Bob Carr: turning back boats would trigger crisis with Indonesia

Extract from the Guardian Website:

Foreign minister says Abbott's promised turning back of asylum seeker boats would mean 'immediate foreign policy crisis'

Lenore Taylor, political editor

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 6 June 2013  

 

The foreign minister, Bob Carr, has said Tony Abbott’s promise to turn back asylum seeker boats will trigger an “immediate foreign policy crisis” with Indonesia, despite the Coalition leader’s guarantees that his policies will “stop the boats” in a first term of government.
Carr was also highly critical of the shadow foreign minister, Julie Bishop's comments to Guardian Australia in response to questions about her confidence that Indonesia would co-operate with the Coalition’s policy to turn back boats. Bishop said diplomats often said different things in private than they did in public – despite the country’s stated opposition.
Carr told Fairfax Media that the Coalition’s policy to turn back asylum seeker boats when it was safe to do so “means an immediate crisis with Indonesia”, because Indonesia had said such people were transiting through Indonesia and didn’t originate there. Therefore, Carr said, “they argue it is unfair to send them back to Indonesia, so if Tony Abbott persists with this reckless policy … we are heading for a foreign policy crisis”.
Carr said Bishop’s comments to Guardian Australia represented “an astonishing diplomatic blunder to say we have received this view from Indonesia ... but don’t believe it, they have actually told us something else”. Bishop’s words, he added, put Indonesia “in an acutely embarrassing position”.
He said: “Here you have the alternative government saying, ‘Oh, the Indonesians have said this publicly but don’t worry, they are lying, they have told us something different privately.’”
The Coalition had appeared to be making a subtle shift in its “stop the boats” pledge by saying its policy would “make a difference” to the numbers of boats arriving “from day one”, rather than committing to a specific deadline.
But pressed on Thursday as to whether he would stop the boats in the first term of a Coalition government, Abbott said: “The short answer is yes.”
And the Coalition immigration spokesman, Scott Morrison, repeated the pledge.
“We will stop the boats in the first term … that is the absolute commitment and no one should doubt it,” he said.
The promises came as the Coalition continued to attack the government over the case of an Egyptian man who was held in several months in a low-security immigration centre despite being the subject of an Interpol red notice. Julia Gillard announced on Wednesday that the inspector general of security and intelligence would investigate the case.
In the interview published on Monday, Bishop was asked whether Indonesia would take boats back. She replied: "I am confident we would be able to achieve what we did in the past. The fact is they are Indonesian boats with Indonesian crew and I am sure we can work co-operatively with them and … one thing you understand about diplomacy and others do as well is the professional diplomats are paid to present particular views but what goes on behind the scenes can be quite different. What people say privately can be different to what they say publicly, that's why I am devoting my time to quiet consistent diplomatic messaging and relationships."