FAR North Queensland MP Bob Katter has called on the Federal Government to come clean over the reported interception of a people smuggling vessel at Pennefather Beach, near Weipa this week.
Mr Katter says there have been reports of boat arrivals happening all across northern Australia, including foreign fishing boat crews camping up rivers and on remote islands.
The ABC reports a federal government source as saying a number of foreign nationals who reached Cape York illegally by boat this week have been removed from Australia.
“It won’t reveal how many people were on board, nor which country they are from,” the ABC reported.
However a 34-year-old Taiwanese man, Chien-Wen Peng, was charged over an alleged people smuggling plot and appeared in the Cairns Magistrates Court on Thursday. He was charged with an aggravated offence of people smuggling involving more than five people.
When the offence was explained to Mr Peng, he replied through a Mandarin interpreter, “I don’t know anything about smuggling any humans”.
Katter, whose electorate of Kennedy borders a lengthy section of coast on the Gulf of Carpentaria, says people who live in the Far North are being kept in the dark over the incident.
“The lack of openness is a huge slap in the face to locals who live near these ocean borders and we need answers, not silence,” Mr Katter said.
In a parliamentary question in writing, tabled on Thursday, Mr Katter asked for confirmation and further details, including the number of people on the boat, their current location, if the passengers are Chinese nationals and what is the threat level posed to Australians living in FNQ.
“Taxpayers pay for a national security network. Yet, when a boat arrives near our towns, the government refuses to give the public the facts. The silence proves the government is asleep at the wheel and we demand immediate answers,” he said.
“And these boat arrivals, reported to be happening all across northern Australia, are just the ones we know of, let alone all the foreign fishing boats continuously camping up our rivers and on remote islands.
“But who can blame them when we won’t fish our own waters, having one of the smallest commercial catches in the world, while they’re going to bed hungry every night?
“Of course, a people without land or resources will look for a land of resources without people, and with our exposed northern coastline unprotected and barely inhabited, we’re just asking for it,” Mr Katter said.
The Home Affairs Minister was also asked if government had contacted the Chinese Government to discuss the issue.
If his questions have not been answered by the minister within 30 days, Mr Katter said he will be personally following the issue up.
