The Lucky Country: Part 9 - A Laid-Back, Happy People and Their Friends

David Wroe, ‘Asylum seekers intercepted on unseaworthy boats could be sent back to Indonesia on large, engine-powered lifeboats’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 08.01.14

Asylum seekers intercepted on unseaworthy boats could be sent back to Indonesia on large, engine-powered lifeboats, in an escalation of the Abbott government's turn-back policy.

Fairfax Media has learnt the government is buying up to 16 hard-hulled lifeboats - similar to those carried by cruise ships and oil tankers - to which asylum seekers can be transferred and returned to Indonesia if their own vessels are unseaworthy.

The revelations came as Indonesian police said Australia had turned back two asylum-seeker boats in recent weeks, prompting Jakarta to once again voice its condemnation of the policy.

Defence sources said the purchase of lifeboats was designed to thwart the tactic of using rickety fishing vessels and sabotaging them at sea, leaving Australian border protection authorities no choice but to rescue them. When a boat is intercepted, the asylum-seekers could be transferred on to the lifeboats close to Indonesian waters with enough fuel and supplies to reach land.

The high-visibility, engine-powered lifeboats, which have roofs, can carry dozens of passengers, and food and water for at least a week.

In a standoff at sea in November, Indonesia refused to take back an asylum-seeker vessel on the grounds that it was unseaworthy.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison refused to confirm or deny the purchase of the lifeboats, citing the need to ''protect the security of our operations''.

The Abbott government also maintained its silence over claims that Australia had turned back at least one asylum-seeker boat to Indonesia in recent weeks, in a move that could increase tensions.

A Defence source confirmed to Fairfax Media reports in the Indonesian press that a boat had been turned back. The source said the frigate HMAS Stuart carried out the turn-back in the past week.

The asylum seekers aboard the boat were given lifejackets and communications equipment.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, while refusing to comment on any turn-backs, repeated Jakarta's general condemnation of the policy on Tuesday.

''The policy itself, the so-called tow-back [policy] - let me put it once more on the record: our rejection of such policy is because it's not a conducive and comprehensive solution to the issue,'' he said.

Indonesian water police told Fairfax Media that two boats had been turned back, one on Monday and one on December 19. The sources said a boat turned back on Monday carried 45 passengers, 36 male and nine female, mostly from Africa though with several from the Middle East. Another boat turned back just before Christmas carried 48 asylum seekers from Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea and Iran.

Both were found at Rote Island, Indonesia's southernmost point.

Rote police chief Hidayat told Fairfax Media: ''The asylum seekers' boat was stranded near a small village called Lengu Tepu, around 4am yesterday … They were rescued by the locals, because the boat engines were dead. The boat now is a wreckage, near some reefs.''

Dr Natalegawa said he believed relations between Australia and Indonesia would return to normal following stoushes over asylum seekers and revelations that Australian spies targeted the phones of senior Indonesian leaders.

* * *

From Andrew Wu, ‘Peter Siddle says Australia’s bowlers are best in world as David Warner baits Proteas’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 08.01.14

Perhaps it was the hangover talking or a result of the confidence gained from belting England 5-0, or maybe a combination of the two, but Australia are talking a big game before taking on world No.1 South Africa next month.

Basking in the afterglow of an Ashes success as glorious as it was unexpected, Australia have warned the Proteas to brace for a repeat of the sledging that saw tempers threaten to boil over during the Ashes. ...

Just two days after Michael Clarke's men settled their differences with the vanquished English over a few quiet beers in the SCG dressing rooms, David Warner started baiting Australia's next opponents. ''On the field you don't cross that line,'' he said.

''We nudged that line a couple of times but I think we really got into their heads. Especially with Johno [Mitchell Johnson] and the pressure of the other bowlers up the other end to allow Mitchell to come out and fire like that is awesome and we need to do that. We need to do that to the South African guys. We know a couple of their blokes are probably on the back foot. I know our bowlers are ready to go over there and give it to them.''

