Australian lawmaker links trade dispute with asylum seekers

Australia's deputy prime minister was slammed as "ignorant" Thursday, May 26 after suggesting that Jakarta deliberately sent asylum-seeker boats as payback for Canberra halting live cattle exports to Indonesia.

According to Parliamentary Library figures, 4940 asylum seekers arrived by boat in 2010-11, increasing to 7983 in 2011-12 and 25,173 in 2012-13 - a number which Mr Joyce says is directly linked to the export ban.

Deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce drinks a beer at the Burpengary Tavern in the federal seat of Petrie in Brisbane on Tuesday May 10.

Mr Turnbull, on the campaign trail with Mr Joyce in Rockhampton on Thursday said the cattle ban, instituted in response to a report highlighting cruelty in Indonesian abattoirs, "did enormous damage to the cattle industry across Australia" and "was an incredible affront to Indonesia".

The comments have proven awkward for the Coalition, with Finance Minister Mathias Cormann keen to avoid the issue on a radio interview with Olivia Leeming on 2GB this morning.

Joyce attempted to clarify his comments on Thursday.

'Indonesia was and remains committed to being a part of the regional solution to the common challenge we are facing of people smuggling'.

When debate host Chris Uhlmann questioned Mr Joyce's suggestion that Indonesia was responsible for the rise in arrivals, Mr Joyce said it was "absolutely the case we created extreme bad will" with the decision to halt live cattle exports.

He insisted that what he really meant was that the ban made it hard to talk to Jakarta about the issue of asylum seekers.

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"This is politics of the worst kind", he said.

When asked about the comments, Mr Cormann said there was nothing he could add to the clarification Mr Joyce had offered this morning.

Former Indonesian former minister Dr Marty Natalegawa responded strongly to Mr Joyce's "patently false" remarks, telling Fairfax Media they represent "at best" an over-analysis of the subject.

Indonesia's foreign affairs ministry lablled the comments as "simply not true".

Joyce refused to answer directly, only reiterating that banning live exports had generated a lot of "bad will" with Indonesia.

"I'm not saying that this caused the Indonesians to start sending people across, I never suggested that", he said.

"What it does is it compromises the relationship that we have with one of our most important trading partners and it just shows that here we are with this very toxic debate towards refugees and asylum seekers and we have a desperate deputy prime minister who tries to link that with the live animal export trade".

Under pressure: Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce at the Regional Leaders' Debate in Goulburn.

"I think that our capacity to have a strong working relationship with Indonesia is affected by them relying on us to be reliable suppliers". "You do realise that you're suggesting the Indonesian government unleashed the boats in response?"

Source: Australian lawmaker links trade dispute with asylum seekers