The MV Parsifal picked up 67 asylum seekers from near Java on Monday and planned to take them to its intended destination of Singapore.
But the asylum seekers reportedly became agitated and successfully demanded they be taken to Christmas Island where they were dropped off on Tuesday night.
"This plays into what we've been saying for a long time that people seeking asylum here ... some of them wouldn't pass the character test," West Australian Liberal Don Randall told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.
"Under the Howard regime we wouldn't have given them a visa."
Mr Randall said federal Labor created a "big pull factor" because too many asylum seekers who reached Australia were given a visa.
"So we attracted a whole range of people who I don't think were necessarily genuine - they were more economic refugees," he said, adding that the incident involving the MV Parsifal showed there was a range of people with strange behaviour "that we want to be very careful about before we do consider them for Australian citizenship".
"We need to toughen up on those sorts of things."
Mr Randall denied the rescue demonstrated it would be too tough for the Australian Navy to turn around boats at sea as advocated by the opposition.
"Here we are saying that our navy can't board asylum seeker boats?" he said.
"What a joke. They're trained for it. Our personnel are quite capable of dealing with a bunch of asylum seekers on a leaky boat."
Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said the asylum seekers, who became "very aggressive" when told they would be taken to Singapore, were not guaranteed to remain in Australia while they were being processed.
"They now face the prospect, like other people who come by boat over the next few days, of ending up in Nauru," he told Sky News.
He confirmed one asylum seeker on the vessel had fallen overboard and was believed to have died.
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison labelled the incident an "outrageous act" of piracy.
"What we have here are pirates effectively, taking control of vessels allegedly ... using force and threats and intimidation," he told Sky News.
He called for the government to immediately investigate whether police could lay criminal charges against asylum seekers involved.
"I think they should be locked up and there should be a charge sheet," he said.
Liberal MP Josh Frydenberg said the MV Parsifal incident runs the risk of deterring merchant vessels from rescuing asylum seeker boats in the future.
"What will happen is that other people will do that same thing again with merchant vessels," he told Sky News.
The government needed to send a very strong message to people who engaged in intimidation or threats or violence.
"It is not acceptable and that is not the way you'll end up coming to Australia," he said.
Mr Morrison said a coalition government would not be so easily intimidated as Labor was on a daily basis.
"Every time the (people) smugglers lean against this government they capitulate."
Mr Morrison has written to Immigration Minister Chris Bowen outlining how the coalition would set up offshore processing on Nauru.
He said when former prime minister John Howard announced the Pacific Solution, Nauru was up and running within 15 days.
"And the circumstances (he) faced 10 years ago were far more difficult and far more dramatic on Nauru than it is today," the Liberal MP said, adding power and water supplies were significantly more advanced today.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has said Nauru and Papua New Guinea centres could be functioning "with a month".
Mr Morrison also questioned the price Labor was prepared to pay.
"The coalition says we can put a facility on Nauru for 1350 people with further accommodation for 200 staff," he said.
"That can be done for a third of the price and development capital costs from what the government's report indicated in January of this year."
heraldsun.com.au 16 Aug 2012
Australia is letting in criminals under the 'refugee' banner which is in line with global policy.
People from countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, and also from African countries with a shady past or criminal convictions are burning their paperwork, and using the 'refugee' excuse to gain access to Australia, from a well know government lax policy towards 'refugees'.
These people with a criminal past or criminal intentions enter the country putting the general populous at risk with the support from government.
These are deliberate policies to keep the masses at bay on a global scale, as can be seen with the actions of governments, under the 'humanitarian' banner.
These policies will continue to operate as a result putting the general community at risk.
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