SYDNEY — The ABC reported on August 1 that the federal government had issued a "$17 million contract for a private boat that will be fitted with machine guns and used to patrol the waters off the Northern Territory and Western Australia ... The government wants a boat and a civilian crew, who will be accompanied by up to 30 customs and defence personnel, to take to the water in January next year."
In an August 2 media release, Jack Smit, director of the Western Australia-based Project SafeCom refugee-rights group, denounced the government's plan: "We know what arrangements with private operators of detention centres, medical services and psychological health provision have led to in the last five years in detention centres."
The August 5 Australian reported that customs minister Chris Ellison's "claims that a prison ship planned for Australia's northern waters will detain people only for 'two or more days' are directly contradicted in tender documents that state the vessel must be capable of undertaking patrols of up to 30 days".
Speaking on ABC TV's Lateline program the previous evening, Ellison claimed the patrol ship, which he compared to the fisheries department-contracted, P&O-owned, armed patrol ship Oceanic Viking that operates in the Southern Ocean, was not "designed to be a prison vessel where they'll be detained for long periods ... On this vessel we're looking at only a matter of days until they can be ferried ashore."
However, according to the Australian, "the tender documents clearly state the ship needs to be capable of holding people for 30-day patrols".
Pat Brown