Australian PM wavers on asylum during Indonesia trip
Tony Abbott strikes conciliatory tone as he seeks to strengthen business ties with Indonesia
Australia’s new Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Tuesday said he remained committed to crushing the “evil scourge” of people-smuggling but appeared to waver on some of the key elements of his hardline boatpeople policy.
On a trip to Jakarta, where officials have complained his plans to tackle asylum-seekers arriving by boat threaten Indonesian sovereignty, Abbott said he was encouraged by the response he received at a critical meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
“I made it very clear that this is an issue of sovereignty for us and I think I can say that on the Indonesian side, there was a willingness to be as co-operative as was possible to ensure this evil scourge is ended,” he told reporters.
“We are 100 per cent committed to stopping the boats, we are 100 per cent committed to the policies that we took to the election and the policies that are necessary to stop the boats.”
We are 100 per cent committed to stopping the boats
Abbott won a landslide election in September with his “stop the boats” mantra, which involved plans to tow asylum-seeker vessels from Australian waters and buy boats from Indonesian fishermen to prevent people smugglers buying them first.
