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August 26th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
Mr Abbott backed a plan by Kevin Rudd, the prime minister, to deport all boat
people to camps in Papua New Guinea, but has gone several steps further. He
wants to turn the effort against boat people into a military operation
headed by a three-star general and last week unveiled his boat buyback
scheme.
Hikmahanto Juwana, from the University of Indonesia, said the plan was
humiliating to the nation’s fishermen and made them “look like mercenaries
who do dirty jobs”.
“I think the government should protest the coalition’s very insensitive plan,
which clearly shows their poor knowledge of the situation in Indonesia,” he
told the Jakarta Post.
Indonesia, an archipelago, has one of the world’s longest coastlines and
employs more than six million people in its fishing industry.
Mr Abbott said it was “better and much more sensible to spend a few thousand
dollars in Indonesia, than to spend $12 million (£7m) processing the people
who ultimately arrive here”.
The immigration minister, Tony Burke, responded: “Of all the mad ideas I’ve
heard, I think boat buyback wins.”
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