum seeker boats have been turned back to Indonesia in recent weeks.
But on Wednesday, Mr Morrison hinted that ‘‘turn-backs’’ were in play.
"Border protection command is doing things differently to provide active deterrents to those seeking to enter Australia illegally by boat," he said.
Lieutenant General Campbell also suggested that he would be able to provide more detailed information of what the government was doing to combat people smugglers, if Operation
Sovereign Borders was deemed a success.
"Until I can make a more confident judgment on Operation Sovereign Borders' performance, I remain reluctant to release information or further detail on past operational activities, lest it provide people smugglers with trend analysis that might be used against us," he said.
Earlier this month, there were several allegations made by asylum seekers, who claimed they had been mistreated by border security personnel during turn back operations.
The claims were denied by Defence Chief David Hurley and Customs.
On Wednesday, Lieutenant General Campbell described claims of rough handling as "quite outrageous".
He said the allegations had been investigated internally, but this could not be counted as confirmation turn backs had taken place.
The Immigration Minister said that capacity at Nauru and Manus Island had doubled under the Coalition government, which would in part, cope with the "backlog" of 2000 people on Christmas Island who had arrived since Labor announced its Papua New Guinea resettlement policy in July 2013.
Following on from his announcement on Tuesday that the government would close four mainland detention centres, saving $88.8 million a year, Mr Morrison said that he would announce "further rationalisations" of onshore detention facilities later this year.
Earlier on Wednesday, Labor and the Greens criticised Mr Morrison's decision to stop holding regular weekly press conferences.
Labor's acting immigration spokeswoman Michelle Rowland said the "culture of secrecy under the Abbott government ... had reached new heights".
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said she was concerned by Mr Morrison's "constantly changing rules" and the government's "unprecedented level of secrecy".
"The Immigration Minister is making up the rules as he goes along in a desperate attempt to avoid embarrassment," Senator Hanson-Young said in a statement.
"Refusing to face questioning and politicising the Defence Force by hiding behind a military general is unbecoming conduct from the Abbott government."