* * *

Trevor Marshallsea, ‘Bucket tipped on Australian sledgers’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 30.05.02

The image of Australia's world champion cricket team has again been tarnished, this time by a uncommonly detailed account on sledging by South African rookie Graeme Smith.

With Australian cricket officials already in damage control over Adam Gilchrist's labelling of Sri Lankan bowler Muttiah Muralitharan as a chucker, a new sledging controversy has emerged after Smith broke the traditional reluctance of elite players to bring on-field sledging incidents into the public domain.

Smith, 20, emerged from his first two Tests and four one-dayers at home in February-March complaining of "below the belt" verbal assaults from his rivals but vowing: "I cannot repeat what the Aussies said."

Now he has - in explicit detail - in the South African edition of Sports Illustrated, with an account unlikely to be well-received in the offices of the Australian Cricket Board at a time when its emphasis on image has never been higher.

As the ACB mulls over what to do with renowned cleanskin Adam Gilchrist for his honest admission at an AFL lunch on Sunday that he believed Muralitharan's bowling action was illegal, Smith's claims may surprise many, if not for their content then for some of the characters he names.

He said Australian Test opener Matthew Hayden, not renowned for on-field antics, had greeted him at the crease before his second Test innings in Cape Town with a two-minute tirade.

He claimed fast bowler Brett Lee had threatened to "f---ing kill me" after a mid-pitch collision, and described Glenn McGrath as "a grumpy old man" after a prolonged verbal campaign, even when the pace spearhead was fielding near the boundary.

Smith said Hayden had followed him to the crease in his second innings and "stood on the crease for about two minutes telling me that I wasn't f---ing good enough".

Smith told the magazine: "'You know, you're not f---ing good enough,' he told me. 'How the f--- are you going to handle Shane Warne when he's bowling in the rough? What the f--- are you going to do?'.

"And I hadn't even taken guard yet. He stood there right in my face, repeating it over and over. All I could manage was a shocked, nervous smile. I'd taken a bit of banter before but this was something else. Hayden had obviously been told that his job was to attack me."

Smith said he was then subjected to more of the same from a ring of close-in fieldsmen - Justin Langer, Ricky Ponting, Gilchrist, Mark Waugh and Shane Warne.

While sledging, or "mental disintegration" as Steve Waugh calls it, is accepted as an unsettling tactic, Smith's claims suggest some Australians may not be as imaginative as they once were.

"All Warne does is call you a c--- all day," said Smith, who tangled with the leg-spinner early on after one edged single.

"When he walked past me he said: 'You f---ing c---, what are you doing here?' And I remember looking at [umpire] Rudi Koertzen and he just shrugged his shoulders as if to say, 'I know it's rough, kid, but that's the way it is'."

Smith also clashed with Lee after they collided on the pitch, which led to a pack of Australians allegedly hounding him.

"On the way back I apologised, but he said nothing. Then I hooked him for four and then a one and then it was drinks. As he walked past me he told me that he would f---ing kill me right there if I ever touched him again," Smith said.

Of McGrath, Smith said: "He's like a grumpy old man. He doesn't stop cursing you. He called me a f---ing c--- and told me go away, that I didn't belong there.

"He starts off quietly, but the minute you hit him for a boundary he loses the plot and it never stops."

Smith eventually chirped back at McGrath during a one-dayer, asking if he was "constantly on his period". "It caused a massive fallout. After that he never stopped hurling abuse even when he was fielding at third man."

Smith's verdict was that there was "never anything funny about the sledging. It was all just harsh". He didn't want to see sledging banned but "maybe certain things need to be monitored".

ACB chief executive James Sutherland last night said that while the Board "does not condone sledging or verbal abuse", monitoring provisions contained in the International Cricket Council's player code of conduct were adequate to police the practice.

"If Australian players are breaking the code of conduct, I'm sure the officials at the match would take appropriate action," he said.

The ICC code, while acknowledging verbal exchanges between players will always take place, includes fines for players for "using language that is obscene, offensive or of a seriously insulting nature to another player, umpire, referee, team official or spectator." 

Hayden, who is on holiday, could not be reached for his reaction. His manager declined to comment.

Part Nine/To be continued…